Pi2Go Update – 26th August 2014

Just a quick update covering price revision (sorry), availability (hurrah!), some news and a little teaser (hehe)

 

Price Revision

Having looked closely at the price we planned to sell the Pi2Go-Lite at it wasn’t viable for a long-term business. Therefore the release price has been revised to £35.95+VAT

This still represents great value and you get an awful lot of bot for your money.

We have not changed the price of the full Pi2Go which remains at £60.00+VAT

 

Availability

At the Cambridge Raspberry Jam on 6th September, we will have a small number of Pi2Go-Lite kits available for immediate purchase at a great one-off price. Anyone at the Raspberry Jam will be able to pick one up and take it home on the day (while stocks last).

On the day following the Cambridge Jam, the Pi2Go-Lite will be released for purchase on line – link for purchase will be here on www.pi2go.co.uk

Also, the full Pi2Go (subject to some test results) will be available for pre-order with expected delivery end-September or early October.

 

Pi2Go News

We have sent the Pi2Go for CE testing. This is important and we must pass these tests before we can claim CE compliance. If there is a problem with the testing, then we may have a delay to shipping. I’ll let you know what happens and whether we can still start taking pre-orders, as soon as I can.

 

Teaser

The Pi2Go kits that are being released have nearly been complete. The final part was to receive the release PCBs, which arrived yesterday (Thank you DHL – delivering on a bank holiday!). They tested fine and are now being put into the kits ready for the release date in a week and a half.

 

There is a new feature. This does not come as standard and you will have to purchase the addon separately. Code is being written now to use the new feature in both python and ScratchGPIO. This will make the Pi2Go-Lite even more awesome, especially for PiWars! All will be revealed at the Cambridge Jam

 

 

Pi2Go Home Page

Pi2Go and Pi2Go-Lite

cf01

NOTE: Pi2Go and Pi2Go-Lite are different products with different assembly and usage instructions

Video Tutorials from The Raspberry Pi Guy

Downloadable PDF Guides

 

Online Guides

News Postings

 

Specifications

 

Pi2Go

Pi2Go-Lite

Main PCBA dimensions (mm)

110 x 80

100 x 80

PCBA Colour

Red

Yellow

Component technology

Surface Mount

Through Hole

Assembly method

Fully soldered

Requires Soldering

Supports Model A, B and B+

Yes

Yes

Power Supply

6 x AA

6 x AA

5V Regulator

3A Switching

3A Switching

Battery Monitoring

Yes*

Light sensors

4 x analog

RGB LEDs

4 pairs, hardware PWM

White LEDs

2 front, 2 rear (paired, s/w PWM)

Ultrasonic sensor

Yes

Yes

Line sensors x 2

Yes

Yes

IR obstacle sensors

3 with anti-glare technology**

2

Wheels

65mm Yellow

65mm Yellow

Servo connections

4 (Hardware PWM)

2 (Software PWM)

I2C Breakout connector

Yes

Yes

LED indicators for IR sensors

Yes

Yes

Geared motors ratio

120:1

120:1 or 48:1

Motor connection

Plug & Socket

Screw terminal

Power connection

Plug & Socket

Screw terminal

Time to Build (approx/varies)

20 minutes

90 minutes***

 

Notes:

*  Battery monitoring circuit continuously checks that the battery levels is sufficient to power the motors and the Raspberry Pi. If it starts getting low, then it disables the motors and IR sensors, and flashes the Red LED. If it gets even lower then a signal is sent to the Raspberry Pi which can be used to shut down the Pi gracefully, and sets the Red LED on solidly. This function can be over-ridden by changing jumper SV1 (on the right side of Pi2Go) from “CTRL” to “ON”.

** “Anti-glare technology” prevents false triggers in bright sunlight. However the sunlight can still swamp the IR system which can prevent any events being received

***  90 minutes is estimated based on 1 hour to solder the PCBs and 30 minutes to assemble. Depending on soldering speed and ability, this can vary widely. “Your mileage may vary”

Soldering and Assembling Pi2Go-Lite

Soldering Pi2Go Lite

You can also download a PDF version of this guide here

First check which version of the main PCB you have. It is marked above the left motor “Pi2Go-Lite v1.x”. There are minor changes to some parts of the build.

