Orangutan X2 Robot Controller VHN2 with LCD

1. Orangutan X2 main board
2. Motor driver (VNH2SP30 or VNH3SP30) daughter board
3. USB A to Mini-B cable
4. 4-line x 20-character LCD with LED backlight (with LCD option)
5. Extra IDC connector for LCD (with LCD option)
6. 15" LCD cable (with LCD option)

Pololu€™s Orangutan X2 is by far the most powerful Orangutan. The design features a dual-AVR architecture that leaves an Atmel ATmega644 AVR microcontroller almost completely available to the user while taking care of low-level motor control tasks on the pre-programmed mega168. This chip also doubles as a programmer for the master processor. A stacked motor driver PCB allows the compact integration of beefy motor drivers that can deliver hundreds of watts. The Orangutan X2 version from Technobots has the VNH2SP30 motor driver and can be supplied with (3805-021) or without (3805-020) a 4-line x 20-character LCD.

The Orangutan X2 is the third release in Pololu€™s line of Orangutan robot controllers. Like the original Orangutan and subsequent Baby Orangutan, the Orangutan X2 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 X2 can deliver up to a horsepower across two motor channels, and the twin-microcontroller architecture allows maximum access to the primary microcontroller, an Atmel ATmega644 AVR running at 20MHz with 64KB of program memory and 4KB 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. A battery, motors, and sensors can be connected directly to the module for quick creation of advanced robots.

The Orangutan X2 has two microcontrollers: an Atmel ATmega644 AVR for the main application, and an auxiliary ATmega168 that interfaces to most of the dedicated hardware on the X2 and serves as a programmer for the main processor. The two-microcontroller design simplifies multitasking by relieving the main processor of common tasks such as motor control and melody generation, and the approach also leaves the mega644 completely unencumbered, allowing the mega644 hardware, such as timers and interrupts, and most of the mega644 IO lines to be used for your higher-level design. It also means you do not need an external programmer to use the Orangutan X2.

Key Features and Specifications

* overall unit dimensions: 76 x 47mm
* input voltage: 6-16 V
* 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 ATmega644 AVR microcontroller (64 kB flash, 4 kB SRAM, 2 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)
* 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 mega168 microcontroller
* 3 user pushbutton switches
* 5 user LEDs
* user potentiometer