Ludus ProtoShield Wireless

SparkFun Ludus Protoshield Wireless

The SparkFun Ludus Protoshield Wireless is an Arduino compatible shield designed to make connecting motors and sensors to your Arduino-based development board as fast and easy as possible. This wireless Ludus is incredibly handy for throwing together remote control rovers and small autonomous robots. Simply attach this shield to your Arduino, attach an XBee, and you will be up and running in no time. The SparkFun Ludus Protoshield Wireless was developed by our Education department to help teach any interested individual the dynamics of wireless motor control through the Arduino IDE and was lovingly named after their very own mascot.

The heart of the Ludus ProtoShield Wireless is an H-Bridge Motor Driver. This allows the ProtoShield to drive two DC motors at once in both directions and brake electronically. The TB6612FNG H-Bridge Driver is rated up to 1.2A per channel at 13V which means it will drive a fair variety of hobby motors ranging in power. This Ludus board also features PWR and GND rails alongside the GPIO pins. Not only does this help you to avoid the common inconvenience of running out of GND and PWR pins, but because the pins are arranged with PWR in the center, plugging in servos is a snap! The PWR rail can even be switched between 5V (from the Arduino’s voltage regulator) and Vin using the on board slide switches. These features make the SparkFun Ludus Protoshield ideal for small rover-style robots.

This specific Ludus Protoshield includes an I2C pin-out and a built in XBee socket, making the Ludus ProtoShield Wireless perfect for setting up XBee based remote control. Simply plug an XBee module into the socket on the shield and you’re ready to transmit wireless data!