  • v1.0 (initial release) – Yellow
  • v1.1 (from 20th October 2014) – Yell0w
  • v1.2 and later (from 15th November 2014) – Orange

Soldering the Line-Follower PCB

step01

1. Check you have the correct parts

  • PCB
  • 2 x 330R resistors (Orange, Orange, Brown)
  • 2 x 220R resistors (Red, Red, Brown)
  • Diode
  • 2 x LEDs (Green & Red)
  • 2 x IR reflectance sensors
  • 6-pin male header

 

step02

2. Solder the diode – black line away from the connector

 

step03

3. Add the resistors.

 

step04

4. Add the LEDs. Long leg next to the + sign on the silk screen (ie. long leg away from centre of PCB)

 

step05

5. Add the reflectance sensors to the bottom of the PCB. Blue LED at the edge of the board as shown

 

step06

6. Solder the male header to the top of the board. Ensure it is soldered perfectly vertical

 

Now to solder the main PCB

step07

7. First ensure you have all the parts:

  • Main PCB with motor driver, schmidt trigger and voltage regulator fitted
  • 4 x 220R resistors (Red, Red, Brown)
  • 2 x 330R resistors (Orange, Orange, Brown)
  • 1 x 1K resistors (Brown, Black, Red)
  • 2 x 2K2 resistors (Red, Red, Red)
  • 2 x 10K resistors (Brown, Black, Orange)
  • 2 x 56K resistors (Green, Blue, Orange)
  • Diode 1N5817
  • 2 x 470uF capacitors
  • 6 x LEDs (Green, Red, 4 x White)
  • 100uH coil
  • Ultrasonic sensor
  • 2 x IR reflectance sensors
  • 2-pin mini tact switch
  • Toggle switch
  • 3×2 male header (2 of these for v1.1)
  • 2 x 6-pin female headers
  • 26-pin GPIO header
  • 3 x 2-pin screw terminals
  • 2 x 0.1″ 2-pin jumpers (v1.1 only)
  • 2 x 100nF capacitors – small yellow blobs with long legs! (v1.1 only)
  • 1 x miniature slide switch (v1.2 only)

 

step08

8. Add the resistors near the front of the board. The silk screen shows the value. It doesn’t matter which way they go but it is tidier to keep a standard orientation

** For v1.1 and later, also add the two 100nF capacitors at either end of the IC in photo above

 

step09

9. Add the resistors in the block near the motor driver chip. For tidiness, keep all the gold bars at the same end

 

step10

10. Add the 1N5817 diode. Ensure the silver stripe is towards the centre of PCB

 

step11

11. Add LEDs at front of board. Red is for port (as in the wine), left. Green for starboard, right. And 2 white LEDs.

Ensure that the long lead of each LED goes into the position marked with a +  (on v1.0 the + sign has missed the edge of the board and can only just be seen, v1.1 and later are OK)

 

step12

12. Add the 2 white LEDs at the rear of the board, again ensuring long lead into the +

 

step13

13. Add the 2-pin tact switch

 

step14

14. Add the two 470uF capacitors ensuring long lead towards centre of board (grey strip on case towards outside of board)

Keep the 100uH coil to one side as it is better to leave this until last as it is quite tall

 

Now open the bag of headers and switches:

step15

15. Add the three headers:

  • 6-pin female header for I2C breakout (bottom left of photo)
  • 3×2 male header for servos (top left of photo)
  • ** For v1.1 also add a 3×2 male header in the position at the bottom centre of above photo
  • 26-pin GPIO header
  • For v1.0, note that the lower 3×2 header is not used unless the wheel encoder add-on pack is fitted
  • ** For v1.1 add the 2 blue jumpers in the leftmost positions for line followers, or rightmost positions for wheel sensors
  • ** For v1.2 we have replaced the 3×2 headers and 0.1″ jumpers with a miniature slide switch as shown below

v12_switcha

The position of the jumpers (v1.0 and v1.1) should be as shown below. Put both jumpers to the left for line following, and to the right for wheel sensing. Note that the jumpers should be aligned along the length of the Pi2Go-Lite, not across the board.

SensorSelection

 

 

step16

16. Snip the 4 leads on each reflectance sensor at the position shown

 

step17

17. Solder the sensors in the front corners. Ensure you solder the top and the bottom of the board and that the blue LED is to the left as looking at the photo above

Note: If you are using the wheel sensors, now is a good time to head over to the build instructions for wheel sensors

 

step18

18. Add the three 2-pin terminals to the bottom of the board. Connector holes should face to the rear of the board as shown above

 

step19

19. Add the 6-pin female connector to the bottom of the PCB. Ensure that it is mounted perfectly vertical as it is used to connect to the line follower board. Solder one pin, then adjust the position with one hand whilst keeping the solder melted with the other. 3 hands helps here!

 

step20

20. Add the toggle switch to the underside of the PCB at the rear. This is the On/off switch

 

step21

21. Solder the ultrasonic sensor board to the bottom of the board, facing forward. Ensure it is fully inserted and horizontal.

