Pololu Mini Maestro Series, Mini Maestro 12, Mini Maestro 18, Mini Maestro 24, Micro 6 Getting Started

Mini Maestro 24-Channel USB Servo Controller (Partial Kit)

Getting started with the Maestro Servo Controller

Overview

Maestro family of USB servo controllers: Mini 24,

Mini 18, Mini 12, and Micro 6.

The Mini Maestros are the newest of Pololu’s second-generation USB servo controllers, offering
more channels and features than the smaller six-channel Micro Maestro. The Mini Maestros are
available in three sizes, and they can be purchased fully assembled or as partial kits:

Mini Maestro 12 — fully assembled

Mini Maestro 12 — partial kit

Mini Maestro 18 — fully assembled

Mini Maestro 18 — partial kit

Mini Maestro 24 — fully assembled

Mini Maestro 24 — partial kit

The Mini Maestros are highly versatile (and compact) servo controllers and general-purpose I/O
boards. They support three control methods: USB for direct connection to a computer, TTL serial
for use with embedded systems, and internal scripting for self-contained, host controller-free
applications. The channels can be configured as servo outputs for use with radio control (RC)
servos or electronic speed controls (ESCs), as digital outputs, or as analog/digital inputs. The
extremely precise, high-resolution servo pulses have a jitter of less than 200 ns, making these
servo controllers well suited for high-performance applications such as robotics and animatronics,
and built-in speed and acceleration control for each channel make it easy to achieve smooth,
seamless movements without requiring the control source to constantly compute and stream
intermediate position updates to the Mini Maestros. The Mini Maestros also feature configurable
pulse rates from 1 to 333 Hz and can generate a wide range of pulses, allowing maximum
responsiveness and range from modern servos. Units can be daisy-chained with additional Pololu
servo and motor controllers on a single serial line.

The Status tab in the Maestro Control Center.

A free configuration and control program is available for Windows and Linux, making it simple to
configure and test the device over USB, create sequences of servo movements for animatronics or
walking robots, and write, step through, and run scripts stored in the servo controller. The Mini
Maestros’ 8 KB of internal script memory allows storage of up to approximately 3000 servo
positions that can be automatically played back without any computer or external microcontroller
connected.

Because the Mini Maestros’ channels can also be used as general-purpose digital outputs and
analog or digital inputs, they provide an easy way to read sensors and control peripherals directly
from a PC over USB, and these channels can be used with the scripting system to enable creation
of self-contained animatronic displays that respond to external stimuli and trigger additional events
beyond just moving servos.

The fully assembled versions of the Mini Maestro ship with 0.1″ male header pins installed as
shown in the respective product pictures. The partial kit versions ship with these header pins
included but unsoldered, which allows the use of different gender connectors or wires to be
soldered directly to the pads for lighter, more compact installations. A USB A to mini-B cable (not
included) is required to connect this device to a computer. The Micro and Mini Maestros have