Hexapod Robot - First Robot Ever - Advice

Hi All

Just new to the world of robotics although I have been an enthusiast for a long time, I think I got the first Robosapian the day it came out, haha.

I am not new to electronics or programming having built my own 3D printer and CNC machine, which I will use to create the body of my Hexapod.

I am looking to use 3 Servos per leg, so 18 servos to begin with, this robot will be nothing fancy to begin with, I just want to use an Arduino Mega to control the 18 Servos directly connected to my PC, once I am happy with the movement I will then look into controllers and AI.

I came across a video on youtube of a robot using Phoenix which looked amazing for the movement and that pointed me to these forums.

Looking for any advice you can give, my first is do I have to use a separate controller for the servos or can I do it all through the Mega, can Phoenix be installed directly on the Mega? I do have MG996R servos lying around for when I was building my 1:100 scale battle ship and these were going to be used for the turrets but were more than needed so ended up up using smaller servos instead.

So I already have the Mega, more than enough MG996R servos and a power supply for testing.

Just had another thought why servos over stepper motors? I do have some NEMA 17 stepper motors, although slightly biiger than the Servos I have I think they have more torque and power, does anyone use Steppers in these kinds of projects?

Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers

DJ

Hey @1druid1 !

You’ll need a servo controller with enough servo ports to handle 18 servo motors, as the Mega will not be able to handle that.
On our Lynxmotion Phoenix 3DOF Hexapod Robot Kit (BotBoarduino), we are using a SSC-32U and a BotBoarduino board. The SSC-32U handles the servo motors and the Botboarduino is used as an Arduino compatible microcontroller to send commands to the SSC-32U servo controller.

Usually, servos are used over stepper for weight, the easy-to-use and the compatibility with RC PWM. Also, steppers tends to consume more amps, therefore, shorter battery life.