Combining multiple servos together

Community General Discussions
1

Does anyone have experience with using a wiring harness to supply servos with power? I basically want to cut all my servo leads and run a single set of power and ground lines to daisy chain all the servos in each limb of a biped (6 per leg, 3 per arm) together.

I know I'll have to use a heavier wire, but what will I need to keep noise spikes off the lines. I'm thinking of using a cap or too, but will I also need an inductor or a ferrite core it loop the harness through? I want to cut as much weight as possible while simplifying the connections, so if I could just get away with a couple caps it would be ideal.

Servo jitter is something I'd like to avoid like the plague, so I'm willing to sacrifice weight for performance if I need ferrite rings.

Thanks for the time.

-Jeremy

 

EDIT:

I should also mention I'll be using a total of 24 EMAX ES08MAII servos which draw about 200mA @ 6.0v and have ~24 gauge wire (thinner than average micro servos) for the power and signal lines and the "trunk line" will be approx 250mm (~10 inches) of 20 gauge wire.

Now Max has me thinking of running the signal wires with Cat5 or similar.

2

While that may be necessary,

While that may be necessary, This video is what got me thinking of a ferrite core on the power lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEp4VT6NL6o

3

RE

On Frits, I run twisted pair (the positive twisted to the ground) for the servo power wires. And the signal wire is also twisted paired to a second servo ground, and not in the same connector with the servo power connection. It does not twitch/jittler of yet. I have never done twin twisted pair on regular sized servo’s. But it should work the same.

(edit) so to be clear, I’m running the servo power connections as a “power bus” all parallel twisted pair, and the signal connections are also twisted pair but individual leads

4

**For what it’s worth… **

Most USB cables are four conductor 24 guage shielded…  As long as you run the signals separate from your power cable they might do the trick.

(or at least help reduce any external noise).