Baby Orangutan B-328 Robot Controller

The affordable Baby Orangutan B-328 is a complete control solution for small robots, all packed into a tiny 1.2" x 0.7" 24-pin DIP package. Its compact design eliminates bulkier components such as the LCD and switches while retaining the most essential features: an ATmega328P AVR microcontroller and a dual H-bridge for direct control of two DC motors.

An integrated motor driver sets the Baby Orangutan B apart from similarly-sized microcontroller boards from other manufacturers. Two on-board indicator LEDs, a trimmer potentiometer, a 20 MHz resonator, and reverse battery protection round off the basic hardware features of the Baby Orangutan.

The Orangutan line deliver significantly higher performance than other similar controller boards. The availability of free development software, such as Atmel’s AVR Studio IDE and the WinAVR GCC C/C++ compiler, and low-cost programmers, such as the Pololu USB AVR programmer, make the Baby Orangutan B a truly outstanding value asset to your project.

Specifications & On-Board Hardware

    - overall unit dimensions: 1.2" x 0.7"

    - input voltage: 5-13.5 V (15 V absolute maximum)

    - two bidirectional motor ports can deliver ~1 A continuous (3 A peak) per channel

    - programmable 20 MHz Atmel ATmega48 AVR microcontroller (4 KB flash, 512 bytes SRAM, 256 bytes EEPROM) or Atmel ATmega328P AVR microcontroller (32 KB flash, 2 KB RAM, 1 KB EEPROM)

    - 18 user I/O lines, 16 of which can be used for digital I/O and 8 of which can be used as analog input channels

    - 1 user LED

    - user potentiometer tied to ADC7

    - 20 MHz external resonator

    - pinout is compatible with the Orangutan SV-328 and Orangutan LV-168, so the same code will generally work on all of these devices

The Baby Orangutan B is available with either the ATmega48 or ATmega328P AVR microcontroller. The main differences between the mega48 and mega328P are memory size, boot loader support, and interrupt vector size. The mega328 can also run at lower voltages than the mega48 for frequencies below 10 MHz.

Included components

The 0.1" header pins are included with the Baby Orangutan B but are not soldered in. When the headers are soldered in the Baby Orangutan can be used as a DIP component on breadboards or prototyping boards. Power pins, one of the motor outputs, and several I/O lines are all accessible from one side to enable use of the Baby Orangutan as a single in-line pin (SIP) package for applications that do not require all of the I/O lines. The small size and low cost of the Baby Orangutan makes it a perfect option for primary control of small robots or for auxiliary control on larger robots.

Dimensions

General specifications

Notes:

1  without headers

2 16 can be used as digital I/Os and 8 can be used as analog inputs.

 

Documentation and other information

Pololu Baby Orangutan B User’s Guide (pdf) 

User’s guide for the Pololu Baby Orangutan B-48, B-168, and B-328 robot controllers.

Printable PDF: Pololu AVR C/C++ Library User’s Guide (pdf)     

Information about installing and using the C/C++ libraries provided for use with Pololu products.

avr_library_commands.pdf

A reference to commands provided in the Pololu C/C++ and Arduino libraries for the AVR.

Programming Orangutans and the 3pi Robot from the Arduino Environment (pdf)

Guide to making the Arduino IDE compatible with the 3pi robot and the Orangutan SV-168, Orangutan LV-168, and Baby Orangutan B robot controllers, including Arduino libraries for interfacing with the all of their on-board hardware.

Application Note: Using the Motor Driver on the 3pi Robot and Orangutan Robot Controllers (pdf)

Detailed information about the 3pi Robot, Orangutan SV-328/168 and LV-168, and Baby Orangutan B motor drivers, including truth tables and sample code.

Application Note: MLX90614ESF SMBus Communication with Orangutan Robot Controllers (Pdf)

A guide for implementing the SMBus (I²C-compatible) protocol for the MLX90614ESF temperature sensor on the AVR-based Orangutan robot controller series. The guide includes sample code for taking temperature readings.