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3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board

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3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board

SKU: POLOLU-4973 Brand: Pololu

This is the control board for the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot, and it is included as part of the Standard Edition, Turtle Edition, and Hyper Edition 3pi+ 32U4...

$119.95 AUD, inc GST

$109.05 AUD, exc GST

Available with a lead time
Expect dispatch between May 20 and May 23

Quantity Discounts:

5-10 $105.77 (exc GST)
10+ $103.59 (exc GST)

The 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board is designed to be assembled with a 3pi+ Chassis Kit and a pair of 6V Micro Metal Gearmotors with extended motor shafts to create a 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot. This product is primarily intended as a replacement product for the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robots and kits that already include it or for those who want to build a 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot with different gearmotor versions than the ones offered with those complete kits and assembled robots.

This control board is already included as part of the following 3pi+ 32U4 OLED assembled robots and kits:

This is the control board for the newer 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot with a graphical OLED display. For the original version of the control board designed to work with an LCD, see the 3pi+ 32U4 Control Board.

Included components

The 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board ships with all of its surface-mount components populated, and it includes the following through-hole parts and mounting hardware:

one buzzer
jumper wires for soldering motors to the board
two magnetic encoder discs
one low-profile 1×7 male header for use with a graphical OLED display (not included)
four single battery contacts
four 3/16" #2-56 screws, two 1/4" #2-56 standoffs, and four nuts for mounting the board to a 3pi+ Chassis and an OLED display to the board

Please note that assembly (including soldering) is required; see the user’s guide for assembly instructions.

What else you will need

To build a robot with the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board, you will need a few additional parts:

a 3pi+ Chassis Kit
two Micro Metal Gearmotors with extended motor shafts (6V MP or 6V HPCB versions recommended)
four AAA batteries: the 3pi+ chassis and control board work with both alkaline and NiMH batteries, though Pololu recommend rechargeable NiMH cells
a USB A to Micro-B cable to connect the robot to your computer for programming and debugging
tools to help with kit assembly; see the user’s guide for a list of specific tools

Optional accessories

You might also consider getting these for your 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot:

a graphical OLED display
more sensors
connectors (headers, jumper wires, etc) for adding those sensors or other peripherals to the 3pi+ 32U4 expansion ports

3pi+ 32U4 versions

The original version of the 3pi+ 32U4 includes an 8×2 character LCD, while the newer 3pi+ 32U4 OLED (which uses this control board) incorporates a graphical OLED display instead. The name “3pi+ 32U4” can generally be used to refer to both the original (LCD) and OLED versions, and the documentation in Pololu's updated user’s guide covers both versions.

Pololu's Arduino library for the 3pi+ 32U4 generally allows code written for the LCD version to work on the OLED version with minimal changes (and the reverse is also true as long as your code does not make use of the OLED’s graphical capabilities).

3pi+ 32U4 Robot, top view.

3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot, top view.

Comparison with the original 3pi

The 3pi+ 32U4 OLED offers many major improvements over the original 3pi, including:

ATmega32U4 microcontroller with Arduino-compatible bootloader can be programmed directly through a USB connection
Quadrature encoders on both motors for closed-loop position and speed control
Graphical OLED display
Full 9-axis IMU (three-axis gyro, accelerometer, and compass)
Bottom-loading battery holders keep batteries accessible even if additional levels are added
Full wrap-around bumper to protect electronics from collisions
Two bump sensors on the front

The 3pi+ 32U4 uses a different microcontroller with different pin mappings compared to the older 3pi, and some of the software library interfaces are different, so programs written for the original 3pi will not work on the 3pi+ 32U4 without modification.

Dimensions

Size:	2.6" × 3.4"
Weight:	20 g¹

General specifications

Processor:	ATmega32U4 @ 16 MHz
RAM size:	2560 bytes
Program memory size:	32 Kbytes²
Motor driver:	DRV8838
Motor channels:	2
Minimum operating voltage:	2.7 V
Maximum operating voltage:	6.5 V
Continuous output current per channel:	1.8 A
Logic voltage:	5 V
Reverse voltage protection?:	Y
External programmer required?:	N

Identifying markings

PCB dev codes:	3pi03b
Other PCB markings:	0J13485

Notes:

1: Without included hardware.
2: Note that 4 KB of the MCU's 32 KB of flash memory is used by the pre-installed USB bootloader. All 32 KB is available when programming via the ISP header rather than the bootloader.

Documentation and other information

Pololu 3pi+ 32U4 User’s Guide (Printable PDF)

User’s manual for the Pololu 3pi+ 32U4 robot.

File downloads

Pololu A-Star 32U4 drivers for Windows (version 1.3.0.0) (7k zip)

This download contains the Windows drivers for the A-Star 32U4 and the rest of Pololu's 32U4 family of boards.
Pinout and power distribution diagrams of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board (1MB pdf)
Schematic diagram of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board (391k pdf)
Dimension diagram of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board (1MB pdf)
Dimension diagram of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot (2MB pdf)
3D model of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board (30MB step)
3D models of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot (19MB zip)

These models use a simplified model of the control electronics to reduce the file size. A more detailed model of the 3pi-plus-32u4-oled-control-board (30MB step) is available separately.
Front, top, and side views of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot (453k zip)

These DXF drawings make it possible to get various dimension measurements of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot.
Drill guide for the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board (216k dxf)

This DXF drawing shows the locations of all of the board’s holes.

Recommended links

Pololu3piPlus32U4 Arduino library
Pololu3piPlus32U4 library documentation
Arduino Software

Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) software
A-Star repository on GitHub

This repository contains Arduino add-on files, Windows drivers, and bootloaders for the A-Star 328PB, A-Star 32U4, and the rest of Pololu's 32U4 family of boards.
ATmega32U4 documentation

Microchip’s product page for the ATmega32U4 AVR microcontroller, with links to its datasheet, application notes, and other resources.

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