Thread: Pololu Micro Serial Servo Controller

Tweet

Anyone have any experience with the Pololu micro controller? We are working on a project that will require random movements from three servos that will loop.

Thanks MUCH in advance,

Steve

Hello - I have not had any experience with their controller, but I have had them do some laser-cutting for me and they did a great job! Anyway, I built a random 3-axis servo controller that sounds like it will do what you are looking for. Here it is in action:

http://s1006.photobucket.com/albums/...-Axis%20Skull/

I have had experience with them very briefly and you have to find a way to constantly reset them. If you go to their web site you will see that they are pushing customers to go in the direction with their Maestro version of the serial controller. They have the 6, 12, and more channels of that line and from what I've read customers are happy with that line of their serial servo controller.

Atom058,

Nice work. Is there any way to use your controller without continuous motion? I need random movements that stop and hold position. I may have missed it somewhere but did you build the sound to servo board as well?

SnakeEyes,

Good call on the Maestro....totally missed it! Do you think the Maestro version will take away the need to reset all the time?

Steve

Steve - My controller is really 3 individual PICs that are each controlling a single servo. Each PIC has provisions for setting and saving the min and max limits of movement as well as the speed of movement. It sounds like you are wanting the movement of all 3 servos to stop every X seconds for X seconds (X to be set with another pot or X could be random, as well). Right now, the board will not do that as each PIC is running independently of the other. However, it would be easy to add a 4th PIC that would take care of reading the timing pots and then toggling a common control line that the other PICs would monitor. When the line goes high, everyone move. When it goes low, everyone stop.

I curious what you mean by "have to reset them all the time"? Could you elaborate a bit?

Not sure if this would do what you are looking for but I used Fritz42's VLC picaxe controller -
http://www.ipprofessional.com.au/VLC...Controller.pdf
It is running the 3 servos that control the head movement of my butler -
http://www.youtube.com/user/halstaff.../9/qyBHcqzYGTs
I'm just learning the programming and still have some work to do to get the movement how I want it but with a little work and $10 I was able to have a servo driver for all 3 servos.

Here is a quote from a Pololu forum in regards to the 8-servo serial controller:

Hello,

There is no way to recover from an error on the serial 8-servo controller without a reset.

On the Maestro, if an error occurs, you have various options about what it should do - basically either ignoring it or going to a home position that is individually configurable for each channel. Your software can additionally monitor which errors have occurred in case you want to do something else or just to clear the flags to make the red LED turn off. There is more information in the user's guide.

CRC is a persistent configuration option that does not require USB to be connected.

So to answer your question from the above you can program the Maestro what to do in the event if an error occurs. With the serial 8 servo controller you could not. In my case I got tired of resetting and went back to the ssc-32 until I got past this Halloween. Now I want to improve by upgrading my current servo control card to possibly DMX for 2011.