Thread: 3 axis servo help

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I'm at a loss, went to "start" up my skull today and not getting any response from my servos. This is the initial build, haven't hooked it up til today.

The laptop is talking to the Lynx board, as I can see the board blinking when I have VSA run the jaw track based on the soundtrack and a simple movement track for all servos. It's running on com 5 and have the servos set to that in VSA. I also have the baud rate set to 115200 in hardware settings, VSA, and the Lynx board. I know power is getting to them as I have a couple leds feeding off the same power line. I disconnected the leds also and nothing.

Is there some stupid thing I'm missing ? Any help greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm running VSA 4.0 that was purchased when Capt Jack set up the last group buy. I looked into updating, but can't log into the website with my info from the purchase email.

Galen

I am not the best at this so I will ask dumb questions.Did you enable the servos(device) and adjust the "type" column to proper setting? Mine was ssc32 servo.

Yo Galen! I have 2 suggestions - first is to make sure you have the jumpers set on your servo controller board correctly. It sounds like you are using the SSC-32 board and if so, that board allows you to power the logic on the board separately from the motors - so it is possible that what you are seeing is the "logic"portion of the board operating correctly but there is no power to the servos. If that does not work then I recommend you get the "lynxTerm" software from Lynx (its a free download) which provides a very simple way to manipulate the individual servos and troubleshoot issues with your system and how it is setup. I use VSA as well but I frequently use the LynxTerm program to do simple testing and if I think that VSA is being wierd I just go back to lynxterm and see if I can duplicate the problem.

Skull, yes, type on them is set to SSC32 Servo.

AZdude, I puchased the kit from GymGhost and he provided me a 9v power supply that is fed into the VL input on the board. I have the VL=VS1 and VS1=VS2 jumpers in place so it powers the board and reduces to power the servos. The power to the servos and leds are then run off the servo leads off the board. As for Lynxmotion, I'll download that and try it. See if I get any movement with that.

In case anyone's wondering why I waited to the last minute.. just finished it 2 days ago. Design copied from your idea AZ. I used cotton and hot glue to hold them in on the front in lieu of clay. The cotton doesn't stick to the eyes. It required less skull removal.

http://shadyplace.net/Halloween/IMG_0891.jpg

and if it helps, a pic of my Lynx board setup.

http://shadyplace.net/Halloween/IMG_0893.jpg

Ok, tried the all=0 and all=1500 in Lynx Terminal and got no movement either, disconnected the led again and same. Any ideas welcome while I ponder this. What would be the odds I have 6 dead servos from the get go ?

AZ, if you try your REG button on Lynx Terminal, does it see your card. It's telling me it can't see it despite the activity led on the board blinking when I do it.

yes - it sees it. Are you using an actual serial cable from your pc to the SSC-32 or a USB-to-Serial adapter? There was another guy on this forum last week that was having trouble connecting and he was using the adapter instead of the actual cable. I don't think he ever resolved the issue so we don't know for sure if that was the problem but it was a possibility. Are you SURE that you have the baud rate in Lynxterm and the jumpers on your board set to the same values?

Using USB to Serial adapter. As for the baud rate, it's set at 115200 in term. Both jumpers are in place on the board, which is the correct placement I believe.

I also changed everything to COM 2, still no effect.

Wanted to also ask, is it ok to run all the servo pos and neg power leads as one line from the board to the skulls? I assumed it was since Capt Jack used 2 cat 5 lines for that purpose. I am using a single thicker gauge wire ofcourse.

TRY one servo alone.No jumpers.See what happens.NO extensions.put servo into ssc board.Be sure pos and neg are in correct spots.

Check your power wires to the servos. I know I couldn't get mine to work with the longer leads I was using until I switched to larger ones. Too much voltage drop. Something else to check anyway.

Don