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Bowie Brain

A friendly microcontroller kit for intermediate robots, animatronics, and automation projects

Welcome 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

Field Log #001 – Thaw flow

Field Log #001 – Thaw flow

Hypothesis: Watching water flow routes during the thaw could help us better plan for heavy rainfall events to avoid additional sediment and coastal erosion. The thaw is starting here. We can observe the erosion in action. Here's what it looks like at a beach. Erosion...

read more

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.