Pololu Orangutan X2 Quick Start Manual

Orangutan X2 Robot Controller
Introduction
The Orangutan X2 is the third release in Pololu's line of Orangutan robot controllers. Like the original Orangutan and subsequent Baby
Orangutan, the Orangutan X2 is designed to be a compact, high-performance control center for robotics and automation projects. The
Orangutan X2's two-board design allows the unit to maintain the compactness characteristic of the Orangutan line while offering
substantially more electrical and computational power: the X2 can deliver up to a horsepower across two motor channels, and the twin-
microcontroller architecture allows maximum access to the primary microcontroller, an Atmel ATmega644 with 64KB of program space
and 4KB of RAM. Abattery, motors, and sensors can be connected directly to the module for quick creation of advanced robots.
Contacting Pololu
You can check the Pololu web site at
including color pictures, application examples, and troubleshooting tips.
We would be delighted to hear from you about your project and about your experience with the Orangutan X2. You can contact us through
our online feedback form or by email at
to see in the future, or anything else you would like to say!
Hardware Overview
A block diagram of the Orangutan X2 is shown below. The Orangutan X2 consists of two printed circuit boards
Two circuit boards.
connected by a 20-pin connector. The top board holds the high-power motor drivers and power terminals; the rest of the electronics,
including the microcontrollers, is on the bottom board. The connections on the top board are symmetric, so until the connectors are
soldered on, the board can be mounted in either orientation. The Orangutan is available with two motor driver options: the VNH3SP30
costs less, but has slightly lower performance; the VNH2SP30 can deliver more current and adds current sensing. Battery and motor leads
(or leads to your favorite connector style) can be soldered directly to the top board, or the supplied terminal blocks can be used for quick
convenient motor or power supply changes.
The Orangutan X2 has two microcontrollers: an Atmel ATmega644 for the main application, and an auxiliary
Two microcontrollers.
ATmega168 that interfaces to most of the dedicated hardware on the X2 and serves as a programmer for the main processor. The two-
microcontroller design simplifies multitasking by relieving the main processor of common tasks such as motor control and melody
generation, and the approach also leaves the mega644 completely unencumbered, allowing the mega644 hardware, such as timers and
interrupts, to be used for your higher-level design.
For more details, please check the complete schematic included at the end of this document.
Main board
USB-to-serial
adapter
(CP2102)
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Top board
motor drivers
(VNH2SP30)
and power
connection
buzzer
auxiliary
UART
microcontroller
(mega168)
Orangutan X2 Block Diagram
for additional information about the Orangutan robot controller ,
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10x2 2mm
connector
SPI
main user
microcontroller
(mega644)
page 1 of 6
Quick-Start Guide
LCD
PORTC
LEDs and
pushbuttons
PORTA,
general
PORTD
purpose
I/O headers
s
org03a