4tronix are now offering a new motor controller board called the MicRoCon. I got one of these in the post the other day and I’ve soldered it together (very easy) but not had the chance to play with it yet. Here’s a list of features (quoted from the 4tronix site):

1. 5V 1.5A regulator to power the robot and the Pi from 6V to 9V batteries
2. Dual H-Bridge driver to drive 2 DC motors (or 2 sets of 2 if using paired motors on each side of the robot)
3. All GPIO signals have 3-pin connectors (power, ground and signal)
4. 4-pin male header to directly plug in an Ultrasonic distance sensor. Only uses a single pin on the Raspberry Pi GPIO
5. 2 of the GPIO connectors are 5V Output-ONLY and can be used as servo drivers. Do not connect 5V inputs/sensors to these
6. A 6-pin I2C breakout header is included with 5V, 3.3V and Gnd connections
7. Includes mounting pillar and screws so it can be securely mounted to your Raspberry Pi (rev B only) – no more expansion boards flapping in the breeze!
8. All of this is directly supported in Scratch GPIO 4 onwards using the same addon board definition as PiRoCon “piroconB” – many thanks to Simon Walters for some excellent work

So if you want to power your Pi and motors from a single power supply, this board’s for you.

As of right now, it is being offered at a bargain price of £7.55+VAT (normally it’s £10.80+VAT). There is a cheaper ‘lite’ version as well which doesn’t include the regulator (and presumably therefore can’t power the Pi at the same time). Oh, you can also get it soldered for you for £5+VAT. This is a great option, especially for those Pi people who don’t want to chance their arm at soldering.

Take a look at it on the 4tronix site and see if it’s for you!