This affordable, ready-assembled robotics controller board is ready to accept your BBC micro:bit, battery power (6 to 10V) and motors of your choice to make your own DIY robot. Use a small box, ice-cream carton or similar to house everything and you can build a really affordable robot for your school, coding club or home.

The Drive:Bit uses the ever-popular DRV8833 motor driver which allows you to use most small motors that operate in the 6V – 9V range.

The Drive:Bit includes a power switch, indicator LED and features a single FireLed for status indication. All the useful micro:bit pins are brought out to pads along the top of the board, with P0, P1, P2 and P8 being made available with 3-pin GVS (Ground, Voltage, Signal) headers, making it easy to connect to 3V sensors and even small micro servos

The motor and power connections can be made through the 2-pin screw terminals OR by using the 2-pin male headers behind each terminal

Resources

• Information and code available in this 4Tronix article
• Search for “DriveBit” in Microsoft Makecode for the special extension that makes this really easy to use.

Specification

• Dimensions: 65 x 30.5 mm (same size and mounting holes as a Raspberry Pi Zero)
• Input voltage: 6V to 10V max with reverse polarity protection
• Output Current: 1A per channel maximum
• Status LED: FireLed on pin 16
• 2 Motors: Pins 12/13 (Motor 1) and Pins 14/15 (Motor 2)
• 3.3V Regulator 0.5A
• Power from Microbit does not power the DriveBit. DriveBit is only powered from its power input