I love this forum of LMR, because i can ask you guys all the questions that i cannot understand with a google serch, and you guys don't make me feel stupid!
I'm working on a bot with a robotc arm; this means a lot of servos(actually, just 7). The first thing is that they are weaker, how can i make them stronger? I mean, can i set the voltage higher than 6V? Without damanging the servos?
But the main problem is another one. I've three motors hooked up to the to the breadboard; and every time i turn them on, the servos go crazy. I've read on the PICAXE manual that there is a noise problem with the servos, and the only way to avoid it is to connect the servos to a different power device. So i did it, sharing a commond ground, but nothing changed, and my servos keep moving in every directions.
0.1uF capacitors! You have to place a cap between the two leads of the motors, and sometimes also other 2 caps (one from the first lead, of the motor, to its case, and another one from the other lead to the case), for a total of 3 caps per motor.
I’ve had the same weak servo issue with the hexapod I’m working on. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because the batteries I was using (5 standard NiMH AAs) can’t supply enough current to all the servos. I’ve veyr recently got a 6v NiMH 3700mAh pack which has a claimed maximum drain rate of 30A. After some very preliminary testing this seems to have had a major improvement to performance. I will do some real testing this weekend to confirm, but I think this might be your issue.
In addition to what Tuna and pixel have already said, you might want to check to make sure your PICAXE isn’t resetting itself due to noise or voltage sag (voltage from batteries will drop if the current load is high). You can absorb small voltage drops by putting a 10-100uF capacitor across the power pins as close as possible to your PICAXE.
