Author: abdmarketing

OVERVIEW
One board, the whole robot’s power and nervous system
Most robotics teams stitch a robot together from a motor driver, a battery management stage, a sensor breakout, and a compute carrier board — four points of failure, four firmware stacks, and four connectors to route through a chassis. VNX RMCB replaces that stack with a single, purpose-built controller.
It accepts a wide 24–60 V battery pack directly, drives two independent high-current motor channels with full protection, distributes clean 12 V and 5 V rails to peripherals, and exposes the communication buses that real robotic subsystems actually use — CAN 2.0, RS-485, LIN, and an addressable RGB status bus — alongside direct compute headers for NVIDIA Jetson Orin and a regulated rail for Raspberry Pi 5.
A dedicated, field-replaceable MEMS IMU module and six ultrasonic sensor headers give the board native proprioception and obstacle-awareness out of the box, so integration time goes into the robot, not the wiring harness.
Key capabilities
Dual motor drive
Two independent high-current channels, up to 100 A each depending on system configuration, with 4× XT30 auxiliary outputs.
Full protection stack
Soft-start power-up, reverse-current and reverse-polarity protection, multi-stage ESD, live current / voltage / temperature monitoring.
Wide-voltage input
Direct 24–60 V battery support via a main XT60 input, sized for LiPo/Li-ion packs from small utility bots to full-size platforms.
Communication suite
2× CAN 2.0 up to 1 Mbps, RS-485, LIN bus and a dedicated WS2812B addressable-LED interface for status and signalling.
Compute-ready
Native support for NVIDIA Jetson Orin plus a dual-channel 12/ 5 V / 6 A rail for Raspberry Pi 5 and similar SBCs.
Modular MEMS IMU
Field-swappable IMU module — BMI088, ICM-42688, ISM330 and similar parts on a shared SPI/I²C footprint.
Ultrasonic array
Six dedicated ultrasonic sensor close-range obstacle detection.
Wireless link
Pairs with the VNX custom remote controller over a 2.4 GHz radio interface for teleoperation and E-stop.
Peripheral power
4× 12 V outputs up to 4 A per channel for displays, speakers and microphones on the robot’s HMI stack.
BOARD MAP
Every connector, mapped
Top-side layout of the VNX RMCB, annotated for bring-up and harness design.
SPECIFICATIONS
Technical specifications
Power input
Battery input range
24–60 V DC, wide-voltage architecture
Main input connector
XT60 primary battery input
Input protections
Reverse polarity, over-voltage, soft-start, multi-stage ESD
Motor drive outputs
Channels
2× independent high-power channels (CH-A, CH-B)
Peak current
Up to 100 A per channel, depending on system configuration
Auxiliary outputs
4× XT30 auxiliary power outputs
Monitoring
Per-channel current, voltage and temperature sensing
Protections
Reverse-current protection, multi-stage ESD
Auxiliary power rails
12 V outputs
2× channels, up to 4 A each — displays, speakers, microphones
5 V output
Dual-channel, 6 A — dedicated SBC supply (e.g. Raspberry Pi 5)
Fan output
Dedicated switched FAN rail for active cooling
Communication interfaces
CAN bus
2× CAN 2.0 ports, up to 1 Mbps — one direct to Jetson Orin, one dedicated to the safety board
RS-485
Integrated interface for long-distance, multi-device industrial links
LIN bus
Onboard LIN interface for automotive-grade peripheral networks
RGB status bus
Dedicated WS2812B addressable-LED interface
Wireless
VNX custom remote controller
Sensing & safety
IMU interface
VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU — SPI & I²C, hot-swappable
Supported IMUs
BMI088, ICM-42688, ISM330 and pin-compatible parts
Emergency stop
Dedicated E-STOP input, routed to the safety CAN channel
Compute support
Primary compute
NVIDIA Jetson Orin — Onboard mounting, cooling and CAN link
Secondary compute
Raspberry Pi 5 or similar SBC via regulated 12/5 V / 6 A rail
Onboard MCU
Microcontroller for drive control, monitoring and watchdog
Mechanical & environmental
Board dimensions (L × W)
170mm x 120mm
Mounting pattern
5 x Metric 3mm
Operating temperature
-40°C to +85°C
APPLICATIONS
Where VNX RMCB goes to work
One controller architecture, sized and configured across very different robot classes.
