Thread: Servo Connections Problems Solved

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Hello Everyone,
I started this thread to share what I thought was a great Idea for a RJ-45 to servo board. It looked and worked great with 3 servo's but hooked on scares pointed out that the 6 servos it could potentially run at once might overheat the wire. I have since started re-designing the board and will post when I have it right. Thanks to all who responded.
I didn't fail I just found a way it doesn't work

So do you have one of these at each end of the ethernet cable, one attached to the controller board and one to the servos? I converted all of our props to ethernet connections. I took a cheap metal cash box like the Girl Scouts have when they are selling cookies. I put an SSC-32 board in it and two power supplies. The SSC-32 board is a mass of wires connected to a 12 outlet ethernet patch panel. I hardwired the servos in each prop to a single female ethernet connector. This way, I can just plug in an ordinary ethernet cable between the box and the prop. It took me a lot of time to wire everything and make sure each connection worked properly, but now it is much neater than the old system of multiple wires running to each prop and it is easy to change the length as necessary with couplers.

My SSC-32 board runs 32 servos on 10 props. I'm curious how you would use your devices with my setup.

Looks like a slick lil connector board/system you figured out. Hmmm
& appreciate your time & non profit concept in helping us out on a straight across deal
I went to my local electronics store & picked up a few small plastic job boxes to put into & protect my servo boards.
Considered a similar connection like this,but not with the cool little disconnected lite.
Would be worth it to pick up a few of your boards !

Hi, without seeing your set up I can't really tell you how my boards would help. It seems like you have it under controll already. There are many ways to do this I just wanted to avoid hours of soldering. Here is a picture of the reason I developed the board. This is what it looks like if you try and modify a spark fun RJ-45 breakout board and hook it up to servos by soldering the wires. My board replaces that. The old one was still about $9.00 plus labour.

I have / use the Lynx SSC32 board, yes it does get tiring cut/splice wires to the servos plugs & board. Having a board like yours with a "plug it all in" looks like a nice clean look & usage, & with the lil disconnect warning lite make nice too !
I use RJ-45 cable between Lynx board & prop servos & splice all the ends to board & other end of cable to Hitech servo wires ( via a rough plug senario ).

Here is what I wound up putting together:

Inside View



Rear View

Snap,

Have you tried this over long distances? I'm wondering if you'd run into voltage drop or crosstalk (jitter in servos) issues if you made the cables too long. Servos can pull quite a bit of current, and having 6 of them at the end of a long run of skinny wire could possibly cause problems. Just some thoughts, before ordering a bunch of PCBs

- Hook

Hi,
I will have to look into what the limits of cat 5 cable are but I can't see any real problems. Haunters have been using it for years. The pictures of the home made controller box above this post proves that as well as several Youtube videos. But I amagine at some length somone might have an issue. This does brings up a statement I should have made clear earlier. This is a prototype board and it has not been fully lab tested. What I do know is that at 20 feet it powers 3 servos in my talking scull very well with no jitter. The only difference in my board is that insted of soldering or splicing the connections they are done by pcb. I will test the limits of the board when I get my 6 servo MAX Scull working but untill then I make no guarentees. I know it will work for my situation so I am going to order more. I don't see hobby servos pulling enough amps to bother the pcbs when lynx motion and your own board can handle the full amps.
Thanks for your input I really apreciate your knowledge and help. I will look into getting your board as soon as I deside wether to go DMX or Ethernet.
Sorry for the spelling
I will post the amp rating for cat 5 when I get back to the lab

Just want to ad that buckaneerdude has a super cool set up. Nice Job. I think that putting my board on the other end of those cat 5's would work.

These are much nicer than the hand built ones I made. I may need to get a bunch of them.