by Danny Staple

The 4tronix Unotron robot is an unusual but fun design for a robot chassis. It uses a DC motor for one wheel at the back, and has two front wheels mounted on a servo plate - which is turned to provide steering.

The robot was a kit I bought some time ago - from ebay some time in 2013. I have a collection of various robot things to assemble and build - and this one I let my son Jonathan build with me. In this he gets handy with a screwdriver, and also finds yet more laser-cut backing to remove.

The kit is normally used with an Arduino Uno and a motor shield. However, I went a bit different and used an Elechouse 15a Motor Driver board (no longer available).

This board mounts an Arduino Nano, it has 2 DC motor control channels with a 16Amp current per channel, an I2C breakout. All the Arduino IC pins are broken out as GVS - Ground, Volt, Signal - an arrangement very handy for Servo motors and some sensor types. It has screw terminal inputs for the battery voltage.

Elechouse Board close up

Jon’s main understanding is that he was building a robot, which he finds fun.

See the build below.