ActivMedia Robotics
Appendix B
Motor-Power Board
The Pioneer 2 and PeopleBot robots have a separate Motor-Power board which, in conjunction with the microcontroller, provides power for motors as well as conditioned power for the standard and accessory onboard electronics. It also contains buffered
Figure 29. Pioneer 2 Motor-Power Board
pass-through connectors for the motor encoders. An optional power package ("computer ready") is available for the onboard computer system.
User Power Connections
On the Motor-Power board, four sets of unswitched battery (Vpp) and DC:DC- conditioned 5 VDC (Vcc) power, with power ground (Vpp), are available for accessory and custom electronics on a 12-pin Molex-type latch-lock (100mm) connector. Vcc gets shared with the microcontroller and accessories con- nected to that board (Appendix A). The maximum Vcc power available with standard robot models is 1.5A.
Table 23. User Power Connector J1
Pin # | Connection | | Pin # | Connection |
1 | Vcc | | 7 | Vcc |
2 | Gnd | | 8 | Gnd |
3 | Vpp | | 9 | Vpp |
4 | Vcc | | 10 | Vcc |
5 | Gnd | | 11 | Gnd |
6 | Vpp | | 12 | Vpp |
Onboard Computer Option
With the "computer-ready" option, the Motor-Power board is specially populated with connectors and circuits to provide separate DC:DC conditioned, 7A @ 5 VDC power to an onboard computer and its accessories. And, in conjunction with software, the circuit provides for automatic, unattended, crash-less shutdown of the onboard computer, either when manually powered down or when the battery voltage drops below 10 VDC.
Power Switch (J7) and Delayed Shutdown Logic
A simple SPDT switch controls logical power to the computer-power section of the Motor- Power board. When ON, the switch provides Vpp to the input of a voltage comparator
