Thread: *** Making Those Servo Props a Bit Easier and Cleaner ***

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snake-byte, the boards look awesome, I would definitely be interested. Let us know how much and when. This is truly a great direction. KC

Thanks soundmankkc. I began testing them and so far everything has worked perfectly. I should be done testing them after the holidays (been busy busy busy) and then I'll have the first batch built up.

I definitely understand, have a great holiday.

Originally Posted by snake-byte

You can run power over Cat-5, but there are 2 issues. First, once you have a cable plugged in, you now have power on exposed pins. This is a big no-no. You risk shorting out your supply and this can cause a spike in voltage which could take out sensitive electronics, fuses, etc. Output power should be on sockets, not pins. The other issue is the amount of current a 24 awg wire can handle, which is just under 600ma. A single high torque servo will normally draw about that much under normal use. Even medium or low torque servos can draw almost as much. I did some extensive testing on a few different servos and I have seen an excess of 1.6A of current is drawn at 6V if the servo pegs out at a stop. Cat-5 was designed for signal transmission. For convenience reasons, I originally wanted to do this as well until I did some testing which then I decided that I would not use Cat-5 as a means of power. As for noise, the servo signals are not high speed signals which are typically susceptible to noise both generating and receiving. It also depends on how your signals are run. Twisting each servo signal with a ground will give you the best possible signal over Cat-5. Even better is if it is shielded.

I dont mean to hijack this thread.....but If I make my own servo extensions how far can I safely run them? My 3 axis skull will be aprox 15 feet from the Medusa controller board....... Seems like the simple thing to do is just make servo extension cords for each servo??

How did the testing go? Are the boards available yet?

Testing went great. I ran extensive day long VSA routines and all boards performed perfectly running servos, relays, and LEDs. I just received a batch of built up boards and I am working on some documentation. I would like to offer this first batch to those that are interested at almost cost. There are a lot of talented people on this forum building some of the most creative props that I have seen and I am interested in any feedback and I would like to see them in action. I am also considering creating a footprint for the main interface board to support 2 Board of Chuckies as well and other servo controllers.

riverswampboat,

It really isn't so much a matter of how far. You probably would not have a high signal loss at 15 feet. The problem comes in when working with coil related electronics such as motors, speakers, relays, solenoids, etc. These tend to produce high levels EMI that interfere with electronics. Servo extensions are flat cables that offer no protection against EMI. To reduce EMI, either by transmitting or receiving there are practices that can reduce or eliminate this such as twisting or shielding. You can Google search this for more info if you would like to learn about this, I'm sure there is plenty of info out there. About 10 years ago I made my own MP3 touch screen Jukebox. It turned out awesome. It looked like an old Wurlitzer with an ELO touch screen and it put out around 500 Watts RMS. I created a simple light circuit that would sense when music was playing and it would fade in and out different light patterns. If I crank up the volume, which I am then causing an old Kicker Competition 12" sub to really start pounding, the amount of EMI that it would transmit would cause my light circuit to malfunction. I was using flat cable from the power source and to all the lights within the cabinet, big mistake. I couldn't add enough capacitance to reduce the noise that was being generated in either the circuit itself or the power supply. To give you an idea, the sub was mounted all the way at the bottom of the cabinet with the magnet side facing upward. The monitor was about 3 1/2 feet above it and the power supply and lighting circuit were about 4 feet from it. It would cause the bottom half of the picture to "bend" (This is why any decent center channel speaker is shielded). I had to add a shielding plate to stop this from happening.

Glad to hear the update!! I'm getting ready to start getting parts for this years marathon building. Wanting to build a couple animated Ravens and adding at least another 4 3-axis skulls this year. Would really like to utilize your boards.

Keep the updates comin!

I have created a basic website and as soon as my hosting service has me up and running (should be tonight or tomorrow), I will have this initial batch of boards available. These will be sold at cost and all I ask for is feedback. All documentation will be available on the site as well.

www.snake-byte.com
www.snakebyteelectronics.com

Thanks, and I can't wait to see those props in action!!

Mike

Hey Mike, Just a couple things. First, The PDF for the WBS-1 uses the photo from the FBS-1. Second, it would be nice to have a little blurb about each item on the product page so that you don't have to open each PDF to see what the product is meant to do. It is not a big issue, but I ended up having all the PDFs open in different tabs along with Lynxmotion tabs so that I could research products. I am new to the servo realm, so a lot of research is needed. Since you are promoting the Lynxmotion servo drive, I hope you have contacted them to see if you can get some money for pushing business their way. Thanks for all the work. My purchase should come soon.