Vorpal Hexapod Battery Voltmeter Mount

This is an add-on accessory for the totally awesome Vorpal Combat Hexapod, If you haven't seen that yet, then this thing won't make sense, so visit there first:

• Thing 2513566: Vorpal Combat Hexapod

I made this all open source and respectfully ask you to consider supporting the project. We successfully funded on Kickstarter with hundreds of kits sold, and now we have our own store. We have more than just the Hexapod electronics, we have all kinds of things useful for small robotics and other projects:
Vorpal Robotics Store with Hexapod Kits

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Why do I need this for the Hexapod?

This is a bracket that allows you to attach a panel voltmeter to the robot, allowing you to see your battery level very easily during activities. With this thing, you can know when the batteries are getting low very easily.

What Panel Meters Will Work?

The mounting hole is 15.5 x 23 mm and this is sufficient for commonly available panel meters.

The correct meter is available from the Vorpal Robotics Store

Preparation of the Panel Meter for Vorpal The Hexapod

You'll need to solder a male and female black jumper to the black wire coming off the voltmeter, and a male and female red wire coming from the red wire of the voltmeter. Some of these panel meters also have another wire, yellow or blue frequently, and this should be also connected to the red jumpers.

If you don't feel like soldering and wish to support our projects, we offer both kits and fully built versions of this voltmeter at the Vorpal Robotics Store

Mounting to the Robot

The bracket simply slots into one of the skeletonizing holes in the robot. run the cables through the top of the skeleton hole, mount the meter below it.

To electrically connect:

• connect the meter's red male jumper to the red female jumper coming off the bec/switch assembly.
• connect the meter's black male jumper to the black female jumper coming off the bec/switch assembly.
• connect the meter's red female jumper to VIN on the Nano.
• connect the meter's black female jumper to either GND pin on the Nano.

This puts the meter in parallel with the Nano, and it will display raw battery voltage.