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
Field Log #002 – Polystyrene pieces everywhere
Observed many polystyrene pieces by the lake. Though individually they were easy to overlook at a quick glance given their small size, there were clusters that formed, even landing well above the rocks forming a water wall. Here's some photos of the observations:...
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...
Collab Log #014: Water, Ice, and 3D printed parts: An experiment
We've begun some experimenting with PLA 3D printed parts to determine how they're affected by exposure to water and ice, and to see if we can use a coating to make them waterproof. Erin has designed an STL of a nalgene lid, and Beck has printed it. For the first round...
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.