Quickie review of the Pololu Arduino-compatible wheeled bot

I just got the new Pololu 3pi wheeled bot that I posted about last week, and it's every bit as cool as I'd hoped. It's quite small (those are AAA batteries in the picture, not AAs). It's basically one beautifully designed round circuit board that holds all the components and also sports lots of available holes, some of which are connected to I/O pins for adding your own sensors. The instructions and example programs are also excellent. It's really fun to make a maze and watch it solve it, and the bot is tremendous at line following. The obvious thing to add to it is a "proto shield", or expansion board with a breadboards, and I'm pleased to see that Pololu is developing one. Highly recommended, and at this price ($99) it's well worth getting one.

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3D Robotics

Chris Anderson August 30, 2008 at 5:44pm

Yes, it's got a white ball bearing thing under the front that freewheels and keeps it level.
Jack Crossfire August 30, 2008 at 5:23pm

FYI, it's 3pi because it's 3*3.14 cm in diameter. It's not a balancing robot.
Howard Gordon August 30, 2008 at 3:06pm

I like Pololu's products. Also, they run a very economical service for laser cutting solder paste masks for DIY surface mount circuit boards.

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