Red Box Robot Hookup Guide

Contributors: Nick Poole

Wiring the Motors

Now that our robot friend has a body (and maybe even a face) it's time to start wiring things together. To ease assembly, we'll be jumping everything together on a breadboard. Before we can do that, though, you'll need to solder headers to the RedStick and the Motor Driver Board. I won't cover that process here; if you're just getting started with soldering, then check out this tutorial. Once everything has headers attached, press the parts into your breadboard as pictured below. Pay close attention to how many rows are free on either side of the breadboard; you'll need them for the motor connections.

Now that everything is in place, let's add jumper wires to complete our circuit. There's a spool of solid core wire included in your kit, which you'll cut into short lengths and strip on either end. We're going to make a lot of connections here, so the diagram might get messy. To make things easier to follow, I've broken it into stages. In case following a diagram isn't your flavor, I've put together a table that outlines all of the connections. You can find it at the end of this section.

A quick note about the connections above: the motors and battery pack come with wire leads attached, which you should be able to press directly into the breadboard without having to add your own wire.

Notice in the diagram above that there are two wires connected to the battery terminals on the RedStick. You may be tempted to connect these wires to VCC and GND instead, but don't do it! The battery connector actually passes through a booster circuit, so as your batteries drain, the RedStick won't power down prematurely.