The Extension shields

They are boards that you plug on top of the main board pin connectors, which allow you to use different signals:

J1 allows to insert some circuitry on the servo motor power lines, for instance to monitor the current and limit the grip.

J2 allows using 6 GPIOs from the ESP32, and also provides the VCC, 3.3V and GND.

Prototyping shields

To investigate ideas, a prototyping "lab" shield is available, it's a board that exposes all available signals and free pads to mount extra component.

Soldering a 2x5 pin connector on the shield allows to connect it to the KinetiX board pins. You can optionally add a 1x10 pin connector if you need to add circuitry in the servomotor power lines, and then remove the jumpers from the KinetiX board 10 pin row.

Here is the KinetiX board and an experimentation shield with its 2x5 pin connector:

And here is the shield plugged on top of the KinetiX board:

In the same folder the source file to make a new kind of prototyping board is also available. For instance if you don't need the servomotors power line you may reuse the space exposing them for other needs after removing their pads and tracks.

Once a prototype works, you can design a specific PCB to make it easier to build, which can be done easily starting from this file to have the correct connector positions and board outline.

Shields

The following pages expose a few ideas of shields that could/will be interesting or fun to develop.