Waveshare General Driver Board for Robots, Compatible with Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano, Based On ESP32, Multi-Functional, Supports WiFi, and ESP-Now Communications
$27.99
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3 reviews for Waveshare General Driver Board for Robots, Compatible with Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano, Based On ESP32, Multi-Functional, Supports WiFi, and ESP-Now Communications
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Waveshare General Driver Board for Robots, Compatible with Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano, Based On ESP32, Multi-Functional, Supports WiFi, and ESP-Now Communications
$27.99
Morgon O’Kelley –
So many fails
I’ve had 4 of these and not one of them has been fully functional. The last two I got were unable to run off the battery circuit. In fact the last one might have been the one I sent back before it. I give up and it’s a huge hassle for me to return things so…☹️
Aaron –
A lot to find and learn but works
This isn’t something for just anyone to grab and make use of however if you have some experience in the arduino IDE There are lots of demos included on the wiki page that do a decent job on the step-by-steps of getting you going. I’ll note though that to even find the wiki I had to google the board name so they could do a better job of getting you there. I started with the IMU demo because it didn’t require me digging out any other hardware. If you had the IDE already and esp32 boards set up you just need to open the demo project and upload it. I immediately had the output on the serial console but I need to mention either the code has something mixed up that I couldn’t find or something isn’t documented right but it seemed like my roll and yaw values were reversed. I happen to have one of the LD19 lidar sensors too so I went through that demo of setting up ROS on a pi though that was a bit more involved. It worked but the important point is while this board has a lot of functionality they did a good job of walking through everything you need to use any of it. The board itself is like other things waveshare products where they’re just well made and work. I will mention that when I mount the board to a pi I feel like the ports are in an odd direction with the power plug aligning with the USB/network side. Workable but you’ll have a tight setup if using the pi’s USB ports too.
RobasaurusRex –
I Do Not Recommend This – Here’s Why
I wouldn’t buy this unless you like puzzles and have an enormous amount of time and patience to find necessary documentation that might not exist, or find and reverse engineer Waveshare’s software if it doesn’t. You’ll also have to figure out what components are compatible with it, find and then connect plugs that are compatible with its sockets, and figure out the pin outs.I got this because as a hobby I build robotic rovers with lots of sensors and other components. I know that a “motherboard” like this would be very useful because it would eliminate a huge amount of wiring, save space and make electrical connections much more reliable. And I also use, like this driver board, multiple processors, such as an ESP32 for basic functions and a RPi for computer vision and other things that need a lot of processing power.There is a web page and a Wiki for this board that are long and impressive looking, but I don’t think they contain much helpful information. I also think this board was never ever intended to be used by someone who wants to design and build their own bot. That’s because it is used in numerous Waveshare robotic arms and robotic rovers, like the Wave Rover, which appear to come preassembled with a smartphone app to control them.There is some open-source “demo” software for those bots and this driver board. Which is good because in my opinion you’re probably going to have to reverse engineer Waveshare’s software if you want to figure out basic things like which ESP32 GPIO pins control the motor driver or are connected to the INA219 current sensor. I’ve searched the net to see if someone has already done that and I didn’t find anything.Also, if you are tempted to take on a challenge, keep in mind that this board has a TB6612FNG motor driver, which is limited to a maximum constant current of 1.2 amps per channel. So it can only control very small motors, which is not helpful if you want to build a large and powerful bot.Even so, it’s really unfortunate that Waveshare hasn’t provided the necessary information you need to use this board and made it easy to find. Because it has all kinds of really useful features, including an ESP32, a motor controller, servo controller, 18650 battery charging, INA219 current sensor, compass, 6-axis motion sensor and a bunch of other stuff all on a small compact PCB that looks very well made. It also has sockets that allow you to quickly and reliably connect motors, servos, LIDAR. SD card and a Raspberry Pi or Jetson Nano to it.