NOTE: Sometimes we receive a batch of ultrasonic sensor modules where the header is on the same side as the sensors. Do NOT fit these. Contact us immediately for a replacement. If these are fitted, they will interfere with the mounting pillars and may cause a short-circuit.

step22

22. Finally solder the coil in place

The PCB is now fully soldered.

 

Soldering the Motor Wires & Capacitors

Notes – Please read:

  1. It is very important to add at least one capacitor between the two terminals of each motor. This removes about 70% of the electrical noise produced by the motor. Another 20% can be removed by adding 2 capacitors, one from each terminal to the case. This is trickier to do, so leave off if you are not sure about it. When we solder the kits, we add all three capacitors as shown below
  2. The Red wire and Black wire should be connected as shown, or the motors may run backwards in the example scripts

 

Motor Step 1 – Identify the Parts

motor01

For each motor we provide 1 capacitor, a red 5cm lead and a black 5cm lead. You can optionally add 2 more capacitors for that extra noise reduction

 

Motor 2 – Add Main Capacitor

motor02

Feed a capacitor through the metal terminals and solder as shown. It doesn’t matter which way round it is fitted.

Then clip the leads short – being careful not to clip off the motor terminals

motor03

 

Motor 3 – Add Second & Third Capacitors (Optional – not provided)

motor04 motor05

If required, the other 2 capacitors should be soldered between one motor terminal and the metal case, as shown above. You will need a hot iron to heat up the case sufficiently to melt the solder. Also, the motor case can become oxidised over time making it very difficult to solder to. Some “wet and dry” sand paper can be used to brighten up the metal if required.

Then clip the leads short:

motor06

 

Motor 4 – Add the Wires

motor07

  1. Each wire has a short end and a long end. The short end should be soldered to the motor
  2. Solder the Red wire to the top terminal and the Black wire to the bottom terminal, as shown above. If you solder them the other way round the Pi2Go-Lite will run backwards.

 

Assemble the Pi2Go-Lite

You could watch the one minute assembly video here but note that some things are slightly different from this released version

step22

For each Raspberry Pi mounting position you will need a 20mm M2.5 pillar, an 8mm countersunk screw and a 3mm spacer.

For the Model B you will require 2 sets, and for the Model B+ you will require 4 sets

step23

Here we have mounted 2 pillars in the correct positions for a Model B. Screw the countersunk screw through the PCB from the bottom, through the spacer and into the 20mm metal pillar.

 

bld01

Prepare the line follower PCB, the 4 M3x6mm screws, the 2 M3 25mm pillars, the ball caster and the 6-pin female header

 

bld02

Screw the 25mm pillars into the main PCB using 2 of the 6mm M3 screws

 

bld03

Push the female header onto the male header on the line follower board, then push the completed assembly into the female header on the underside of the main PCB. The holes in the line-follower PCB should then line up with the pillars and the line follower board should lie flush with the top of the pillars

 

bld04

Use the 6mm M3 screws to screw through the ball caster, through the line follower PCB and into the pillars

 

step29

Prepare the items required to mount the motors:

  • 2 motors with wires and capacitors ready soldered
  • 4 motor mount PCBs
  • 4 M3x25mm screws
  • 4 M3 nuts

step30

Push the motor mount PCBs from the top of the main board so that the holes line up with the mounting holes in the motor. Pass the 25mm screws from the outside, through one mount, through the motor and then through the second mount. Screw into the M3 nuts on the inside. Repeat for both motors.

 

step31

Red wires should be screwed into the terminals marked with a +, and the black wires into terminals marked with a -. This gives a Red – Black – Red – Black arrangement

 

step32

Push the wheels on now as it makes the unit more stable. Your Pi2Go-Lite should look like this

 

step33

To mount a Model B you will need an extended GPIO header and 2 x 5mm male-female pillars.

To mount a Model B+ you will need also need 2 x 4mm countersunk screws. For the B+ use the screws for two front mounts and the 5mm male-female pillars for the two rear mounts.

 

step34

Above: Model B mounting

Below: Model B+ or RPi 2B Mounting (2 x 5mm pillars at the rear)

ModelB-Plus_01

 

Push the extended header into the GPIO header on the main PCB, then carefully push the Raspberry Pi onto the extended header. Ensure that the mounting holes in the Pi match the pillars. If not, check that the GPIO header is plugged into the correct position.

