The Original BrickPi Design.

BrickPi is has its roots in Arduino.  At the center of the BrickPi is an Atmega328, programmed with Arduino an Arduino bootloader and firmware (which you can read more about here).

Overview

At the heart of the BrickPi is are two Arduinos.

• Clock: The microprocessor is run on a 16MHZ clock.
• Serial Line:  The serial line runs from the Raspberry Pi to the two Arduino chips.
• Power:  Power is supplied to the entire unit with a 9 – 12V battery.  The power source supplies drive power to the motors directly.  The power source is regulated to 5V depending on the model: Advanced power uses a step down regulator, and the basic model uses a switching device voltage regulator.  The 5V rail supplies power to the BrickPi microcontroller, Raspberry Pi, sensor ports, and indicator LEDs.
• Motors:  Motors are controlled by the Texas Instruments SN754410.  PWM control is supplied by the Arduino, and power is provided directly by the 9V battery.
• Sensors:  Sensors are powered off the 5V regulator.  These can be normal digital sensors or analog sensors.  These sensors are read by the micro controller.
• Ports:  All Ports (sensor and motor) are the Dexter Industries NXT Sockets for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.  You can find them here.

Schematic

The schematic for the current design can be found here.

It can also be found, along with the Eagle Schematic and Board files, on our Github Page here.

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