Parts and materials

To build Yozh Robot, you will need the following parts and materials:

  • Zumo chassis by Pololu

  • Two 6V N20 size micro gear motors with extended shafts. We recommend these motors from Pololu

  • Magnetic encoder disk fitting on the extended shaft of the motor. (You only need two, but Pololu sells them in packs of 5). Note that you do not need to buy encoders, only the disks - encoder sensors are built into the main Yozh board.

  • Yozh robot kit, available from Tindie (SOON - link coming). Contents of this kit, together with alternatives for those who prefer to build your own, is described below.

  • Four AA batteries. Usual alkaline batteries will work but won’t last long, so use of heavy-duty NiMH rechargeable batteries such as Panasonic Eneloop Pro is strongly recommended. You will also need a charger for these batteries.

Yozh kit contents

Below is the contents of the Yozh kit, together with alternative sources for buying these parts if for some reason you prefer not to use the kit.

  • Itsy Bitsy RP2040 microcontroller (available from Adafruit) and male headers

  • Five custom PCBs:

    • Main electronics board

    • Spacer board

    • Reflectance sensor array board

    • Top cover with OLED display

    • Front distance sensor board

    Design files and BOM for these boards are available from Yozh github repository.

  • Steel front blade to be attached to the robot. The blade is made of 0.030” stainless steel; DXF file for the blade is in github repository. You can use Pololu’s lasercutting services to cut the blade for you.

  • Mounting hardware:

    • Four 22mm M2.5 female brass standoffs and 8 M2.5 screws (8mm length), for mounting the top plate

    • Two 15mm M3 brass female standoffs and two M3 screws, for attaching the reflectance sensor board

    • Two 6mm M3 M-F standoffs. Note: it is required that the male thread length be at least 6mm, which is somewhat unusual. You can find such standoffs on AliExpress, e.g. here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32872847199.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dmfu9xI (choose option M3 (thread 8mm), and length 6mm).

  • Two long (15mm) 4-pin male headers

Tools

You will also need to have a computer to program the robot, and some basic tools: soldering iron, wire strippers, flush cutters, screwdriver, pliers.