Lynxmotion seems to be advocating the SSC-32 and not advocating the USBB-01. Is there a reason for this? It seems to me that the world is moving away from serial ports towards USB. I would prefer to have a USB controller? Among other things, it could be run by a laptop which has USB ports but no serial ports. (Yes, I know there are USB -> serial adaptors but that is one more dongle to put in the chain.)
Lynxmotion is out of stock on the USBB-01 and has been for a long time. But they appear to be the same as:
Check out the stats on the SSC-32 and you’ll see numerous other advantages to this controller, and its less expensive, small “price to pay” for serial ports!
The USB to Serial cable (adaptors) work great for these servo controllers. They’re affordable (~$15.00) and install on XP without even loading drivers. I recommend the I/O Gear one. It’s a matter of support, read on…
I worked extensively with ACS and the author of RIOS to develop software for the arms and their servo controller. About the time it was complete and we were just ramping up, ACS informed me they could not make more boards due to a lead in manufacturing issue, and they did not know if they would be able to make more. They didn’t seem to be overly concerned about it either. Laurent and I worked like dogs on replacing the ACS controller with the SSC-32 which we had just released. After a great deal of trouble we had all of the assembly guides and tutorials converted to use the SSC-32 and the new version of RIOS. Not wanting to support two versions of the RIOS software, they operate quite differently internally, and not wanting to be dependant on a company that can’t keep up with our demands, I decided to drop it entirely. Besides the tech support on the ACS driver installation was a nightmare… That compared to plugging a USB to Serial cable and seeing XP say found a new serial port, it’s ready to use. It was a no brainer…
Don’t know much about the Pololu one, but the SSC-32 has commands that make it especially desirable for controlling robotic arms. I’m referring to the “T” timed, or group move. All commanded servos start and stop at the same time regardless of the distance being traversed. I’ll never go back to a speed only based servo controller.
