Finishing up servo controller and I need a small favor...

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nidalxbot
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Finishing up servo controller and I need a small favor...

Post by nidalxbot »

I'm here for not so long and one of the first things to post on this forum is: I would like to ask you for a small favor.

I'm close to finishing design of a controller box for analog RC servos which should be done in a few weeks and I was wondering if you guys and gals could answer a few questions and help me make it even better.


I've been working on this controller during August and am wraping up the design in a week or two so I can have prototypes shipped to me before Halloween.

It will be able to control 16 servos, will have power supply for servos, USB connection to PC with Java and C/C++ programming interface, UART connection for the same interface. There will be a simple software for Win/Mac/Linux that can be used to control servos and write and run control scripts in Lua.

Now, I need your help here. Before I wrap up everything and send it off for prototype manufacturing I want to make sure that I've covered as much as there can be. Basically I would like to maximize return for money paid for prototypes (it's never cheap :)

That's where you come in. Please take a few minutes and just let me know, out of top of your head:

A) What would you put in/on this servo controller based on your experience/desires:

B) As far as electronics go, what would be the number one thing (or two...) you would put on this servo controller board? (uSD card? 32 servo connectors? LCD? pot to control servo position? anything...)

C) As far as PC software goes, what would be that most important function (or functions :) to implement? (scripting? mouse control? saving settings? graphs? whatever...)

Of course, if there's anything else you would like to write about servo controller(s), please do :o)

Thanks!
"Everybody needs a hobby"
- Tony Stark

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Philipp
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Re: Finishing up servo controller and I need a small favor..

Post by Philipp »

nidalxbot wrote:A) What would you put in/on this servo controller based on your experience/desires:
The useful applications for this kind of controller are quite limited I think, but if I'd need one, probably for a beefy Hexabot (needs at least 18 servos!) with an BeagleBone, RaspberryPi or Intel based controller.
nidalxbot wrote:B) As far as electronics go, what would be the number one thing (or two...) you would put on this servo controller board? (uSD card? 32 servo connectors? LCD? pot to control servo position? anything...)
uSD card seems kinda unnecessary if this controller needs to be tethered to a computer of some kind, which usually have plenty of options for storage anyway, same for the LCD. Personally I would keep it as a pure interface to keep the cost down. Definitely add one or two i2c ports for bidirectional communication with IMUs, other sensors or custom i2c servos, maybe for IO expansion too. Via i2c users could easily add an LCD of their choice :). A PPM output on some of the servo ports would be nice, too. This would make interfacing your controller with RF modules a piece of cake.
nidalxbot wrote:C) As far as PC software goes, what would be that most important function (or functions :) to implement? (scripting? mouse control? saving settings? graphs? whatever...)
You need to explain your scripting idea in more detail! Are the scripts running on the connected computer, or standalone on the controller itself? This would be quite useful and your ideas like uSD, LCD and pot would make more sense to me. If this is the case I would ditch the pot for a rotary encoder, which could be used for servo control, but for LCD menu navigation too.

If you are ready to share some designs or even pictures of prototypes they will not be unnoticed! ;)
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nidalxbot
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Re: Finishing up servo controller and I need a small favor..

Post by nidalxbot »

Hi Philipp! Thanks for your comments, really appreciate it!

I forgot to mention that I'm building this animatronic dinosaur for Halloween using carbon fiber rods, balsa wood, foam, and RC servos, things you can find in my workshop laying all around. So, yes you are right, just it's not hexapod it's biped (kind of) :)

Idea is to connect it to PC in design phase and be able to control/move servos one by one or in a sequence (that's where script comes in) to check for soundness of mechanical design. Once I finish that I'll probably put RPi or BeagleBone into the dino and run animatino scripts from there using this servo controller. Script is run on PC (BB, RPi) and just sends commands to servo controller via USB. Command sequences can also be coded and saved in controller's memory to be executed on a push of a button. I'm basically helping myself building this dino more easily, see? :)

Since I'll be ordering 10 pieces to be manufactured, one of the projects I'm thinking to play with is to build foamy flier with elevons and connect this servo controller between Rx and servos and play with it.

Anyway, before shelling out $$ I thought to ask for opinions, advices and suggestions what else could I put on controller to make most of it in the future. I2C is a very good suggestion :)

As for design share, definitely, I'm planning to release firmware, PC host code and Java code and schematics, once I'm done. It's all based on good and cheap NXP's LPC1347 controller and code is more/less modular and can be used for different projects, not just for this servo controller type of things.


Thanks again, any comments are welcome!
"Everybody needs a hobby"
- Tony Stark

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