This robot controller is by far the most powerful Orangutan, and it is intended for small and medium-sized robots. The design features a dual-AVR architecture that leaves an ATmega1284P AVR microcontroller almost completely available to the user while taking care of low-level motor control tasks on a pre-programmed mega328, which also doubles as a programmer for the master processor. This version features VNH3SP30 motor drivers and a 4-line x 20-character LCD.
The Orangutan X2, the most powerful member of Pololu’s line of Orangutan robot controllers, is designed to be a compact, high-performance control center for robotics and automation projects. The Orangutan X2's two-board design allows the unit to maintain the compactness characteristic of the Orangutan line while offering substantially more electrical and computational power: the to the primary microcontroller, an Atmel ATmega1284P AVR running at 20 MHz with 128 KB of program memory and 16 KB of SRAM. It has an outline smaller than a credit card, which makes it small enough to fit in a mini-sumo or small maze solver, yet it is powerful enough to run a 1/10th-scale monster truck. The board features an integrated dual motor driver capable of delivering 14 A continuous (30 A peak) per channel, a buzzer for simple sounds and music, an LCD port with optional 20×4 character LCD, three user pushbuttons, five user LEDs, a built-in programmer and USB connectivity, and more; a battery, motors, and sensors can be connected directly to the module for quick creation of advanced, powerful robots.
Note: The motor driver (top) board pictured above is also available separately as a dual high-power motor driver.
Specifications
- Overall unit dimensions: 3.00" x 1.86"
- Input voltage: 6-16V
- 2 high-power, bidirectional motor ports deliver 30 A maximum (9 A continuous for VNH3 and 14 A continuous for VNH2 without heat sink)
- Programmable 20 MHz Atmel ATmega1284P AVR microcontroller (128 KB flash, 16 KB SRAM, 4 KB EEPROM)
- 18 general-purpose I/O lines, 8 of which can be used as analog input channels (and the 11 LCD I/O lines can serve as additional user I/O lines)
- 4 hardware timers (2 8-bit timers and 2 16-bit timers)
- Integrated programmer and USB connectivity
- Battery voltage monitoring and self-shutdown option
- Removable 20-character x 4-line LCD with contrast control if your Orangutan X2 package includes an LCD
- Push-on, push-off power control enables multiple power switches
- Buzzer controlled by auxiliary mega328 microcontroller
- 3 user pushbutton switches
- 5 user LEDs
- User potentiometer
- Upgradable firmware
- Extensive software library support
- Dimensions: 3.00" x 1.86"
General specifications
- Processor: ATmega1284P with slave ATmega328P @ 20 MHz. The slave ATmega328P comes preprogrammed with firmware to control the on-board hardware.
- RAM size: 16384 bytes
- Program memory size: 128 Kbytes
- Motor driver: VNH3SP30
- Motor channels: 2
- User I/O lines: 18. All 18 can be used as digital I/Os and 8 can be used as analog inputs.
- Max current on a single I/O: 40 mA
- Minimum operating voltage: 6 V
- Maximum operating voltage: 16 V
- Continuous output current per channel: 9 A
- Peak output current per channel: 30 A
- Continuous paralleled output current: 15 A
- Maximum PWM frequency: 9.77 kHz
- Reverse voltage protection?: Y. There are unprotected electrolytic capacitors that will be damaged by reverse voltage.
- External programmer required?: N
- LCD included?: Y
