Hi everyone 
I’d like to share a recent project of mine, called Pika Spark.
Pika Spark is an Arduino Portenta X8 based micro robot control system combining an unprecedented amount of computing power and interfaces within an extremely small form factor. It has a range of industrial, galvanically isolated interfaces w/ RS485 being one of them.
Since RS485 can be used to control Dynamixel servos I’ve written a simple guide on how-to control Robotis Dynamixel via Pika Spark’s RS485 interface 
As a test-setup I’ve been using a Pika Spark, a RS485 Power Injector and four (4) Robotis Dynamixel MX28AR servos.
If there are any questions, suggestions, feedback I’d be happy to hear about them
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Does it have a GPIO interface? Or is it another Module?
We probably should be able to use the ROBOTIS 485/TTL bridge module to use the regular X3P interface too?
Does this have built in support for a battery module or is power for the controller USB-C only? This looks like an amazing base to design small mobile robot platforms.
Does it have a GPIO interface?
No GPIO interface, but 2 x CAN, 2 x RS485, 1 x 10BASE-T1S (Single-Pair-Ethernet, Multi-Drop-Capable like CAN), 1 x Gigabit Ethernet - all galvanically isolated! (also there’s WiFi) GPIO’s are not exposed, as they are not an industrial interface. Further (at this point preeliminary) information can be found here.
Does this have built in support for a battery module or is power for the controller USB-C only?
Power-Supply via USB-C, Power-Over-Ethernet or Power-over-Data-Lines (PoDL) for the Single-Pair-Ethernet bus.
This looks like an amazing base to design small mobile robot platforms.
Thank you, that’s what it was built for 
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I’ve just finished writing up a small case study how a Pika Spark can be used to control the pan and tilt axis of a Dynamixel MX-28AR powered color/thermal imaging head
Really great open-hardware design by Scott Dixon!
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