mirobo technology

@mirobo.tech

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Retired (mostly) high school computer technology teacher creating and sharing simple and fun microcontroller projects and resources for education! Focusing on electronics, robotics, Arduino, RaspberryPiPico, MicroPython, and beginner programming.

A cardboard box labelled with the text www.pcbway.com sitting on a wooden tabletop.
A screenshot from an Aliexpress ad showing four pillows decorated to look like swollen LiPo batteries (sold as just the pillow covers).
Two breadboard circuits are powered by two different types of blue circuit boards, each of which is connected to a USB-C cable.
The front of a small, blue PCB with a VL53L4CD ToF (Time-of-Flight) distance sensor (black rectangle) above a row of SMD components and a row of six labelled solder pads.
A render of the front side of a blue Adapt-2-QWIIC circuit showing two optional pull-up resistors and cuttable jumper links (middle), and an LED and current-limiting resistor (top). A header (bottom) connects to commonly-available I2C peripherals.
A 7805 voltage regulator datasheet indicating the input voltage must remain at least 2V above the output voltage. Below this voltage, regulation is degraded and current consumption increases.
Three different ToF (Time of flight distance sensor modules on a wooden table top. The front-most module is shown with soldered rear-mounted header pins. The two rear modules feature adapter circuit boards with a black socket to connect to the ToF module header, and an off-white socket to connect a QWIIC I2C cable.
A hand is holding a blue PCB on a table. The PCB has a white USB-C cable connected to its left and is showing two red LEDs indicating 5V output – one at the top, and one at the bottom. A second hand approaches from the left and uses a plastic tool to switch the lower left switch, turning its LED to yellow, and then back to red.
A green PCB with an array of white NeoPixels at the top, two blue tactile buttons in the middle, and a blue, Waveshare C3 Zero module at the bottom. Some of the NeoPixels are lit up to display the time in BCD (binary coded decimal).
A close-up of a BEAPER Nano circuit displaying an Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag on its 240x240 pixel LCD display. A finger pressing one of BEAPER Nano's pushbuttons causes the rainbow colours to cycle.
A blue PCB with surface mount parts being soldered on a hot plate. The components move to align themselves with their pads as the solder pasted melts – except for one LED which was not properly aligned before soldering.
A square LCD display (bottom) controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 (top) in a BEAPER Nano circuit displays a radar-like distance range and a number of parameters: Q1 and Q3 show floor sensor reflectivity values, T shows ambient temperature, V shows system battery voltage. The range is indicated by both a yellow dot, and large numerals showing 190mm. Two green dots on the virtual BEAPER Nano at the bottom of the display show that the floor underneath sensor Q1 (left dot) and Q3 (right dot) is present and turn red when the floor reflectivity drops below the program's threshold.
A KiCad render of a USB-C powered breadboard power supply and USB signal break-out circuit with switch-selectable 5V and 3.3V rails and break-away level shifter and combination switch/LED modules.
Two bare, blue circuit boards sitting on a wooden table top. Both circuits feature break-away circuit modules.
Two versions of the same tall coffee mug sitting on a wooden countertop. The left mug shows a black capital 'I', a red heart, and a blue cloud of electrons with a white 'e-' inside it. The back of the left mug features the same text as the right mug (which has the left mug's image on its back side), which says 'Particle? Wave? It doesn't matter...'.
A screenshot of a somewhat piano-shaped circuit board created in KiCad.
A small LCD display mounted on a BEAPER Pico robot is running a series of primitive drawing tests controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller.
An LCD display on a BEAPER Pico robot (controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller) displaying test sensor data (top), and an oscilloscope-like display with two traces (bottom). The blue upper trace shows an HC-SR04P SONAR module TRIG pulse, and the yellow lower trace shows the ECHO return signal as an object is moved in front of the distance sensors. The text readout at the top shows the distance and measurement time for each of the robot's two distance sensors.
