DFRobotShop Rover

The DFRobotShop Rover was a joint project betweeen RobotShop and DFRobot to create a minimalist tracked platform based on the Arduino. Several different prototypes (mechanical and PCB) were created in order to test and refine the design into what you see here. Build time was longer than a custom project because it needed to be designed for mass production. We have been quite impressed with the performance and took the approach of designing something that would be hard to beat and offer very good value for anyone looking to get started in robotics. The basic kit is barebones and customers are encouraged to add sensors, breadboards and other components of their choosing. 

The DFRobotShop Rover – Arduino Compatible Tracked Robot (Basic Kit) is a versatile mobile robot tank based on the popular Arduino Duemilanove microcontroller. The Rover uses the popular Tamiya twin motor gearbox and the Tamiya track and wheel set. The DFRobotShop Rover PCB incorporates a standard Arduino Duemilanove (surface mount ATMega328), L293B motor driver (connected to pins 5 to 8), voltage regulator and prototyping area while contributing to the mechanical structural of the robot. The onboard voltage regulator allows the entire board to be powered using as little as 3.7V to ~9V*.

In order to make assembly as easy as possible, solderless quick connect terminals have been included to give customers the option of crimping the wires to the motors or using solder. The DFRobotShop Rover is compatible with a variety of shields (when used at the same time as the motor driver). Additional features include a built-in temperature sensor and light sensor (jumper selectable), I2C pinout, pinout for DFRobot Bluetooth and DFRobot APC220 RF modules as well as 6x cool blue LEDs (jumper selectable) placed around the board.

*Note that the motors included with the kit operate at 4.5V nominal.

Features
• Arduino compatible and shield stackable
• Based on ATMEGA328 surface mount chip and L293B H Bridge
• Incorporates dual H-bridge for bi-directional motor control (digital pins 5, 6, 7 and 8)
• Voltage regulator included (connected to battery input and 3.5mm barrel connector)
• Light sensor and temperature sensor pre-soldered and selectable via jumpers
• Easy connection to DFRobot Bluetooth and APC220 wireless modules
• Large prototyping area for one 400 tie-point or 170 tie-point solderless breadboards or your own “cargo”
• I2C male connectors for easy connection
• “Universal connection point” at the front of the robot (see specifications for compatibility)
• 6x Blue LEDs around the board for effect (selectable via jumper LED_SEL)
• In-system programming via ICSP
• 4x LEDs to indicate motor direction