PiBorg, the small company based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire who created the Doodleborg and Diddyborg robots (as well as lots of other boards, bots and, of course the excellent turntable at this year’s Pi Wars), have this morning announced the launch of their first Kickstarter campaign. The campaign will raise funds for the development and production of the ZeroBorg. The ZeroBorg has the following features:

• Very small – only slightly larger than the Zero.
• Can control four motors (or two stepper motors) independently – as shown in the picture above.
• 4 H-bridges.
• An on board fast blow fuse at 5A,
• Designed to run off a 9V power source (max range 2.7V to 10.8V. To power the Pi Zero 7V minimum),
• 2 analogue inputs, which are great for sensors,
• I2C communication, allowing daisy chaining to other boards,
• Fully soldered and ready to use.

There are several reward levels starting at £10 (plus shipping) for an Earlybird motor controller board only, £20 (plus shipping) for a board with a 9V battery clip, IR sensor and power regulator (allowing you to run the Pi and controller board off a 9V battery and to control it via IR remote control), and various others with various combinations. I’ve gone in at the £20 level.

Myself and Tim Richardson visited PiBorg recently and caught sight of the board. It’s incredibly cute and has a lot of possibilities for battery-powered motor operation.

See the campaign video below and visit the campaign for more details and to pledge here.