For those of you who have been following along at home, you know that as part of our Beta testing for the new control system, we had created both an Active and Passive MXP expansion board.
In late December, we were able to scramble together enough time to get each board made. As promised, here is an update on the completed boards.
The Passive Board
This board is simply a breakout for the MXP, providing accessible connections for each pin on the MXP, along with power and ground, also provided by the MXP.
The Active Board
The fun and colourful cousin of the Passive board, the Active board provides six PWM outputs that can have 6v power applied to the power pin. Each output can have power turned on or off by very colourful DIP switches, and of course, an LED will light up to show that power is being supplied. These are aimed at providing power to servos connected to these outputs from a buck converter.
Unfortunately, since this is modifying the power pathway to motors that are controlled by the control system, this board is not legal for use in 2015.
It does, however, look rather dashing with its multicolour switches and LEDs, especially when mounted on the roboRIO along with our half-size Cable Magic, and photographed artfully at a slight angle.
It also lights up in party mode! (Or also, when it’s powered on..)
The circle of life continues
So for now, our work with the MXP expansion boards is done. While we won’t necessarily be using these exact boards this year, this will certainly feed into our future work with the MXP.