The easiest route from beginner to pro!
Meet BEAPER – our newest educational circuit family
BEAPER (Beginner Electronics And Programming Educational Robot) is an amazingly flexible family of circuit kits designed by a high school computer technology teacher to be the most versatile all-in-one circuits for learning or teaching microcontroller circuits and programming using the popular Arduino® and Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller families.
BEAPER is designed to be one of the easiest platforms for beginners to use as they start learning microcontroller programming and interfacing. And, BEAPER’s customizable design gives it one of the widest arrays of expansion options so it can keep growing with learners as they progress and develop their new skills. BEAPER was created to let everyone from absolute beginners to advanced users create and program some truly awesome projects, including robots!
Our free, 3D-printable BEAPER Bot robot design is one of the simplest, lowest-cost, and most adaptable beginner robot platforms for hobbyists, as well as for education users such as schools and makerspaces. Find out more about BEAPER, below, or jump right to the BEAPER Nano or BEAPER Pico (coming soon) webpages.
Two different BEAPER circuits, built as two different BEAPER Bot robots! BEAPER Nano (left) is controlled by an Arduino® Nano ESP32 microcontroller and built as a front-drive robot. BEAPER Pico (right), built into a rear-drive robot, is controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2, but can also use any other current member of the Raspberry Pi Pico family.
Start learning with an easier beginner circuit
BEAPER was designed to include all of the typical microcontroller starter circuits on-board. Building these beginner components into BEAPER enables new learners to focus on developing their programming skills faster, without having to spend time building, re-building, and debugging potentially unreliable breadboard circuits.
BEAPER’s modular design allows it to be assembled in a variety of different configurations, and learners can start using their BEAPER without having to assemble all of it first.
Take this minimum-components education starter configuration of BEAPER Pico as an example. It’s controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller and its circuit board has been populated with four LEDs, four pushbuttons, a piezo beeper, as well as a socket to hold the Raspberry Pi Pico. That’s all beginners need to start learning basic microcontroller skills using our included introductory programming activities.
Continue learning with a more versatile and expandable circuit
As learners develop their programming knowledge and refine their skills, BEAPER’s capabilities are designed to grow with them. BEAPER has a selection of analog and digital circuits on-board, letting learners create a diverse range of unique projects without having to buy or connect any external devices.
When more specialized external circuits are needed, BEAPER has plenty of I/O options including analog and digital I/O headers, servo headers, an I2C/QWIIC connector, and an LCD or SPI break-out connector. In addition to to all of its built-in expansion abilities, learners can easily create IoT (Internet of Things) devices or projects implementing Bluetooth or WiFi for control or communication by pairing BEAPER with a wireless-equipped microcontroller.
This BEAPER Nano circuit includes an ambient light sensor, an analog temperature sensor, and two potentiometers in addition to the basic starter components.
Its Arduino Nano ESP32 also features an RGB LED as well as a wireless module that supports both WiFi and Bluetooth. Four 3-pin analog and digital headers are visible above the Arduino, along with an I2C/QWIIC connector to the left of the headers. An LCD/SPI connector is installed below the Arduino enabling BEAPER to support a full-colour LCD display.
A better circuit for education
Educators are always on the look-out for low-cost circuits to help get their beginner students learning fast, as well as for more flexible circuits that are able to challenge their most advanced learners. BEAPER can accommodate both types of learners by sharing the same fundamental design philosophy as our UBMP4, CHRP4, and ARPS circuits: start simple with an adaptable and capable circuit, and keep building on it.
Students can start learning about electronic parts and circuits by installing a small subset of BEAPER’s components themselves. With just this low-cost, minimal build, student can quickly start learning fundamental programming skills. As they continue to progress, whether within the same class, or over multiple years or courses, students can continue their learning by adding parts to their own BEAPER circuit, or by using an already expanded BEAPER in the classroom.
Here is a fully-assembled BEAPER Nano displaying the raw analog input values from its built-in ambient light sensor, temperature sensor, and two potentiometers on an add-on, 240x240 pixel graphical LCD panel.
The circuit also contains a low drop-out voltage regulator circuit, a motor driver IC, and break-away optical sensor modules that make it super easy for learners to build BEAPER into robotic projects. An added 4-pin header socket (above the Arduino) allows an ultrasonic SONAR distance sensor module to plug directly into the circuit!
Want to build robots? There’s no easier way than BEAPER Bot!
After designing two incredibly versatile and expandable BEAPER circuits, we knew they needed to be paired with an equally versatile and expandable robot design. We challenged ourselves by setting some pretty high design goals.
We wanted to design a robot that can accommodate a rear- or front-drive setup, is powered by easy to obtain AA batteries, uses low current, high quality gear motors for efficient propulsion, and enables users to easily attach servos, sensors, and other components to it. And, we wanted the design to be open and accessible for easy modification by its users.
Oh, and one more little thing. Actually not little, but the most important and toughest part of our challenge – no screws! That’s right, the entire robot and all of its accessories had to be able to be fastened together without needing a single screw.
It took an unbelievable number of design iterations, but we did it! Meet BEAPER Bot! Take a look…
The BEAPER Bot robot platform design is freely available and ready to be quickly modified by anyone familiar with Tinkercad. It includes the robot chassis, servo mounts, floor sensor modules, slide-in motor mounting clips, and even a motor mounting clip tool. More sensor mount designs will be coming soon.
Watch how easily the BEAPER Bot chassis can be assembled into a line-following robot:
Classroom-proven learning activities teach you the fundamentals!
Get started fast and focus primarily on programming, since all of the components you need for learning are already pre-wired on board BEAPER. Our introductory learning activities will lead you through beginner programming fundamentals in five comprehensive lessons. Each lesson follows the RAMP-M method – a classroom-proven way to learn:
Run the example program.
Analyze its operation.
Modify parts of the program, and…
Predict the results of the modifications.
Make your own programming solutions for similar and related programming challenges.
Each lesson includes program analysis activities that provide guided explorations of new concepts, as well as programming activities to help you apply and solidify your newly learned skills and techniques. The beginner lesson activities will be modelled after our existing ARPS programming activities and will include programming activities that introduce:
Input and Output
Variables
Loops
Functions
Analog Input
After mastering the basics, additional starter programs and advanced programming activities will help learners easily make the leap to more involved programming projects. (Coming soon)
Arduino® is a registered trademark of Arduino AG. Raspberry Pi is a trademark of Raspberry Pi Ltd. Tinkercad is a trademark of Autodesk, Inc. in the USA and other countries.