Presentation delivered during the Karel Comenius project meeting, Rybnik, 22 - 29.03.2015

1. KAREL Upper Board
Testing - Workshop
Mihai Agape, Project Coordinator
Palatul Copiilor Drobeta Turnu Severin
KAREL, Comenius Project Meeting
Rybnik, 22 – 29.03.2015

2.  This project has been funded with support from the
European Commission.
 This communication reflects the views only of the
authors, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.

3. The Purpose of the
Presentation
 Describe the evolution of
controller board design
Test controller board

4. CONTROLLER BOARD DESIGN

5. PROTOTYPE #1

6. First prototype - Karelino
3D Top View

7. First prototype - Karelino
3D Bottom View

8. First Karel prototype
(first Rybnik meeting)

9. Proposed Improvements
(Rybnik meeting)
 Integrate new blocks (e.g. Motor voltage
regulator, UART connector, Battery
management system)
 Make changes to the initial design (e.g.
replace USB micro B connector with an USB
mini B connector)
 Redesign the PCB (components places and
traces) according to the chassis shape
 Add LEDs to show the state of Bluetooth
module

10. PROTOTYPE #2

11. Karel
Second Prototype
 2 boards
 Lower board
 Battery management system
 Motors
 Upper board
 Controller
 Regulators
 I/O devices
 Motor regulators

13. PCB Design
 Double Side PCB laminate
 Components
 SMD
 THD
 Software
 Target3001! - version limited at 400 pins /
pads

14. Upper board
3D bottom view

15. Upper board
3D top view

16. Upper board
 What is missing from the upper board?
 Electronic switch
 Why?

17. PROTOTYPE #3

18. Karel Upper Board
Third prototype

19. Karel Upper Board
Third prototype

20. KAREL UPPER BOARD TEST

21. Power Switch Test
Under supervision of a qualified teacher!
 Connect 7.4 V power supply across J23 (VB,
GND)
 Measure output voltage across J28 (VBAT,
GND) for both positions of S6 switch (On, Off)

22. Motor Voltage Regulator
Theoretical problem
 Calculate the output voltage for the
components in the next schematic

23. Motor Voltage Regulator Test
Under supervision of a qualified teacher!
 Power the voltage regulator connecting a
7.4V voltage source across J19 (VRIN, GND)
 Measure output voltage across J22 (VROUT,
GND) which has to be around 7V, according
to the value calculated
 Measure output voltage for different output
currents (use load resistors with right
resistance and power rate)

24. Motor Drivers Test
Under supervision of a qualified teacher!
 Connect motors to J6, and J7 connectors
 Test rotation of each motor each sense, by
connecting, at a time, each of inputs AIN1-4 to VMM
trough a resistor-LED series circuit
 Overcharge one output and observe D4 LED

25. +5V Voltage Regulator Test
Under supervision of a qualified teacher!
 Connect power supply to J4 (VBAT, GND)
 D3 LED switch on
 Measure the output voltage, VCC – GND

26. +3.3V Voltage Regulator Test
Under supervision of a qualified teacher!
 Connect power supply to upper board
 Measure the output voltage across J11 (+3V,
GND)

27. Controller
Schematic

28. Controller Test
Under supervision of a qualified teacher!
 Power the board
 Use four jumpers to connect LED’s to outputs
 Program uC to toggle the LED’s (via SPI)
 Disable next fuses (via SPI):
 Divide by 8
 JTAG
 Program bootloader (via SPI)
 Program uC to control the motors (via USB)

29. Bluetooth Test
 Program uC (via USB) to communicate with
laptop via Bluetooth
 Test the communication program

30. Bibliography
 Agape, Mihai. Agape, Maria-Genoveva.
“KAREL Specifications”, agreed in Karel
Project Meeting, held at Beypazari on 10–
16.11.2013. http://sdrv.ms/170NTak
 Agape, Mihai. “Karelino—One Step in Karel
Robotic Platform Developing”, presentation
given at National Symposium IPO-TECH,
Tirgu-Neamt, 29.03.2014

31. Bibliography
 Agape, Mihai. “KAREL
Controller Design”, presentation delivered
at Karel project meeting, held at Rybnik, 06-
13.04.2014
 Agape, Mihai. “KAREL
2nd Platform Design”, presentation
delivered at Karel project meeting, held at
Katerini, 12-19.10.2014

32. Questions?