Servotor32 Controller Board for use with Arduino?

The Servotor32 can handle 32 servos and attaches to an Arduino board like the other shields.  Is there a reason you wouldn't use this instead of a BASIC board that you would have to create and build to handle more than a few servos?

The reason I'm asking is that I am designing a life form animatronic that will need between 16 and 20 servos, be battery driven, and have several sensors that will cause reaction to near objects and touch sensation.

Arduino just seems to have more sensors and add-on boards than BASIC.  BUT, I am also looking for advice.  The tutorial mentions Arduino, but then speeds away without ever commenting on the boards.

Oz

Best Answers

  • David BoccabellaDavid Boccabella Moderator
    Answer ✓
    With the timeslicing concept. Think of a graph with the X axis being time and the Y axis being servo positions.

    Now draw the movement position of the the first servo. It should look like a curved line. Now do the same for the second servo, and the third etc.

    Now decide on a time slice. I use 250ms for mine but you can make it longer or shorter to suit. At each time slice point read the servo position values and store them.

    Now when you replay the positions to the SSC-32 you read each set of movements and add the Time command to the instruction string. The SSC-32 will now move all of the servo's from their current positions and finish with them at the new position in 250ms. By then your controlling processor can do a lot of background work including getting the next set of movement and sending them to the SSC-32.

    Remember that the SSC-32 cannot force the servo to move faster than the servo was designed to move. With fine tuning you can do a lot with this system.  Lynxmotion already has sequencing software that you can use and as they store the information in MS Access table format it's easy to extract it for other uses.

    Hopes this helps
    Dave

Answers

  • Excellent advice.  I don't suppose you would be interested in sharing design and code data?

    Oz
  • Christopher, you are a (bat)man amongst mortals. I'm designing up the body of "the critter", then the sculpt, etc.. Thank you so very much for the help and I will keep stuff posted.

    Again, so glad I got the annual subscription.  Just about everything I need for the build is in these tutorials.

    Oz
  • That sounds pretty impressive. Especially since I need my critter to be rather fluid. Like human fluidity.
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