Tuesday, February 07, 2012

p.Brain- µ24 with HexEngine Hexapod Control Firmware

The p.Brain-µ24 has be designed for use in advanced hobby robotics, where multiple R/C type servos need to be controlled with a standard PWM signal, such as hexapod robots. At the core of the p.Brain-µ24 is a microchip dsPIC33F 16bit micro controller with 128Kb programme flash, 8Kb RAM and 32Kb external EEPROM. This micro controller can be programmed using microchips ICD2 programmer and MPLAB IDE. Although the micro controller can be programmed in assembler, I suggest using a C compiler such as Hi-techs (www.htsoft.com) All programming examples are written for the Hi-tech compiler.

The p.Brain-µ24 has 24 PWM channels for R/C servo control, along with a variety of other peripherals such as UART's, I2C, SPI, ADC, Digital I/O, which are all brought out to 0.1” pitch headers. The p.Brain-µ24 has an on board 3.3V regulator for logic, the regulator supply can be run from 4 to 9V on the VL terminal. The VS terminal is for servo power, this depends on the servos iused but is usually 4.8 or 6.0V DC. The VL terminal can be connected to the VS terminal for single source opperation useing JP2.

Key Features
  • Compact size (approx 68 x 35 mm )
  • On Board 3.3V regulator
  • dsPIC33FJ128GP206 16bit, 40Mips Processor
  • 128Kb Programme Flash, 8Kb RAM, 64Kb External EEPROM
  • External 8Mhz Ceramic Resonator or Internal 7.37Mhz R/C with PLL to 40MIPS
  • UART1, Inverted TTL
  • UART2, RS232, Inverted TTL or optional ESD200 Bluetooth socket
  • ESD200 connection LED
  • I2C (Internally connected to 8Kbyte EEPROM )
  • Dual supply input, servo and logic power
  • On board jumper to link servo/logic power for single supply opperation
  • 24 x Multiplexed PWM channels with 3 pin servo connectors
  • 8 x Digital IO with pull-up, or Analogue capture
  • 2 x On Board LED's
  • Convenient 0.1” pitch pin headers