Need Help SES Arm

I bought SES arm and got it about a week ago. I assembled it and i’m trying to learn to make it work. It did work when i used lynxterm… so i tried to learn RIOS… it work for awhile (for some of the servos at least) … then suddenly the whole system wont turn on… I used my multimeter and test the red and black wires and it did reflect more or less 6V (for now, testing Voltage is my only knowledge with multimeter). There is no light in the microcontroller. So now I don’t know what to do next… need help.

Hi Manny,

If you’re NOT using an SSC-32, DISREGUARD!

The SSC32 servo board requires both 9V (uP) and 6V (servo) power, unless you jumper them together. Is your 9v battery dead?

Alan KM6VV

Thanks KM6VV for the reply…

I am using SSC-32… i did use jumper as per manual instruction… and I am using a the power outlet (not battery) and its not working. Did i understand you correctly?

you need a bigger power supply, try 2 amps at 6V.

Hi Manny,

That’s about all I can suggest. You might re-verify the power jumpers; you should get an initial green LED, that then flickers with data received.

Alan KM6VV

Try this:

disconnect all the servos so that the only thing connected to the SSC-32 is the power. Does the LED turn on then?

Make sure you remove the power souce before doing all this.

Disconnect all the servos except one and see if it works. If it works, then you probably have an inadequate power supply. If it doesn’t work, then you probably have a bad power supply connection or some other issue.

There is a voltage regulator IC that stands up off the circuit board near where the power connectors are.

Sometimes the regualtor can get struck or moved so that it breaks a pin off of the circuit board, so inspect for that.

Also note that it’s back side, the shiny side without the printed text, is not electrically isolated and if it is in contact with anything it could be causing a short, so inspect for that.

Possibly a servo could have died to a dead short so disconnect the servos and apply power to see if the LED comes up and/or the micro resumes communicating with Lynxterm.

Failing to find anything, locate the U3 socket and use your volt meter to measure between pins 8 and 4. With power applied you should see between 4.75 and 5.25 volts DC. If you do not then re-inspect the VL=VS1 and VS2=VS1 jumpers are set correctly.

Thanks to everybody who responded… tho i still need a little more help.

it did work when i took off the servo connections and turn the whole thing on.

One problem tho is this: whenever i connect the #2 servo (elbow) the SS2 or the whole thing will not work … no light etc.,

So the ssc-32 stops working when the 2nd servo is added? I’m wondering if your wall adaptor is not able to keep a steady voltage. If at all possible try another wall adaptor or some other power source to rule out the wall adaptor.

Your getting close and for give us if we seem to be pulling you in 10 different directions. :laughing:

I got to go to bed now, work tomorrow :confused:

Got anything other than an ssc-32 you can test the servo on? If the FETs in the servo burned out they could be pretty close to a dead short. If that is what happened then chances are your power supply is getting pulled down but it doesn’t have enough oomph to give you a nice smoke show from the servo.

Will the elbow servo work if it is the only servo connected to the ssc32? If it works, then you may need a better power supply. If it doesn’t work or kills the board by itself, then the servo may be bad in some way.

Thanks again… really appreciate your suggestions… I left my robotic arm in my office so i’ll work on it on monday… i think i tried testing the #2 (elbow) servo alone and it turned off the ssc32… but i wonder why since its supposed to be new… or did lynxmotion gave me an old servo?

I’d take the elbow servo out of the arm and see if it will operate correctly without being connected to anything. It may be incorrectly installed in the arm such that it is locked up and pulling stall current any time it tries to move.

Unlikely given the sheer number of servos they sell. Lynxmotion isn’t a hack hobby shop where they sell opened stuff as new. If you find the servo to be defective though I believe Hitec has a pretty decent repair policy to get them fixed (especially considering how many people could inadvertently burn up a servo and then claim it was doa or just died mysteriously). Go with zoomkat’s suggestion and disassemble the servo out of the arm to make sure it isn’t mechanically bound or anything.

Ok… its monday, and i did zoomkat’s suggestion: I took out the elbow servo… and tried connecting it alone… the ssc32 wont work… i also tried connecting the elbow servo to any other pin and the ssc32 still wont work… apparently this HITEC hs-645mg servo stopped working… what do i do now?

By the way, as a side note, when i received the ssc32, the outside pins of 30 and 31 were bended outward… do you know if that was done on purpose?.. maybe its no big deal if i could just bend those pins back vertically unless there was a reason for the bending.

Because you having trouble with the elbow servo, it’s likely that it was damaged by heat build up. The elbow is the joint that takes the most abuse. We will take the servo in for exchange, but in the future you need to keep an eye on the heat of the elbow servo. You can use load balancing springs to help.

The bent pins on the SSC-32 was not done by us. If you can bend then back it will not hurt to use them. Let me know if you have trouble with this.

Thanks Jim… Do I need to call you for a return item# or do i just have to return the servo?