Application Notes

1. Introduction

Orangutans’ integrated motor drivers set this robot controller line apart from other programmable microcontroller

boards like the Basic Stamp and Arduino controllers. By tying a high-performance AVR microcontroller directly to

a powerful dual H-bridge capable of driving two DC brushed motors, we have produced platforms that can serve as

both the brains and brawn of your robot.

This application note is intended to give you the information you need to easily interface with the motor drivers on

your 3pi robot [https://www.pololu.com/product/975], Orangutan SV-xx8 [https://www.pololu.com/product/1227], Orangutan

LV-168 [https://www.pololu.com/product/775] or Baby Orangutan B [https://www.pololu.com/product/1220]. The Orangutan

LV-168 uses a dual H-bridge made of discrete, low-voltage MOSFETs while the Orangutan SV-xx8, Baby Orangutan

B, and 3pi robot all use the TB6612FNG dual motor driver [https://www.pololu.com/file/download/

TB6612FNG.pdf?file_id=0J86] (308k pdf). All three devices have the same AVR pin connections to the TB6612FNG IC,

so the same motor-driving code will work on all three devices, and the motor driver characteristics will be the same

as well.

Note: Since this application note was first written, we have released a Pololu AVR Library

[https://www.pololu.com/docs/0J20] that provides functions based on the code in this document that make it

easy to control the motor drivers on the Orangutan robot controllers. If you’re just getting started with

Orangutans, we recommend you use the library. If you are interested in learning about the low-level

details of motor control, please read on.

Application Note: Using the Motor Driver on the 3pi Robot and Orangutan Robot

Controllers

Corporation

1. Introduction Page 2 of 12