T'Rex Robot / Motor Controller

T'Rex doesn't want to be fed, he wants to hunt! The T'Rex controller from DAGU is an Arduino compatible robot controller designed to power and control servos and brushed motors. This controller combines an Arduino development board with a dual FET H-bridge motor driver. The heart of the board is an ATMega328P AVR microcontroller which comes loaded with the Arduino bootloader and some simple control code. The code on each T'Rex controller can be easily accessed and changed in the Arduino IDE using the built in USB interface, ISP, or FTDI sockets.

The T'REX controller is rated for a maximum voltage of 30V and can handle currents in excess of 40A per motor. A set of screw terminals are provided for the battery connection as well as for connecting motor outputs.

The Dual H bridges are rated for stall currents of 40A per motor and average currents of 18A per motor. Factory calibrated hall-effect sensors measure current draw of each motor. Each motor has independent variable electronic braking. Self-resetting PTC fuses prevent damage from stalled motors.

This board is ready to go out-of-the-box! The supplied code will accept input from a standard RC vehicle receiver and handle the "mixing" for differential steering. If you would rather control it with BlueTooth or I2C input, that can be done simply by downloading the proper Arduino sketch, providing an optional BlueTooth dongle, and/or changing a few constants. Also, because it is an Arduino compatible controller, feel free to write your own control scheme or even load it up with sensors and go autonomous! Uploading code is as simple as selecting "Arduino Nano w/ 328" under the boards menu in the Arduino IDE.