Is there a place I can go purchase the electronics used on the solo robot (8 and/or 12 dof) or would I have to buy all the components and assemble them myself? Also what would be the estimated cost for the controller board and motor controller boards? The GH docs don’t list any costs for the electronics (that I’ve seen).
Additionally, would other off-the-shelf electronics be able to perform the tasks performed by the custom electronics? For example, using an Arduino microcontroller with RoboClaw motor controllers.
Hi,
to get started it might make sense to buy the off-the-shelf evaluation boards from Texas Instruments.
Each Launchpad micro controller connects to two booster packs and can drive 2 brushless motors.
For this setup you will need a CAN card to communicate to the microcontroller - we use the dual channel PEAK PCI express cards.
For the Solo8 Version 1 robot we use 4 dual motor electronics stacks from TI - here is a picture.
And a Linux real time computer with two dual channel CAN cards to control the robot.
For the Solo12 robot we are using the custom master board and micro driver electronics.
The advantage is that the custom electronics are much smaller and lighter and that we can control up to 16 brushless motors with only one Ethernet connection (or WiFi) instead of 8 CAN connections.
We order the custom boards from custom electronics suppliers such as Beta Layout, MacroFab or Seeed. The cost depends very much on the ordered quantity.
For the populated masterboard (without Ethernet connector and NeoPixel Leds) we paid around 100€ per piece + tax for 10 pieces.
For the populated micro driver boards (without precision resistors and Hirose connectors) we paid around 150€ per piece + tax for 20 pieces.
Yes - the off-the shelf electronics can perform all the tasks as the custom electronics on the motor side - they control two motors with field oriented control at 10kHz. You can use a different architecture if you are able to communicate to the TI micro controller via CAN at 1kHz using the communication protocol that was implemented.
Hi @fgrimminger, I am interested to order custom master board and micro driver. I tried to check detail on link but I could not find any detail how I could order master board myself.
Hi fgrimminger! We are four students planning on building this robot for our bachelor thesis. We really want to go for the custom electronics since it provides wireless communication and uses less space. Is the v2 of the master board ready for production?
I asked the designer - Jonathan Fiene.
He says that the thicker copper is recommended for the motor and ground wires.
So you should go with the 35u copper layer.
Hi,
yes - ordering custom electronics boards is more complicated than I had expected.
With the help of Thomas Flayols we have ordered 10 master boards from Beta Layout - they are tested and are all fully functional.
We are now trying to make the ordering process as simple as possible for everybody.
We have just now authorized Beta Layout to reproduce the master board according to our specifications for anybody who is interested.
If you want to order the master board v2 send an email to Beta Layout (info.de@beta-layout.com) and ask them to give you a quote for the number of master boards that you want referring to our quote number: AN5eea24ae72697
You should also indicate your location - Beta Layout will ship worldwide.
There are two components that you will have to order and solder yourself (Ethernet connector and NeoPixel Leds) - we will document the details on GitHub soon.
We are now working on providing the same option for the micro driver electronics.
We will reply here and update the GitHub documentation as soon as that is available.
Hi @fgrimminger. I reached out to Beta Layout regarding getting a quote for the master board and provided them your quote number. Just a heads up that they did say they need the approval from you and Thomas Flayols before they were willing to do this.
We sent the approval to Beta Layout on the 12th of October.
I called Beta Layout again today and they confirmed that they have the approval and can quote and produce the masterboard for anyone who is interested.
Could you try to request a quote again and let us know if it works this time?
Sure, I’ll look into this. There might be some oddities in the process since they put me in touch with their UK branch (based in Ireland) and not the German branch, so this may not have been communicated through their system.
I am currently looking into getting some of these boards made, and given how much the price goes down with quantity (BetaLayout quoted 517 for qty2 master boards and just 875 for qty 10 - note referencing the order number worked well) I am curious if I should order more and mail them out to others. If anyone is interested in this please contact me at eric@ea-robotics.com.
@fgrimminger + team, thanks for all the development you’ve done, this is a very cool project! If possible could you consider avoiding leadless packages like QFN in future designs? this will make SMD assembly at home much easier.
thanks for your feedback - good to know that referencing the Beta Layout number works now.
I think the price is only for producing the boards and for the placing and soldering service - excluding the component cost. After you order Beta Layout will calculate the component cost and quote that separately.
Thomas Flayols designed the board and could comment on your suggestion regarding the leadless packages.
Good point about the cost of components. I forgot to mention that. It likely adds around 50 euro per board (based on digikey pricing), did they add a markup to that as well?
Yes - after you order the boards Beta Layout will send you a list of all the components with the prices and will ask you to confirm it. They will also ask about alternative parts if components are no longer available.
Hi Eric, You are right QFN are a bit more difficult to hand solder that some other SMD packages, unfortunately we have strong space constrains on our design, or sometimes the components only comes in QFN. This isn’t going to get any better as we are currently working on new motor controllers that will be based on a BGA packaged CPU.
BTW, if you want to save cost on the electronic, you can consider manufacturer such as Seeed studio or JLCPCB.
For the master board, in my lab we used seeedstudio for the naked PCB and we hand soldered the components. 10 PCB can be as cheap as 5USD. They also offer PCB assembly but I never used it.
FYI jlcpcb assembly service only goes up to 4 layer boards but pcbway and others in China offer competitive pricing (around 450 euros for 8 micro driver boards).
I noticed that going through beta-layout that you provided 2 of the components: the LED’s and the ethernet jack. Since this is the case, they are asking for us to provide them the same. I could not find these components anywhere online and it looks like they may have been discontinued. Do you have suggestions for replacement parts? I assume these should be easy since they are very common items, but I’m more worried about choosing parts (i.e. the ethernet jack) that will not fit into the footprint.
Hi,
we couldn’t get the components in the required packaging for automatic placement.
So we ordered the ethernet jack and the NeoPixel leds separately and soldered them onto the boards ourselves.
Ethernet jack: HanRun RJ45 HR911105A
NeoPixel Leds: WS2818B LED SMD 5050 with WS2811 controller
In Germany we ordered the ethernet jack from CSD Electronics and the leds from Amazon.
Caution with the orientation of the leds.
As Thomas has pointed out the pinout of the manufacturer is misleading.
Pin1 is not on the corner with the cut out triangle as you might expect but on the opposite side.
