Open Source Turtle Robot Kit vs Inventor 2040 W

By Marc de Vinck. Posted

After making some BEAM bots, my next robot was in fact a turtle bot. I believe it was based on a PIC microcontroller. It wasn’t easy to program, compared to modern-day microcontrollers, but it was still a lot of fun. This Open Source Turtle Robot Kit ($95) by MakersBox reminds me of my first turtle bot. However, this bot comes preloaded with an Adafruit ItsyBitsy M4 microcontroller with Python firmware. That sure does make it a lot easier to program! The main body of the robot is 3D-printed, and it includes everything you need to get up and running. It’s easy to build and, once built, you can have fun changing the code and customising it. Made specifically for beginners, we think almost anyone will have fun with the Turtle Robot Kit. It’s great being able to draw patterns and write words autonomously. Watch this video of the bot in action.

Verdict

10/10

A classic bot to get started.

The Inventor 2040 W (£34.50) from Pimoroni is a perfect board for making just about any kind of robotic contraption that you can imagine. You can power multiple motors, up to six servos, add a speaker, or interface with countless sensors. All this is thanks to the integrated Raspberry Pi Pico with its Dual Arm Cortex-M0+ running at up to 133MHz with 264kB of SRAM.

This is the kitchen sink breakout for the Raspberry Pi Pico. In addition to everything mentioned earlier, you can power your project with AA or AAA batteries, or even add a LiPo battery, thanks to its integrated circuitry. It also features twelve addressable LEDs, found on each of the servo breakouts and the GPIO/ADC channels. It’s difficult to condense all the features into one review, so head over to the website to learn more.

Verdict

10/10

A great accessory for Pico owners.

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