In this edition of Dev Kit Weekly, Embedded Computing Design associate editor, Perry Cohen, reviews the ST EVALKIT-ROBOT-1.

Despite measuring just 40 by 40 mm, the board is packed with a ton of great features, including lots of IO and enough compute power for most IoT applications.

The EVALKIT-ROBOT-1 also features hall sensors and MODBUS communication protocol through RS-485.

But the thing that really makes this kit stand out is that it ships with a maxon EC-i 40 motor that offers a nominal speed of about 4000 RPMs. That’s something you don’t see too often. For control of that motor, the board integrates a relatively powerful 3-phase motor controller. A Cortex M0 microcontroller serve as the brains behind that motor controller. And it’s designed so the MCU can perform field-oriented control with close-loop positioning.

The included maxon motor operates over an input range of 12 to 45 volts. It provides a high torque density and low cogging torque. The EC-i 40 motor can be used for high-precision positioning and speed control, especially when its couple with the maxon ENX 16 EASY 1024 pulses incremental encoder, which operates at 5 Volts.

If you want to snag one of these kits for yourself, you can for $129.

OR, as always, you can enter this week’s raffle and take a chance at winning one for free.

https://opensysmedia.formstack.com/forms/dev_kit_weekly_kit_raffle