I have bought (waiting to arrive) two Kitronik Autonomous robotics buggies for my kids. Since I cannot find its schematic diagram anywhere I would like to ask the following questions (before we burn something):
a) What voltage should the servos be? Do they get the unregulated battery power?
b) Does the robot get powered from the USB also? Or do the batteries always supply the board power?
c) Is it safe to attach the USB connector while the robot is powered from batteries? Did you include the necessary Mosfet/Schottky on power pins so as not to feed power back into the USB or charge the batteries from USB power?
d) Does the robot work with rechargeable batteries or do we have to use standard AA ones?
Some of their online tutorials (linked on the product page) give you some of those answers, although they’re buried well.
In terms of servos, “Power is fed, via the power switch, directly from the battery voltage”.
There’s a power switch on it, so I imagine if it’s switched off you’re safe to attach the USB to power up / program the Pico (again, their tutorials imply “This will power up the Pico without powering up the ARP motors.”)
I can’t imagine there being any issue with rechargeable batteries.
But you’re right, their technical documentation is frustratingly light.
I think this kit comes with a paper booklet that should hopefully shed light on some mysteries, but if what you want to know isn’t covered you could contact Kitronik through their website here: Contact Us – Kitronik Ltd