This Compact PCB Offers Dual-Channel Brushless Motor Control via a Raspberry Pi RP2040
Built as part of an effort to create a solar-powered kit form robot for farming, this open hardware board is the size of a credit card.
Electronic engineer Taylor Alexander has put together a motor controller board built around the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, offering dual-channel brushless motor control in a footprint roughly the size of a credit card — and designed to power an opensource precision farming rover.
"Our dream is that you will fab your own boards, make changes, and share your work - giving this design life beyond our efforts," writes Twisted Fields, the organisation behind the rover for which the motor controller board was built. Dubbed Acorn, and unveiled back in February 2021, the Acorn is designed to be a low-cost kit-based farming robot accessible to all and powered by the sun.
Alexander's latest contribution to the project is the unnamed RP2040 motor controller board, which packs a single RP2040 microcontroller on a small-footprint board designed for dual-channel control of brushless motors — the same motors, in fact, that are used in the Acorn robot, for which the board is destined.
While the board's design is compact, it's also built to be accessible: Alexander explains that it abides by the design rules of common low-volume online PCB fabrication and assembly houses, allowing the board to be ordered for quick and affordable production.
The board's design files are available on GitHub now under the permissive CERN-OHL-P license; those interested in learning more about Acorn, meanwhile, can read the original announcement or a more recent technical update.