GoGo Mini

GoGo mini and GoGo mini with driver motor

The GogoBoard was developed in 2001 by the researchers Paulo Blikstein and Arnan (Roger). It is the first

open-source platform to robotics, created even before Arduino (that came up in 2005). The board can be

homemade using the project, the bill of materials and circuits provided by www.gogoboard.org. The

original version is able to control up to 4 motors and 8 sensors, however it has more than 200 soldering

points, which is hard to produce in robotics school classes. As an alternative it was developed by Gilson

Domingues and Pietro Domingues a version called GoGo Mini. It is easer to assembly and cheaper than the

original because there are less components and the board is smaller.

The board is assembled in many steps. In the order are inserted the resistors , after the capacitors and

finally LEDs. The sockets and connectors (male and female) are then inserted. The last components are the

crystal and the button. Before inserting the PIC Microcontroller, it's necessary to burn it with the firmware

available in www.gogoboard.org. Then it must be put carefully to not damage the pins. When the power

comes from USB the jumper is placed according to the figure. When the power comes from an external

4,5V-6V battery or supplier, it must be placed on the other possible position.

After building the board it is time to make it work. To start the board just follow the content on

http://www.gogoboard.org/getting-started.

If it is working, then it is time to assembly the motor driver board.

The driver board is then installed on the GoGo Mini.

This board can turn on two motors, so we can build interesting robots. In the example, some parts were

made on 3D printer and other were cut on Laser cutter.

In the driver board there is also a jumper. The position of the jumper means whether the power source is

external or comes from the GoGo Mini. Because of electromagnetic interferences and current peaks, it's

desirable the current source coming from external power. When the jumper is near to the power supplier

connector, then the power is external, otherwise, the power comes from GoGo Mini.

Bill of materials

CI 1 PIC 18F4550

CON1 USB Connector

C3 0,47 µF Ceramic or polyester

capacitor

XTAL1 20 MHz Crystal

S1 Button

C1, C2 Electrolytic capacitors (470 µF)

L1 Yellow LED - 3mm

L2 Grenn LED - 3mm

L3 Red LED - 3mm

CON 2 Female headers (single row)

Jumper

40 pin Socket

C4, C5 22 pF Capacitors

R1 470 Ω Resistor

R2 E R7 1 KΩ Resistor

R3,R4,R5 E R6 3.3 KΩ Resistor

Motor driver board

CON_M 2 Male headers (single row)

D1 1N4007 Diode

Q1 2N3904 Transistor

CON2 PCB screw terminal block (4 screws)

16 pin Socket

Robot with gogo mini