Bowie Brain
A friendly microcontroller kit for intermediate robots, animatronics, and automation projectsWelcome to the Bowie Brain Kit!
Follow along with our instructions to solder your own robot brain, and get started with our example code libraries. The kit is compatible with Arduino, so you can leverage the entire community of existing code that’s available. There are plenty of connections for inputs and outputs to control actuators, indicators, read sensors, GPS, mesh communication, and more. There is soldering involved with this kit and some of it involves precise alignment.
Skill level: Intermediate.
Get the Kit
Get started with the Bowie Brain by purchasing the kit from our store. It will come with all the components, the board, the breakout boards, and the 3D printed enclosure!
See the Brain in Action!
Watch a Bowie brain surgery to see what you can do with your kit, how it gets put together, and some of the possible connections.
Photo Gallery
The Kit
The kit is suitable for beginners and intermediate robot builders. For beginners, you’ll be able to follow the instructions and it will stretch you (learning curves are a GOOD thing). It might take additional time. For intermediates, this kit will serve as a tool for you to investigate next levels or next generations of ideas you have for robots. If you’ve built an Arduino robot before, then this kit will be great for you to add additional capability to that robot.
Tools required (not included)
- Soldering iron
- Solder (your choice – lead free or leaded)
- Third hand tool
- Desolder wick braid, or desoldering tool (just in case there are mistakes along the way)
- Diagonal cutters
- Painters tape
- Screwdriver with bit kit
What’s included in the kit?
- Necessary resistors, diodes, LEDs
- Teensy 3.6
- Two current sensors
- Motor driver
- 3.3V voltage regulator, speaker
- Barrier block and screw terminals
- Connectors for the motors
- 3V coincell battery for RTC
- 3D printed enclosure
- Necessary fasteners
- * Note: The XBee is not included in this kit
Latest Developments
We are continuously developing, using robots to tackle environmental challenges
Tech Log #037: AR draggable power-up stable
The AR draggable power-up functionality has now reached a stable state that's good enough for a version 0.1. Updates to the code made it more modular for multiple markers, for 3 element power ups, and now the power up rectangle that is placed onto the marker knows...
Tech Log #036: AWS ec2 instance back up
Quick tech log to note that the instance is back up and running again, and the AWS credits missing was resolved! Did some high level searching on what next to tackle with that, and it will be learning more about Route 53, DNS, SSL certificate manager, and React...
Tech Log #035: Coding v0.1 sensor node
Basic blinking is done. It works! The analog value from the temperature sensor is received on serial monitor. Will need to remember in the future to go back and look at the actual formula used in the datasheet to go from this value to one in degrees Celsius. Before...
3D Print Pieces
Check out the pieces – download and print these on your own or community printer!
Open Source Hardware
The Bowie Brain Board is open source, released under the CERN OHL v1.2 license. Check it out on Github.
Product Disclaimer
Customer support: If you run in to an issue, please submit a ticket via email to hello@robotmissions.org and we will try to help.
No liability: Robot Missions Inc. is not responsible or liable for any damages or injuries caused from our kit.
Return policy: Full refund for first 7 days, partial or no refund after that depending.