User Manual

kit. The m3pi robot can be used out of the box without any soldering, but a soldering iron

could still come in handy if you want to install a Wixel socket or make use of the robot’s

prototyping space for custom circuits or the addition of sensors. An inexpensive soldering

iron [https://www.pololu.com/product/156] will work, but you might consider investing in a higher-

performance soldering iron [https://www.pololu.com/product/1625] if you will be doing a lot of

work with electronics. See Section 2 for more information on assembling the m3pi.

• A desktop or laptop computer. You will need a personal computer for programming the

m3pi. If you are using an mbed development board as your main robot controller, there are

no drivers or software to install as the entire mbed toolchain is web-based. See Section 3.a

for more information on getting started.

• Sensors. The 3pi base features five integrated reflectance sensors along the underside of its

leading edge. These sensors can be used for applications such as line following and maze

solving. If you want to enhance the m3pi’s ability to interact with its environment, however,

you might want to add additional sensors [https://www.pololu.com/category/7/sensors], such as

accelerometers and gyros [https://www.pololu.com/category/80/accelerometers-gyros-compasses]

for tracking position and orientation or distance sensors [https://www.pololu.com/category/79/

sharp-distance-sensors] for detecting obstacles.

• AVR Programmer. If you already own a 3pi robot and intended to upgrade it with the

m3pi expansion kit, chances are you already own an AVR programmer like our USB AVR

programmer [https://www.pololu.com/product/1300], and you will likely want to use this

programmer to load the 3pi serial slave program as you build your m3pi robot. If you

purchased the fully-assembled m3pi, the included 3pi robot base ships pre-programmed with

a serial slave program, and no AVR programmer is required if you plan on using a separate

microcontroller, like an mbed or a Wixel, as the main robot controller. However, an AVR

programmer is required if you want to use the 3pi’s AVR microcontroller as your main robot

controller.

Note: A 3pi robot [https://www.pololu.com/product/975] is not included with m3pi expansion

kit [https://www.pololu.com/product/2152] and must be purchased separately. The 3pi base is

included with the assembled m3pi robot [https://www.pololu.com/product/2151].

1. Overview Page 8 of 39