ArduRoller Balance Bot¶
ArduRoller is a BalanceBot frame originally designed by Jason Short (described in this Makezine article). Rover-3.5 (and higher) supports this frame as described below.
One issue with this frame is that there is some play in the motors which leads to a slightly wobble when standing still. This could be resolved by using stepper motors
Parts List¶
- ArduRoller 3D printed frame from Thingiverse.com
- 4” clear platic globe (optional)
- mRobotics Pixhawk autopilot. Other autopilots may also work but they must have GPIO input pins to support the wheel encoders.
- RoboClaw 2x7A motor controller
- Pololu 12V 2.1A 34:1 motors with encoders
- Wild Thumber Wheels with 4mm shaft adapters
- small 3S battery like the Turnigy 1600mAh 3S 20C
- any 8 channel (or more) transmitter like the Futaba T10J
Connection and Setup¶
- Setup the Roboclaw motor driver:
- Download and install the ION Studio configuration software
- Connect the Roboclaw motor driver to your PC with a USB cable
- Connect with ION Studio then on the General Settings page, set Control Mode = RC
- From the File menu, “Save Setting”

- Connect the yellow and white wires from the wheel encoders to the AUX OUT 3,4,5,6 pins as described on the wheel encoder wiki page
- Connect the autopilot, motor driver and motors as shown below

Firmware used: Rover-3.5
Parameter file: ArduRoller BalanceBot
This parameter file can also be loaded using the Mission Planner’s Config/Tuning >> Full Parameter Tree page by selecting “ArduRoller-balancebot” from the drop down on the middle right and then push the “Load Presaved” button.