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Bottango Docs

Bottango Control Boards

Screenshot: Bottango Controls

Bottango offers a powerful set of animatronic and robotic control boards. These intuitive, feature-packed boards are built for creators and are a great way to bring your project to life with Bottango.

What Can You Do With Bottango Control Boards

Section titled “What Can You Do With Bottango Control Boards”

Bottango control boards take the guesswork out of control hardware and let you focus on animating and bringing characters to life. With options for integrated servo control, audio playback, wireless communication, and coordinated standalone show controller features, they’re a great way to utilize the most powerful features of Bottango without needing to design and implement your own bespoke control hardware.

The documentation in this guide will teach you how to use the specific functionality of the Bottango control boards. However, it is not a comprehensive guide to using Bottango. If you are new to the program, first familiarize yourself with it in the documentation for the application itself.

Are They Required to Use Bottango Software?

Section titled “Are They Required to Use Bottango Software?”

Bottango control boards are a powerful way to get building fast with Bottango’s animatronic software. However, they aren’t a requirement. The same firmware that runs on these boards is available as open-source software. You can choose to build out your own custom hardware solution as well.

Understanding Each Board

Section titled “Understanding Each Board”

Bottango currently offers three control boards, each serving a different purpose in your build. You can also see the page on some example use cases for how you can solve your project’s requirements with different combinations of control boards.

Bottango Solar

Section titled “Bottango Solar”

Bottango Solar is the all-in-one animatronic control mega board.

Screenshot: Bottango Controls

  • ESP32-based animatronic servo control and audio playback powerhouse.
  • 10 servo headers with an integrated servo power circuit.
  • Onboard audio playback with stereo line-out and a built-in 2 × 2 W stereo amp.
  • MicroSD card reader for storing audio files and animations. Play animations easily without a connected computer.
  • Three animation trigger buttons provide quick control.
  • Bottango Solar connects to other Bottango control boards for show controller integration.

Bottango Nova

Section titled “Bottango Nova”

Run your show with Bottango Nova.

Screenshot: Bottango Controls

  • ESP32-based show control board that makes combining multiple Bottango control boards effortless.
  • MicroSD card reader for storing animations. Play animations easily without a connected computer, and serve animation data to all other connected Bottango control boards as a show controller.
  • Three animation trigger buttons provide quick control.
  • Create a show control network for other Bottango control boards to connect to.
  • Eight additional GPIO pins to expand its functionality.

Bottango Impulse

Section titled “Bottango Impulse”

Expand your servo count with Bottango Impulse.

Screenshot: Bottango Controls

  • ESP32-based animatronic controller with 10 servo headers and integrated servo power.
  • Expand your project’s servo count or use Bottango Impulse as a straightforward, standalone, all-in-one ESP32-based servo controller.
  • Bottango Impulse connects to other Bottango control boards for show controller integration.