A render of the front side of a small blue PCB with surface mount capacitors, resistors, and a VL53L4CD time of flight module.
A screenshot of the BEAPER Nano robot on the PCBWay Projects webpage.
Three beginner education robots sitting on a grey tabletop. Clockwise from top: a white robot controlled by an ARPS-2 circuit mounted on an Arduino UNO R4 Minima; a yellow, 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 mounted in a BEAPER Nano circuit board; a red, 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller mounted in a BEAPER Pico circuit board.
Two similar robots sitting on a wooden table top. Left is a red, 3D-printed BEAPER Pico robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. To its right is a yellow, 3D-printed BEAPER Nano robot controlled by a Waveshare Nano ESP32 (an Arduino Nano ESP32 clone). Behind the microcontroller on each robot is an LCD screen displaying sensor data from the robot's on-board reflective floor sensors (connected by ribbon cables), ToF (time-of-flight) distance sensors, voltage sensors, and temperature sensors.
A paper sign hanging between a cabinet and stored cardboard boxes reads “ NO STUDENTS BEYOND THIS POINT 🤚 OUT OF BOUNCE”
A strip of glowing yellow NeoPixels (foreground) controlled by a Waveshare Nano ESP32 (Arduino Nano ESP32 clone) in a BEAPER Nano circuit built into a 3D-printed yellow robot. To the right of the BEAPER Nano robot is an ARPS-2 shield mounted on top of an Arduino UNO R4 Minima, and at the top of the screen is a red 3D-printed BEAPER Pico robot.
A red robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller (green) is showing sensor values on its LCD display. A strip of NeoPixels is connected by a short 3-wire extension to a header on the robot, and is currently illuminated in red to match the robot.
Three beginner robots sitting on a wooden table top. Clockwise from top left: a simple classroom robot assembled on a white-painted piece of wood controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 Minima with an attached ARPS-2 shield; a red 3D-printed robot with an LCD display controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 in a BEAPER Pico circuit; a yellow 3D-printed robot with an LCD display controlled by a Waveshare Arduino Nano ESP32 clone in a BEAPER Nano circuit.
Three blue circuit boards sitting on a wooden table top. All three circuit boards are designed for beginner microcontroller education and contain pre-wired components such as LEDs, pushbuttons, a speaker, a motor driver, and optical sensor modules. Clockwise from top left: a BEAPER Nano circuit controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 with an optional LCD display installed, a BEAPER Pico circuit controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico2 with an optional LCD display installed, and an ARPS-2 circuit shield that plug onto an Arduino UNO R4 or Rev. 3.
A fully-assembled BEAPER Pico circuit board ready for Raspberry Pi Pico installation.
An Arduino Nano ESP32 microcontroller running a block breaker game on a small LCD display on a BEAPER Nano circuit. A SONAR module is connected to the BEAPER Nano circuit along with two optical floor sensor modules and the circuit is mounted in a yellow, 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot chassis.
A Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller driving an LCD display on a BEAPER Pico circuit board. The LCD is displaying the distance to a target as measured by both a SONAR and ToF (Time of Flight) distance sensor modules, as well as the total measurement time. Below this, the LCD displays the SONAR module TRIG time delay, and a simulated oscilloscope view of the TRIG pulse (top, cyan) and the ECHO pulse (bottom, yellow).
Four simple robots sitting on a wooden table top. Clockwise from upper left: a large, white robot built on a wooden base controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 Minima with an attached ARPS-2 shield; a red, 3D-printed robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 mounted in a BEAPER Pico circuit; a blue, 3D-printed robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 programmed in C mounted on a BEAPER Nano circuit; a yellow, 3D-printed robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 programmed in MicroPython mounted on a BEAPER Nano circuit.
