Well post MINOS work tends to tail off a bit (unless you’re entering the competition in July that is…).

My mouse is getting there, about 70% of the PCB is routed and most of the hardware is designed bar a few alterations which depend on the final PCB. I am making the move to STM32F40x controllers, so am taking a few weeks out of PCB routing to get a handle on how they work – and to make sure I connect everything up the right way (PCB’s are going to cost about 120EUR, so want to get it right first time).

Thats a STM32F4 Discovery (~£10, programmer/debugger built in) connected to a Faulhaber motor (6V I think, with quadrature encoder and gear head). Its interfaced using a Vishay motor driver chip (floating, dead bug style). It’s a simple setup as I am not driving a load, otherwise flyback protection would be required. The STM32 dev board is supplying the 5V for the motor encoders, the motor driver is powered off the bench supply. Early days yet, its different to PIC…

As a side, I found a ‘new’ motor driver chip. My mouse uses a single cell lipo, and the Vishay can’t operate over the entire battery voltage range. One option is to make my own (MOSFET / Drivers), or get a single chip solution: BD6211F. 1A, 3V to 5.5V (logic high from 2V to supply voltage), should do perfect for my 3V, 0.75W Maxon motors.