Hi ,
I want to know if i can control the Scout Biped with only the BotBoarduino. I did tests in my robot using the power of the usb computer,
but when i put 2 or more servos to the board control the servos can´t move. I´m thinking i need a baterry for my robot ,am i ?
I want to know, what the diference between the botboarduino and the SSC-32?
I don’t believe this has ever been attempted. In theory the BotBoarduino can control that number of servos, but there will be quite a bit of current going through the BotBoarduino, and there is a chance that the PCB may not be able to handle it.
The USB port can only provide power to one or two servos which have no load on them at all; this is because the USB port can only provide around 400mA, and the microcontroller itself needs around 100mA.
A 6V battery which can discharge at around 5A continuous (max) is absolutely necessary.
The BotBoarduino is an Arduino-based programmable microcontroller which can be programmed to control up to 13 servos. The code which is uploaded stays on the board.
The SSC-32 is a dedicated RC servo controller which can control up to 32 RC servos. This is not programmable - you can only send it commands.
Controlling many servos takes up a lot of processing power, and the program size is quite large.
This is why, for most walking robots, we suggest both a microcontroller and a dedicated servo controller.
The servo controller takes care of updating the servo’s positions every ~30ms, while the microcontroller handles the positions, sensors and communication.