User`s guide

Orangutan SVP-324 with dimensions.

Power & Motor Connections

The power and motor connections are in the lower-right corner of the unit. The Orangutan SVP’s input voltage

(VBAT) should be 6 – 13.5 V, from which the on-board regulator generates the 5 V supply (VCC) that is used to

power the logic.

The Orangutan SVP has one TB6612FNG motor driver for each motor output. Each motor driver can deliver a

continuous 2 A, and can briefly deliver up to 6 A. If you are not taking extra steps to keep the motor driver cool,

such as using a heat sink, exceeding this continuous current rating for too long will cause the motor driver to heat

up and trigger its built-in thermal shutdown.

By default, the motor drivers are powered from the external power supply (VBAT). However, you can disconnect

the external power supply from the motor drivers by cutting the labeled traces on the bottom of the board (VBAT-

VM1 and VBAT-VM2). This allows you to connect some other power supply to the motor drivers, such as VADJ

(see below). The motor drivers have an operating range of 4.5 – 13.5 V, so your power supply should be in that

range, and should be capable of supplying all the current that your motors might draw.

USB Power

When connected to a computer, the USB connection provides a 5 V power supply. If an external power supply is

present, the unit will run off of the external supply and not draw any power from USB. If only the USB power is

present, then by default the auxiliary processor will be powered from USB, but the AVR and the VCC power pins

on the board will not be powered. An option is available for powering the entire board from USB. See Section 11

for more information.

Motors

The motor drivers are controlled by two of the AVR’s hardware PWM outputs from eight-bit Timer2 for speed

control, along with two digital outputs for direction control. This lets you achieve variable motor speeds using

hardware PWMs rather than processor-intensive software PWMs on the motor control lines. You can control the

motors using the functions in the OrangutanMotors [http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J18/7] section of the Pololu AVR

C/C++ Library.

4. Module Pinout and Components Page 8 of 41