Legged platforms — Quadruped & legged robots
Drives dual high-torque joint actuators per leg group, streams IMU orientation data for gait balance, and reports joint currents over CAN for real-time load estimation.
Humanoid platforms — Humanoid robots
Wide-voltage input and dual-channel drive support high-density actuator packs, while the CAN and RS-485 buses fan out to distributed joint controllers.
Service & hospitality — Service & reception robots
12 V / 5 V rails power displays, speakers and microphones directly, and the WS2812B interface drives status lighting for guest-facing interaction.
Modular actuation — Actuator & joint drives
The dual 100 A-class motor channels and auxiliary XT30 outputs are sized for direct-drive and quasi-direct-drive actuator modules used in modern joint design.
IMU MODULES
VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU
Inertial performance requirements change with every robot: a quadruped’s gait controller wants low-noise, high-bandwidth gyro data; a slow-moving service robot cares more about long-term drift and cost. Soldering a single IMU to the main board forces that trade-off at design time — and locks it in for the life of the product.
The VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU is a small daughter-board on a shared mechanical and electrical footprint, connected over SPI or I²C. Swapping BMI088 for ICM-42688 or ISM330 — or a future sensor generation — is a module change, not a main-board respin.
Module swap workflow
BMI088 module — S/N 26A-05-0040 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
High dynamic-range accelerometer and gyroscope pairing, well suited to legged robots and platforms with sustained vibration.
ICM-42688 module — S/N 26A-05-0041 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
Low-noise, high-bandwidth 6-axis MEMS IMU for platforms running tight state-estimation and balance loops.
ISM330DLC module — S/N 26A-05-0042 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
Industrial-grade IMU with strong long-term stability, suited to service robots and slower-dynamics platforms.

Overview
The VNX Robotics USB-to-CAN FD Controller is a dual-channel, quad-port CAN FD interface that bridges a single USB Type-C host connection to up to four independent CAN FD networks. Two independent MCU + transceiver channels (Side A and Side B) let the board act as two USB-CAN adapters in one, reducing cabling and integration time for multi-bus robotic and industrial platforms.
Each of the four CAN ports runs from 12.5 kbit/s up to 8 Mbit/s and is independently configurable. On-board transient, ESD, and reverse-polarity protection supports 24 V and 48 V systems, and the –40 to +105 °C range allows the board to be mounted directly inside the enclosure it monitors. On Linux, it enumerates as native SocketCAN — no proprietary drivers required.
Key Specifications
Host Interface
1 × USB Type-C (Type-C to Type-C cable)
CAN Interfaces
4 × CAN FD (CAN A1, CAN A2, CAN B1, CAN B2)
CAN Protocol
CAN FD (ISO 11898-1:2015) and CAN 2.0B
CAN Bit Rate
12.5 kbit/s to 8 Mbit/s, per port
Protection
Short-circuit, ESD, reverse-polarity — 24 V / 48 V systems
Operating Temperature
–40 °C to +105 °C
Power
USB bus-powered, no external supply
Expansion
More than 12 CAN connections via multi-board / hub setups
Host OS Support
Native SocketCAN on Linux, no additional drive
System Architecture
CAN / SocketCAN Feature Support
Feature
Supported
Loopback
✓ Yes
Listen-only
– No
Triple-sampling
– No
One-shot
✓ Yes
Hardware timestamp
– No
Bus error reporting
✓ Yes
CAN FD (ISO 11898-1:2015)
✓ Yes
Bitrate switching
✓ Yes
FD Non-ISO mode
– No
Presume ACK
– No
DLC 9–15 for 8-byte payload
– No
Transceiver delay compensation
– No
Applications
The controller’s four independently configurable CAN FD ports, wide temperature range, and driverless Linux integration make it a natural fit anywhere a system needs to bridge one or more CAN buses to a host computer, embedded PC, or single-board computer.
Robotics
Two isolated channels make it easy to separate motion/safety traffic from sensor/telemetry traffic on the same platform, or to interface two robots from one host:
Industrial Automation
Test, Development & Diagnostics
Data & Remote Operations
Mechanical & Form Factor
Board length
60 mm
Board width
60 mm
Board thickness
8 mm
Mounting hole diameter
4 x 3 mm