Hi All,
I purchased a servo2040 board not too long ago to make a hexapod with 18 servos. How does everyone with this board control their robots remotely? The HC-06 bluetooth modules uses serial communication and I don’t see any RX/TX pins available on the board. The NRF24L01 uses SPI and I’m not sure if those pins are available if you are using all 18 servo spots (or am I right on this?). The PS2 receiver also uses SPI.
So, how does one setup a remote-control solution with this board?
Serial to USB maybe?
Or a Pico W setup as a USB HID device?
Those seem like inconvenient solutions for something that should be simple. It would be nice if pimoroni would release an NRF24L01 module or PS2 receiver that connects via QUIIC, and provide examples on how to use it.
The easy answer is a Servo 2040 W with a Pico W onboard.
The current Servo 2040 uses almost all of the available pins.
There isn’t said device so you have to get really creative to maximize your available hardware.
As a side note: Adding WIFI to “whatever” RP2040 device, requires citification. Which is time consuming and expensive. Before the PICO W, that expense was on you. Now if you go Pico W Onboard, that expense was paid for by the Pi Foundation. They did the certification. Just something to keep in mind. ;)
Is there a Servo 2040W board available?
“There isn’t said device”, Not that I am aware of. I have no connection to Pimoroni, just so people know. It may happen, some Products now have the Pico W onboard option.
For now though, you’ll have to get creative. I don’t have a Servo 2040. I do have an Inventor 2040 W (Pico W Onboard), and an Explorer 2040 W (Pico W onboard) to try stuff on. And some basic Pico’s (non W).
This is the guy that can likely help you out.
Kevin McAleer 🤖 Robot Maker (@kevsmac) / X (twitter.com)
He promo’s and uses a lot of Pimoroni products.