Four simple robots sitting on a wooden table top. Clockwise from upper left: a large, white robot built on a wooden base controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 Minima with an attached ARPS-2 shield; a red, 3D-printed robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 mounted in a BEAPER Pico circuit; a blue, 3D-printed robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 programmed in C mounted on a BEAPER Nano circuit; a yellow, 3D-printed robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 programmed in MicroPython mounted on a BEAPER Nano circuit.
An Arduino Nano ESP32 (top) controlling a 1.54" 240x240 pixel SPI LCD display (bottom) showing bar graphs representing the analog inputs on a BEAPER Nano circuit. Arduino's yellow LED is blinks continuously as it updates the display.
A video of a small 1.54" LCD display being controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 on a BEAPER Nano circuit board displaying both solid and segmented bar graphs. A hand shades and un-shades a light sensor and then turns potentiometers to adjust the values displayed on some of the bars.
A video of a small 1.54" LCD display being controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 on a BEAPER Nano circuit board drawing multiple screens of graphics primitives in random colours and timing each screen. A finger presses a button at the right side of the circuit to advance to the next screen of graphics primitives.
A small 240x240 pixel LCD display mounted below a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller in a BEAPER Pico circuit displaying all of the characters of a simple sans-serif font.
A small 1.54" 240x240 pixel LCD displaying a blue background with white text. The top half shows a custom font rendered as 16 pixel tall by 12 pixel wide characters, while the bottom half shows the same characters rendered in the Reddit Sans 16 font.
A set of four beginner robots sitting on a wooden table top. Clockwise from back, left: a large, white robot build controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 Minima programmed in C with an ARPS-2 shield to add robot I/O; a red, 3D-printed BEAPER Pico robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 programmed in MicroPython; a blue, 3D-printed BEAPER Nano robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 programmed in C; a yellow, 3D-printed BEAPER Nano robot controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 programmed in MicroPython.
Two beginner robot circuits sitting on a wooden table top. The left robot is controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 Minima with an ARPS-2 circuit shield and built on top of a piece of white-painted scrap wood. The right robot is controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller in a BEAPER Pico circuit and assembled into a 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot chassis.
A line-up of small educational robots on a wooden tabletop. The first one is controlled by Raspberry Pi Pico in a BEAPER Pico circuit and mounted in a red 3D-printed chassis. The next two are controlled by Arduino Nano ESP32 microcontrollers in BEAPER Nano circuits, with the closer one mounted in a yellow 3D-printed chassis, and the farther one in a blue 3D-printed chassis. The last robot is controlled by Arduino UNO R4 with an ARPS-2 shield and build on a piece of white painted scrap wood.
A large, silver-grey 3D-printed XRPBeta robot (left) facing a small, red 3D-printed BEAPER Pico robot (right). Both are controlled by small, green Raspberry Pi Pico microcontrollers mounted on circuit boards containing components that enable interfacing to motors, servos, floor, and distance sensors.
A wooden table top displaying a variety of educational PCBs and robots.
Two simple classroom Sumo robots built on MDF bases and controlled with Arduino UNOs and ARPS shields battle on a black wooden ring with a white border until one gets pushed out.
A Piano 3 circuit (top) assembled onto its battery holder without a programming header installed. A Piano 3 circuit with an ICSP programming header for use with Microchip's PICKit programmers (bottom).
Front edge view of two small black piano circuits sitting on a wooden table top. Piano 2 (left) has a physically smaller PCB and piezo speaker than Piano 3 (right).
Two small black PCBs with white silkscreen labels sitting on a wooden table top.
Two suspicious 10cm socket extension cables sitting in front of a BEAPER Pico robot. Two new socket extension cables connect the main BEAPER Pico PCB to its optical floor sensor modules mounted at the front corners of the robot.
Screen shot of a PCB production status screen on the PCBWay website.
A yellow 3D-printed BEAPER Nano robot sitting on a wooden table top. It's controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 mounted between the ultrasonic SONAR distance sensor (with two silver cylinders, right) and the square black LCD panel. BEAPER Nano has all of the typical beginner circuits on-board including pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo speaker, potentiometers, a light sensor, a temperature sensor, and a motor driver IC for making robots. It includes two break-away optical sensor modules that can be used to make floor and line sensors (connected by extension cables, above), and a QWIIC connector to attach external I2C devices.
