My control board is an ongoing project started during summer 2018 to address a recurring problem I had when designing small side projects: many required some form of actuation to be worth building and since I had no way of providing that power/control, I’d burn out on the projects and they’d end up in a partially designed state since I wasn’t ready to fully invest in the required components. With spare time (and more importantly an income to support purchasing the required parts) I designed this board as a one stop shop for power, motor control, and sensor feedback so that future projects would only need less expensive sensors and actuators on them versus a dedicated control system. Though not a mechanically challenging design, the board is my first major move towards fully integrated (mechanically, electrically and software-wise) personal projects.

The board is based around a RobotOpen Gorgon Flex Robot Controller and uses hardware loosely based on the FIRST Robotics Competition control system due to my familiarity with it and the components’ ability to later scale up to higher power projects and applications. The board is currently powered by a DC power supply integrated into the rear portion of the base, and supports 4 low power motors outputs as well as two spare plugs (the final power distribution block output is reserved for the Gorgon and router). As much of the wiring as possible is routed and organized within the base, allowing for a simple interface with the appropriate components on its front face.

Future design improvements will likely involve a better system for routing sensor inputs and servo outputs to the Gorgon versus simply plugging them directly into the controller’s pins. I’d like to the Pasadena Public Library’s STEAM program’s Innovation Lab for providing access to the laser cutter used to make components for this project.