Adafruit CRICKIT FeatherWing for any
Feather
PRODUCT ID: 3343
Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did,
they'd know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion.
Why even go down that path? Here at Adafruit, we believe in making robots
our friends!
So if you find yourself wanting a companion, consider the robot. They're fun to
program, and you can get creative with decorations.
With that in mind, we designed Crickit - That's our Creative Robotics
& Interactive Construction Kit. It's an add-on to our popular Feather ecosystem
that lets you #MakeRobotFriend using CircuitPython, MakeCode (coming soon),
or Arduino.
Plug in any Feather mainboard you want into the center, and you're good to
go! The Crickit is powered by seesaw, our I2C-to-whatever bridge firmware. So
you only need to use two I2C data pins to control the huge number of inputs
and outputs on the Crickit. All those timers, PWMs, sensors are offloaded to the
co-processor.
The only thing that is not managed by seesaw is the audio output. We provide a
small jumper you can solder to connect the audio amplifier to the first analog
pin. On our Feather M0's this is a true analog output (DAC) and you can play
audio clips with CircuitPython or Arduino. Other Feathers may not have a
DAC! In that case, you can solder a wire to jumper the audio amp to a PWM pin.
You get to use all the non-I2C signal pins on your feather and get a boat-load
of extra in/out pins, motor controllers, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel
driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your Feather so
you can still use all the goodies, including stacking FeatherWings on top. But
now you have a robotics playground as well.
You get:
4 x Analog or Digital Servo control, with precision 16-bit timers
2 x Bi-directional brushed DC motor control, 1 Amp current limited each,
with 8-bit PWM speed control (or one stepper)
4 x High current "Darlington" 500mA drive outputs with kick-back diode
protection. For solenoids, relays, large LEDs, or one uni-polar stepper
4 x Capacitive touch sensors with alligator-pads
8 x Signal pins, digital in/out or analog inputs
1 x NeoPixel driver with 5V level shifter - The NeoPixels are buffered and
controlled by the seesaw chip
1 x Class D, 4-8 ohm speaker, 3W-max audio amplifier - the audio input
pin is available as a solder-able pad for your configuration, you can
connect it to your Feather's DAC or PWM output as you desire.
All are powered via 5V DC, so you can use any 5V-powered servos, DC motors,
steppers, solenoids, relays etc. To keep things simple and safe, we don't
support mixing voltages, so only 5V, not for use with 9V or 12V robotic
components.
Please note this robot board does not require any soldering but you will need a
power supply and a Feather to go along with the Crickit, and these are not
included! We recommend also purchasing:
Any one of our Feather mainboards, powered by an ATmega328p,
ATmega32u4, ATSAMD21, ATSAMD51, ESP8266, ESP32, WICED, nRF52,
etc. All Feathers will work, even ones with SD cards, LoRa radios, WiFi or
BTLE modules, etc. Adafruit seesaw only uses I2C and all Feather boards
have I2C pins in the same location.
5V 2A power supply
If you're going to be running more than 2 large motors or servos at a
time, we recommend a 5V 4A power supply
And of course we have a huge collection of all compatible motors, servos,
solenoids, speakers and more in our Crickit category
Since you'll be working with high-current devices, we wanted to have a good
solid power supply system that minimizes risk of damage. The power supply has
an 'eFuse' management chip that will automatically turn off if the voltage goes
above 5.5V or below 3V and has over-current protection at 4A. Every motor
driver has kick-back protection. We think this is a nice and durable board for
robotics!
Lots more details, schematics, specifications, and code examples in the (still in
progress) Adafruit Learn guide.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Product Dimensions: 82.0mm x 82.0mm x 15.0mm / 3.2" x 3.2" x 0.6"
Product Weight: 35.4g / 1.2oz
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3343 8‐13‐18