3pi+ 32U4 OLED Control Board

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 OLED kits and robots. It can be used as a replacement part for those products, or it can be assembled with the 3pi+ Chassis Kit and a pair of 6V Micro Metal Gearmotors with extended motor shafts to create a “custom edition” 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot.

Overview

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:

• 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot – Standard Edition (30:1 MP Motors), Assembled
• 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot – Turtle Edition (75:1 LP Motors), Assembled
• 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot – Hyper Edition (15:1 HPCB Motors), Assembled
• 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot Kit with 30:1 MP Motors (Standard Edition Kit)
• 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot Kit with 75:1 LP Motors (Turtle Edition Kit)
• 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot Kit with 15:1 HPCB Motors (Hyper Edition Kit)

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 we 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 our updated user’s guide covers both versions.

Our 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.