Advertisement
Gertbot Advanced
Rev 0.2 8-Sept.-2014
Gertbot Advanced
Rev-0.2, 8-Sept.-2014
The Gertbot is a motor controller board for the Raspberry-Pi. For details how to operate it read the
Gertbot manual and/or the Gertbot GUI. This manual describes how to unlock some of the more
challenging features of the board.
Contents
Cascade. .................................................................................................................................................. 2
More current for DC motors. .................................................................................................................. 3
More current for Stepper motors. ............................................................................................................ 5
Going to DC 10 Amp. ............................................................................................................................. 5
Going to Stepper 10 Amp. ...................................................................................................................... 6
Uploading new software. ........................................................................................................................ 6
Board Erase. ............................................................................................................................................ 6
1
Advertisement
Table of Contents
Summary of Contents for GERTBOARD Gertbot
- Page 1 Gertbot Advanced Rev-0.2, 8-Sept.-2014 The Gertbot is a motor controller board for the Raspberry-Pi. For details how to operate it read the Gertbot manual and/or the Gertbot GUI. This manual describes how to unlock some of the more challenging features of the board.
- Page 2 Gertbot Advanced Rev 0.2 8-Sept.-2014 Cascade. To use two or more boards you need to make a cascade cable. That is a flat cable with up to four 8-pin female headers. This is such a cable: The length of the cable depends on how far apart you want to mount the boards. If you stack them using 15mm stand-offs you need 120 mm cable.
- Page 3 Gertbot Advanced Rev 0.2 8-Sept.-2014 More current for DC motors. One H-bridge can pass 2.5A. As we have four of them it is possible to combine bridges to allow more then 2.5A. Here is the part of the schematics which deals with the signals we are going to mess about with: Beware the A1, A2, ..
- Page 4 Gertbot Advanced Rev 0.2 8-Sept.-2014 Before: After The same is valid for R15, R18 and R19. You don’t have to re-use the “resistor”. You can use a piece of wire as well. The two images below show how I made all four connections. In the top two I re-used the resistors, in the bottom two I used wires.
- Page 5 Gertbot Advanced Rev 0.2 8-Sept.-2014 More current for Stepper motors. I have NOT tried this so this chapter is based on theory. However the theory is simple and it should work. A stepper motors is controlled with a set of signals: H0, L0, H1, L1. To double the current of a stepper motor you have to parallel up bridge A with C and bridge B with D.
- Page 6 The controller on the board has the protection bits set. This means you can NOT connect a debugger and see what is running. Neither can you upload your own code. If you want to program the Gertbot with your own code you are welcome to do so but you must first perform a ‘Board Erase’.
Need help?
Do you have a question about the Gertbot and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers