4Tronix Pi2go Mk2
les pounder is tired of walking to the shops for his lunch, but with the Pi2go Mk2 he can have his pies delivered!
Les Pounder is tired of walking to the shops for his lunch, but with the Pi2go Mk2 he can have his pies delivered!
Another robot enters the Raspberry Pi scene and with it comes a pedigree. Made by 4Tronix, which has been producing Raspberry Pi robots since 2015, this is a long-awaited revision of the earlier Pi2go robot from 2014. In fact the original Pi2go was the first robot that we built, and it rests on a shelf in the office.
Pi2go Mk2 is made for use with all 40-pin GPIO models of Raspberry Pi, which includes the Raspberry Pi 4. You will need to spend a little more money for the seven AA batteries required or a 18650 board in order to power everything. The Pi2go can also be used with a Pi Zero W, but it will need a little alteration to make it work.
Building Pi2go is fun and easy. There is no soldering required – all that’s needed is the included screwdriver. The Raspberry Pi is sandwiched into the middle of the robot and it is safe and secure.
The key part of a robot is the motor controller which is controlled by the Pi and controls the high-current circuit for the motors. The controller is a DRV8833, which is a popular, low-cost yet serviceable component. It can even cope with four motors, which is handy as there is a 4WD upgrade pack.
Sensor-y overload
The Pi2go is packed with sensors: there are two infrared obstacle sensors on the front corners, light sensors on every corner and line-follower sensors. There are two slots for breakout boards and can be used with ultrasonic distance sensors, plus there’s a seven-segment display. But even more exciting is that it is compatible with Pimoroni’s Breakout Garden add-on boards. Why is that exciting? Well, using Pimoroni’s 6DOF motion sensor, we can build an extremely accurate robot.
On the subject of hardware, the battery board features 10 SK6812-3535 RGB LEDS which are Neopixelcompatible, so that means your robot can blast out beams of light as it takes over the world.
The software for Pi2go is all Python – Python 2, in fact. This is a bit disappointing, but after a few tweaks to the example code we managed to make it work with Python 3 – all it took was changing a few print statements to match the new syntax. Otherwise the supplied software is excellent, providing test scripts for every part of the robot, from sensors to motors. We can even monitor the state of the batteries from Python.
When we are ready we can use the Pi2go Python library to create our own projects as the library is impressively high-level and easy to understand. For younger makers, the Pi2go can also be controlled using Scratch on the Pi thanks to great work by Simon Walters, a key member of the Raspberry Pi community. Because the Pi2go works with the GPIO, it can also be controlled using NODE-RED, and the Pi2go website has details of which pins are used.
This is a great piece of kit, but there is a downside and that is the price. The basic kit is £72, with extra add-ons retailing for around £11 each. You can build a robot for a cheaper price, but you will not have the same package of sensors as those found on Pi2go. But if you have already built a robot and want to up your game, this is a kit to invest in. Despite the cost, this is an impressive update to a classic robot kit.