 

step36

Above: Model B Battery Holder Mounting

Below: Model B+ or RPi 2B Battery Holder Mounting

ModelB-Plus_03

Now use 2 4mm countersunk screws to fit the battery holder into position, screwing into the 5mm male-female pillars that hold the Pi. For the Model B, the battery holder is mounted as shown above. For the Model B+ it is mounted cross-wise near the rear of the unit and offset, to allow access to the 6-pin I2C breakout header

 

step37

Fit the red wire from battery holder into the position nearest the switch – marked VBAT. The black wire goes into the position next to the motor.

 

step38

Your Pi2Go-Lite is now Complete!

Pi2Go Progress Update – August 4th 2014

Pi2Go Progress Update (4/8/14)

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As people keep pointing out to me, it’s been a while since I gave an update on Pi2Go progress. This is not because nothing has happened, but actually because so much has been happening that I haven’t sat back and reflected on the work we’ve done. Some highlights:

  • Manufacturer in China has been selected and cost of product from them has been agreed
  • The first “production” sample has been produced – made using final components, but hand-soldered
  • A “Pi2Go-Lite” has been defined, tested and is ready for kitting
  • The Raspberry Pi Model B+ caused a redesign of the main PCBs – as the mounting holes and other components are crucial to the design
  • A python library has been developed that senses which version of the Pi2Go is in use and acts accordingly
  • Extremely effective switching regulator used on both boards – keeps the Pi and wifi connection up even with very low battery levels
  • A pan/tilt mechanism has been developed for attaching a Pi camera
  • New Pi2Go logo created and Pi2Go is shortly to become a registered trademark
  • Selling price for the first production run has been decided

Pi2Go_800

Specifications

 

Pi2Go

Pi2Go-Lite

Main PCBA dimensions (mm)

110 x 80

100 x 80

PCBA Colour

Red

Yellow

Component technology

Surface Mount

Through Hole

Assembly method

Fully soldered

Requires Soldering

Supports Model A, B and B+

Yes

Yes

Power Supply

6 x AA

6 x AA

5V Regulator

3A Switching

3A Switching

Battery Monitoring

Yes*

Light sensors

4 x analog

RGB LEDs

4 pairs, hardware PWM

White LEDs

2 front, 2 rear (paired, s/w PWM)

Ultrasonic sensor

Yes

Yes

Line sensors x 2

Yes

Yes

IR obstacle sensors

3 with anti-glare technology**

2

Wheels

65mm Black

65mm Yellow

Servo connections

4 (Hardware PWM)

2 (Software PWM)

I2C Breakout connector

Yes

Yes

LED indicators for IR sensors

Yes

Yes

Geared motors ratio

120:1

120:1

Motor connection

Plug & Socket

Screw terminal

Power connection

Plug & Socket

Screw terminal

Time to Build (approx/varies)

20 minutes

90 minutes***

RRP (ex VAT)

£59.95

£35.95

Notes:

*  Battery monitoring circuit continuously checks that the battery levels is sufficient to power the motors and the Raspberry Pi. If it starts getting low, then it disables the motors. If it gets even lower then a signal is sent to the Raspberry Pi which can be used to shut down the Pi gracefully. This function can be over-ridden by changing a jumper

** “Anti-glare technology” prevents false triggers in bright sunlight. However the sunlight can still swamp the IR system which can prevent any events being received

***  90 minutes is estimated based on 1 hour to solder the PCBs and 30 minutes to assemble. Depending on soldering speed and ability, this can vary widely. “Your mileage may vary”

 

Pan/Tilt Assembly

The same design is used for both Pi2Go and Pi2Go-Lite. Continuing the theme of using PCB material (FR4) as a construction method, we’ve created 4 separate elements that can be used in different combinations:

  1. Base mounting plate. This can be fixed directly to either version of the Pi2Go using extended pillars on the front mountings. The base mounting plate can:
    1. Accept a servo for the pan operation
    2. Accept a camera mounting board directly for a simple front mounted camera
    3. Note that the servo could also be the base servo for the Me-Arm from Phenoptix – a match made in heaven! (note that Pi2Go-Lite only has 2 servo outputs so cannot control the whole Me-arm)
  2. Servo arm PCB. This is screwed directly to the arm of a servo in either the pan or tilt positions
  3. Servo mounting plate. This is fitted to a servo arm PCB for the pan, to mount the tilt servo
  4. Camera mounting plate. This can be fitted to either the base mounting plate or one the servo arm PCBs
  • Use just the base mounting plate and camera mounting plate for a fixed camera
  • Use the base mounting plate with a servo, servo arm PCB and camera mounting plate for a camera with pan control
  • Use all 4 components (2 of the servo arm PCBs) for a camera with both pan and tilt control

CamMounts02

 

Pi2Go with a MeArm Fitted

mearm02