A screenshot with a pop-up window showing the production status of a PCB being manufactured by PCBWay. The background screen shows an order containing two different black PCB designs and 5 Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontrollers.
A red 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot chassis controlled by a BEAPER Pico circuit. BEAPER Pico uses a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller (green circuit) to connect to pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo speaker, potentiometers, a light sensor, a motor driver, servo connectors, and even a full-colour LCD display! This robot uses two optical sensor modules to detect the floor and an IR time-of-flight (ToF) module to detect obstacles.
An ARPS-2 robot (white, left) and a BEAPER Pico robot (red, right) on a wooden table top. The white robot is controlled by an ARPS-2 shield mounted on an Arduino UNO, and has two floor sensor modules, a SONAR module, two yellow gear motors, and a battery holder attached to it. The red robot is controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller (green) mounted beside an LCD display. It has a variety of on-board devices including LEDs, pushbuttons, potentiometers, and a light sensor, and has two floor sensor modules connected by extension cables.
A simple classroom robot constructed using an Arduino UNO and ARPS-2 shield (top, centre). The ARPS-2 holds a SONAR module (left) to sense obstacles, and connects to two floor sensors (upper and lower left, connected by extension cables) to detect the floor. The battery holder and motors connect to a screw terminal strip a the upper right of ARPS-2. The yellow gear motors, black battery holder, and circuits are mounted on a piece of white-painted wood.
An Arduino UNO R4 Minima (bottom) is controlling the LEDs on an ARPS-2 circuit (top), alternately flashing the left-most and right-most LEDs in a group of four LEDs. Other hardware on ARPS-2 includes pushbuttons, a piezo speaker (to the left of the LEDs), an IR demodulator and temperature sensor (to the right of the LEDs), a motor driver IC, various expansion headers, and break-away optical sensor modules.
A KiCad screen shot of the ARPS-2 circuit board layout showing all of its component outlines and wiring layers.
A UBMP4 circuit (left) and CHRP4 circuit (right) designed for the Microchip PIC16F1459 microcontroller. Both can be assembled with pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo buzzer, a light sensor (UBMP4) or optical floor/line sensors (CHRP4), an IR demodulator, and CHRP4 supports a motor driver for making robots.
Front-corner view of an ARPS-2 circuit assembled onto a white painted wooden robot chassis using blue 3D-printed mounts. The ARPS-2 circuit (top)is designed for beginner microcontroller instruction and is controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 microcontroller (bottom, under the ARPS-2). It can be assembled with pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo buzzer, a temperature sensor, optical floor sensors, a motor driver, a SONAR module, and servos. Students use it to learn microcontroller programming and can make simple games, robots, and other microcontroller projects.
Front-corner view of a BEAPER Nano circuit assembled into a blue, 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot chassis. The BEAPER Nano circuit is designed for beginner microcontroller instruction and is controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 microcontroller (blue circuit, behind the SONAR module). It can be assembled with pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo buzzer, potentiometers, a light sensor, optical floor sensors, a motor driver, a SONAR module, a graphical LCD, and I2C expansion devices. Students use it to learn microcontroller programming and can make simple games, robots, and controller/IoT devices.
Rear-corner top-down view of a BEAPER Nano circuit assembled into a yellow, 3D-printed BEAPER Bot robot chassis. The BEAPER Nano circuit is designed for beginner microcontroller instruction and is controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32 microcontroller (blue circuit, beside the LCD display). It can be assembled with pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo buzzer, potentiometers, a light sensor, optical floor sensors, a motor driver, a SONAR module, a graphical LCD, and I2C expansion devices. Students use it to learn microcontroller programming and can make simple games, robots, and controller/IoT devices.