{"id":19827,"date":"2019-10-27T16:29:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T15:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827"},"modified":"2019-10-27T18:05:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T17:05:54","slug":"red-robotics-redboard-review-a-fully-featured-motor-controller-that-isnt-afraid-of-high-power-and-multiple-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827","title":{"rendered":"Red Robotics&#8217; RedBoard+ review &#8211; a fully-featured motor controller that isn&#8217;t afraid of high power and multiple functions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-19828\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited-1024x852.jpg?resize=560%2C466&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?resize=1024%2C852&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?resize=300%2C250&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?resize=768%2C639&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?resize=560%2C466&amp;ssl=1 560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?resize=260%2C216&amp;ssl=1 260w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?resize=160%2C133&amp;ssl=1 160w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?w=1120&amp;ssl=1 1120w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Neil Lambeth, of <a href=\"https:\/\/redrobotics.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Red Robotics<\/a> has recently released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tindie.com\/products\/redrobotics\/redboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his first motor controller board<\/a> for the Raspberry Pi. &#8220;Oh, not another one!&#8221; I hear you cry&#8230; <strong>Well, hold up there<\/strong> &#8211; this is one to pay attention to and it&#8217;s not ridiculously expensive, either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TL;DR &#8211; Just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tindie.com\/products\/redrobotics\/redboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">buy one if you&#8217;re into robotics<\/a> &#8211; it&#8217;s fantastic!<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Capabilities<\/h2>\n<p>Coming in at \u00a330\/$38, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tindie.com\/products\/redrobotics\/redboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RedBoard+<\/a> is a HAT-sized controller board and it&#8217;s just\u00a0<em>packed<\/em> with features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It takes a battery input from 7V-24V and has reverse polarity protection.<\/li>\n<li>It powers the Pi with a steady 5.2V, 3A power supply, meaning it will cope with a Pi 4, if necessary.<\/li>\n<li>It has a 3.3 Volt 800mA Regulator.<\/li>\n<li>It can control two sets of DC motors with two H-bridges on-board, capable of handling 6A per channel (12A overall!) This is one beefy controller.<\/li>\n<li>It has a 4-Channel 5V level shifter for driving Neopixels, DotStars or other 5V electronics.<\/li>\n<li>It breaks out three channels of an analogue-to-digital converter (one channel is used for battery monitoring)<\/li>\n<li>It has one RGB LED on-board used for anything you like, but most useful as a battery warning light and\/or an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3LRSfR-3hBc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IP blinker<\/a> (both scripts are included on <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/RedRobotics\/RedBoard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the code repository<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>It can directly drives up to twelve hobby servos (with a separate power input for large &#8216;robot&#8217; servos).<\/li>\n<li>It has one user-programmable button which is best used, as supplied, to shutdown or reboot your Pi with different hold-times.<\/li>\n<li>An actual <strong>power switch<\/strong> to route battery power to the Pi and the motors.<\/li>\n<li>Four I2C channels broken out onto headers.<\/li>\n<li>Headers for serial communication (RX &amp; TX).<\/li>\n<li>Several Ground and Power pins.<\/li>\n<li>A &#8220;really useful header&#8221; onto which you can plug an optional (but not yet available) OLED screen &#8211; this came in really handy, so thanks Neil for including one in my review pack!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-19830\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=560%2C395&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=1024%2C722&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=300%2C211&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=768%2C541&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=560%2C395&amp;ssl=1 560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=260%2C183&amp;ssl=1 260w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?resize=160%2C113&amp;ssl=1 160w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?w=1120&amp;ssl=1 1120w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Redboard_Guide.png?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Using the board<\/h2>\n<p>I have a robot I&#8217;ve been working on for ages with four powerful, 12V motors and a wooden chassis. It normally uses another motor controller board, but it makes an ideal test platform for the RedBoard+. Here it is in action (with thanks to the wife for doing the recording!):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Red Robotics RedBoard+ running on a robot test platform\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/46a6qzMamB8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I used a 10 x 1.2V rechargeable AA battery pack to power the Pi and the motors together, through the RedBoard+. To start with, the Pi kept rebooting and I wondered why&#8230; Panic set in! <strong>But<\/strong> it turns out that the batteries I was using were&#8230; not very good. Neil had pointed out that this could be the problem right at the beginning, but I spent a good few hours in denial before switching over to some Eneloops\/Amazon Basics batteries (after which the problem miraculously went away!)\u00a0<strong>Lesson learned: Always Use Good Batteries.<\/strong> <em>It will also work with LiPo batteries, but I&#8217;m not that brave&#8230; yet! There&#8217;s even a test script in the GitHub repository that monitors battery power, tuned for LiPos.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For reference the offending AA batteries were these ones (EBL batteries which I got through Amazon):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-19831\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited-167x300.jpg?resize=167%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"167\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?resize=167%2C300&amp;ssl=1 167w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?resize=768%2C1383&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?resize=569%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 569w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?resize=555%2C999&amp;ssl=1 555w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?resize=260%2C468&amp;ssl=1 260w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?resize=160%2C288&amp;ssl=1 160w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?w=1559&amp;ssl=1 1559w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142932-Edited.jpg?w=1120&amp;ssl=1 1120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 167px) 100vw, 167px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blummin&#8217; things! Anyway!