Moreover, I’d like to know whether:
-SSC-32 can be combined with DC motors ?
-SSC-32 can control “hacked” servo-motors, i.e. servo-motors that can do infinite revolutions and are not limited by 180 degrees ? (If yes, how to hack servo-motors ? Has anyone tried it successfully ?)
Lots of questions, I know, but I’d appreciate any help provided !!
The motors that you posted links to are brushless motors, which will not work with the SSC-32, or at least not without a lot of driver circuitry, which sort of defeats the purpose anyway.
Not directly, no. Again, you’d need intermediate circuitry, and by the time you’ve gone through the SSC-32 to the control circuitry, to the DC motor, you’ve added layers of complexity that really aren’t necessary.
Modifying servos for full rotation has been a staple of hobby robotics for many, many years. There are plenty of tutorials out there for the googling, or you could use this] tutorial from here on the Lynxmotion website. It’s a fairly standard and straightforward procedure. From a control standpoint, a modified servo is driven just like an unmodified one - a pulse train controls its rotation. There will be a neutral point, usually somewhere close to the center point of the servo prior to modification (this can change if you move the pot’s slider position in the process). To one side of that neutral point, it spins one way. To the other side, it spins the other way. There is usually a narrow band of speed control as well - a pulse slightly shorter or longer than that used for the stopped condition makes it spin slowly, while one farther away makes it spin faster. This speed control is neither precise nor all that reliable, and it doesn’t seem to vary continuously throughout the band. In other words: your mileage may vary.
In answer to your initial question, your absolute smallest motor for SSC-32 control may well be acquired by starting with the smallest servo that you can find on the market, and then stripping that down to nothing more than the control electronics and the motor. This will get you a very tiny motor, with some basic speed and directional control, being driven by a servo control board many times its size and weight.
Also bear in mind that the motor itself won’t have a whole lot of “oomph”, and you may need to keep the servo’s drivetrain intact in order to get any useful torque out of it, at the cost of speed and size.
You don’t give us a whole lot of information to go on in your initial post, so it’s hard to say what exactly your options are without knowing even a general sort of application you’re looking to use them in.
Thank you for your answer !!
Quite detailed I might say
Concerning the hacked servo-motor, I don’t have speed control restraints (i.e., I don’t mind the speed), I just want to make sure the position control won’t be altered…
For example, how can I send data to SSC-32 so that a servo moves 2.5 turns ? (#0 P???)
You can not do that with continuous rotation servos or those modified for continuous rotation. For continuous rotation, you get some small control over speed, but no position control.
You would probably need a motor with an encoder to get the kind of control you seem to be looking for, but I am not sure about this.
I believe an encoder would allow you to tell how far a motor has rotated, but the overall resolution would depend on the speed of rotation of the motor and the resolution of the encoder.
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