[TheFletch]

The plan is to have 4 singing pirates to entertain the line of guests waiting to go threw my haunt. Building the 3 axis was fun but now the hard part. I will need a 15 foot cable from each skull to reach the control ( ssc 32). I heard CAT 6 cable works and has 4 pairs - 8 wires, but reading and looking around I heard you must double up on the positive and negative leaving 4 wires for 4 servos. I need 5 free leads to control 4 servos plus the eyes. any tips on a connection I can use? I have scavenged a thicker cable with 7 leads so to double up on the power is not needed... any tips on a 7 pin connector male and female?

Cpt Red Eye and the skullywags.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qwb8bAZWpc&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for any help
The Fletch

 

[bfjou812]

Have you thought about putting the servo controller closer to the skulls and running a longer usb cable to the controller? I did this one year ,still had to make extensions for the servos to the board but for what I needed it worked out real well. The usb cable was about 20' if I recall.

 

[TheFletch]

Have you thought about putting the servo controller closer to the skulls and running a longer usb cable to the controller? I did this one year ,still had to make extensions for the servos to the board but for what I needed it worked out real well. The usb cable was about 20' if I recall.

Hi, I have thought of that but since I already need to make at least an 8 foot extension that go down the spine ( these will be mounted on Costco skeletons ) if I spread the skeletons out 2 or 3 feet a part and center the servo controller ... that's a lot of feet of cable... I would love to just be able to plug in the skulls and plug in the controller 4 cables instead of 20 - 10 foot servo wires.

 

[bfjou812]

There was someone who ran a separate power wire, say a 18/2 , to a breakout board , and just ran the signal wires on the cat 5 cables. I think he ran the power from the power supply, and all of the signal wires off of the controller . He had a "main" breakout board where the power went in to then it branched off to the different skulls where there was another board with all of the power wires tied together and the signal wires were connected to the cat 5 sockets mounted in the skull. It was quite a bit of work but it worked well. If I can think of who it was I'll see if I can post a link. I also seem to remember that someone used a heavier version of cat 5 without doubling up on the wires and was successful with that. If you're using Lindbergh skulls you might be ok as they are fairly light.

 

[dpeterson]

*EDIT* I just reread your first post that said you were using an SSC32. That's a serial interface board, with a 9V battery hookup, right? Just make a serial cable to reach from you PC to the set location. Serial can handle quite a distance. If it's a USB version (such a thing?) then a cheap USB extender is your best bet.

 

[J-Man]

To answer the original post, your best bet is to use a separate 16 ga. 2-conductor for power and then a CAT 5 or 6 for the signal leads.

 

[TheFletch]

To answer the original post, your best bet is to use a separate 16 ga. 2-conductor for power and then a CAT 5 or 6 for the signal leads.

I could go that way but i did find a cable with 8 leads... thicker ga than normal servo about double. did not know if sending a pulse on the thicker ga would effect things... i did test on one skull and it worked.. now looking for a 7 pin him and her connector that i can than place in the skull and have one neat cable connecting to the control box..... if i had a him and her for both the head and the control box everything would just click into place... anyone know of a good connector unit?

thanks for all the help.

 

[Snake Eyes037]

http://servocity.com/assets/images/CAT6_extension_board__non-boosted_.jpg

http://servocity.com/assets/images/autogen/a_CAT6_Adaptor_10.jpg

I bought the above from Servo City and they work great. Regarding power I just power the receiving end instead of having to make long power runs. I also used the SSC-32 board and this would be great for what you want to do. I no longer use SSC-32 board since everything that I use now is DMX.