Success Stories

Texas Instruments is proud to be a FIRST Crown Supplier for the 2010 competition season; the highest contribution level a supplier can receive. TI's primary contribution are the Stellaris MDL-BDC "Jaguar" and MDL-BDC24 "Black Jaguar" Speed Controllers provided to FIRST for inclusion in FIRST's official FRC Kit of Parts distributed to the over 1,800 competing FRC teams around the globe – that's over 10,000 FRC mentors (engineering professionals / TI customers), 45,000 high school students (young engineers), and countless parents and volunteers that will actively use a Jaguar – thus TI – for the FRC build season and competition starting Jan 9th, 2010.

FIRST is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. The focal FIRST program is FIRST Robotics Competition (a.k.a. "FRC"); a high school robotics competition where teams are provided (this upcoming year, on Jan 9th) an official FIRST Kit of Parts (about $6000 worth of equipment), game rules, and then 6 weeks to conceptualize, design, build, and postmark their competing robot to their preferred initial FRC Regional competition. There are approximately 40 regional competitions around the world spanning over 5 weeks, which lead up to a Championships Event held in the Atlanta Georgia Dome each year in April. Learn more about this year's FRC 2010 game: Breakaway.

Based on Texas Instruments' powerful Stellaris 32-bit microcontrollers, the MDL-BDC "Jaguar" and MDL-BDC24 "Black Jaguar" modules are intelligent, variable speed control and power drive for 12V and 24V brushed DC motors – with integrated features that allow the ability to easily control and entire network of Jaguars over CAN. While the products are designed for robust, real-time control and connectivity of high voltage/high-power motion control in a potentially "high-impact" and "noisy" robotics environment, each module is designed for simplicity and ease-of-use such that they are not intimidating for high school student to use in competition.

After acquisition of Luminary Micro on May 15, 2009, TI set out to redesign the Jaguar to incorporate as much TI technology as possible to achieve / improve spec and still make schedule in time for FRC2010.  The MDL-BDC24 "Black Jaguar" is available and legal for use in the FRC 2010 competition, called Breakaway! Since TI is renowned for high precision analog solutions, the MDL-BDC24 incorporates several high-quality analog components from Texas Instruments, including the SN65HVD1050 CAN Transceiver, MAX3221 RS232 Line Driver/Receiver, TPS54040 Swift DC/DC converter, TPS73633 Voltage Regulator, and INA193 Current Shunt Monitor.  At the heart of the MDL-BDC24 is TI's Stellaris LM3S2616 ARM Cortex-M3-based MCU.

So how does TI's MDL-BDC24 "Black Jaguar" help teams succeed?

MDL-BDC Jaguar was inspired by FIRST Robotics Team Mentors (working at TI) that envisioned a superior speed controller based on the advanced microcontroller technology for motion control. While envisioning this superior speed controller:

• Make it safer
• Make it more cost effective
• Make it real-time network connected
• Make it specifically tuned to the National Instruments cRIO Control System!

The MDL-BDC24 ships as a ready-to-run, yet customizable, module with the following features:

• Quiet control of brushed DC motors
  • 15 kHz Hbridge frequency
• Three options for open-loop voltage control
  • Industry-standard R-C servo type (PWM) interface
  • Controller Area Network (CAN) interface
  • RS232 serial interface
• Two options for closed-loop, speed, position, or current control
  • Controller Area Network (CAN) interface
  • RS232 serial interface
• CAN communication
  • Full configurability of module options
  • Real-time monitoring of current, voltage, speed, and other parameters
  • Load firmware over RS232/CAN
• RS232 serial communication
  • Bridges an RS232-enabled device to the CAN
  • Directly interfaces to a PC serial port or National Instruments cRIO
• Limit switch inputs for forward and reverse directions
• Firmware features
  • Full configurability of closed-loop module parameters
  • Real-time monitoring of sensor data including motor current, encoder position or speed, and limit switch state
• Status LED indicates run, direction, and fault conditions
• Motor brake/coast selector
• Quadrature encoder input (QEI) and analog input
• Color-coded screw terminals for all power wiring