Kondo’s new KCB-1 control board looks pretty sweet
February 21st, 2008 by Dave  |
| The Kondo KCB-1 |
According to Robots Dreams, Kondo is releasing a new robot controller board. It's called KCB-1, and it looks very promising. The standard servo ports are gone, and in their place are six serial servo ports, 7 analog input ports, and 6 configurable digital I/O ports (4 of which can be set to PWM output). What the heck does that mean? Well, let's take a look.
Serial servo ports: This means that Kondo is joining the networked servo club, along with Robotis and Futaba, and that's pretty cool. This board will be compatible with Kondo's KRS-4000 series of serial digital servos. Networking servos cuts down on wiring, and frees you from the pain of making sure each servo is plugged into the proper port on the control board. The serial servo ports are bidirectional, so it may also open up the possibility of Bioloid-style serial sensor modules.
Seven analog inputs: Kondo will no longer be sadly deficient in the sensor input department, which is very cool. Any generic 0-5V sensors should work. IR, sonar, pressure, light, whatever you want.
Six digital I/O ports: The configurable digital I/O ports open up a number of interesting possibilities. They could be used as inputs for foot switches, for instance, so your bot will know when its feet are flat on the ground. They could be used to trigger external circuits. The PWM outputs could be used to drive LED's, or H-bridge amplifiers for driving dc motors.
As an added bonus, a C++ SDK will also be available. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any plans to release the KCB-1 outside of Japan, so don't expect to see it in our catalog for a while. Hopefully this board will make an appearance at the upcoming ROBO ONE competitions next month. For some more specific info, check out the post over at Robots Dreams.