<\/p>\n<p>All this time to test things out meant that I got to code <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/recantha\/ShakaarBot\/blob\/master\/shakaar_rb.py\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a script to control the robot<\/a>, with some help from Neil&#8217;s original test scripts and a program I&#8217;d written (for that other motor controller) that used <a href=\"https:\/\/approxeng.github.io\/approxeng.input\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Oinn&#8217;s approxeng.input library<\/a> (if you haven&#8217;t tried this out and you&#8217;re into robotics, give it a go &#8211; <em>it&#8217;s lovely and is compatible with a lot of different games controllers.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Code and Scripts<\/h2>\n<p>The controller comes with <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/RedRobotics\/RedBoard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a GitHub repository containing a simple-to-use library and various test scripts<\/a>. These were instrumental in trying out the controller board and diagnosing the battery issue. If you get really stuck, and don&#8217;t want to install the software yourself, there&#8217;s even an SD card image linked to from <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/RedRobotics\/RedBoard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the GitHub page<\/a>. Neil&#8217;s really put a lot of thought into the user experience. The code he&#8217;s released works with both Python 3 (thank goodness) and Python 2 (shudder).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve yet to put to the test the servo capabilities, but if you look at the bottom of this blog post, you&#8217;ll see an example of the board using servos as well as DC motors.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>There are a\u00a0<em>lot<\/em> of motor controllers out there, some more capable than others. If you want a controller board that does more than &#8220;just run a couple of motors&#8221;, I thoroughly recommend the RedBoard+. It&#8217;s good on price, fantastic on functionality and just oozes usefulness. Use the right batteries though &#8211; some just aren&#8217;t good enough to reliably run the Pi &#8211; stick with Eneloops or Amazon Basics or IKEA rechargeable batteries (which seem to all be the same base unit).<\/p>\n<p>Put it another way: if I had to return this review unit (I don&#8217;t), I&#8217;d buy one in a heartbeat. When you consider the complexity of robotics competitions such as <a href=\"https:\/\/piwars.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pi Wars<\/a> and the need to run more than just two DC motors at low speed, a controller that can handle a wide input range, can deliver high ampage to the motors and can also handle servos (including high-power servos) at the same time, <strong>RedBoard+ is what you need<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tindie.com\/products\/redrobotics\/redboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">buy a RedBoard+ from Tindie<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Final bit<\/h2>\n<p>I&#8217;ll leave you with this demo video, shot by Neil himself. It shows all the functionality being used!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"RedBoard+ Demo.mp4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SV3RMvhFFqk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neil Lambeth, of Red Robotics has recently released his first motor controller board for the Raspberry Pi. &#8220;Oh, not another one!&#8221; I hear you cry&#8230; Well, hold up there &#8211; this is one to pay attention to and it&#8217;s not&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,44,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gpio-boards","category-reviews","category-robotics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Red Robotics&#039; RedBoard+ review - a fully-featured motor controller that isn&#039;t afraid of high power and multiple functions - Raspberry Pi Pod<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Red Robotics&#039; RedBoard+ review - a fully-featured motor controller that isn&#039;t afraid of high power and multiple functions - Raspberry Pi Pod\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Neil Lambeth, of Red Robotics has recently released his first motor controller board for the Raspberry Pi. &#8220;Oh, not another one!&#8221; I hear you cry&#8230; Well, hold up there &#8211; this is one to pay attention to and it&#8217;s not&hellip;Read more &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Raspberry Pi Pod\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/recantha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-27T15:29:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-27T17:05:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_20191027_142301-Edited.jpg?fit=2951%2C2456&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2951\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Horne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@recantha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@recantha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Horne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19827\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Horne\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c27c4ef2ee1c18b130f1fcd5dcdbb263\"},\"headline\":\"Red Robotics&#8217; 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It's a motor controller board with the ability to drive six servos and two DC motors. It's a great little board and Robin Newman has done something with it that just appeals to my robotics brain :-) He's used the Picon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bluetooth&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bluetooth","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/rjIuksEs-gM\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8667,"url":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8667","url_meta":{"origin":19827,"position":4},"title":"Budget robot kit for the #RaspberryPi just launched","author":"Michael Horne","date":"12 March 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ryan Walmsley, creator of Rastrack and co-editor of Pi Weekly (and constant CamJam attendee!), has had a great success with his RTK motor controller board and has now branched out into a full beginners robot kit. 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