Not a good sign…
I know it’s a pain…
But i would just isolate the SSC32 from anything and connect it to a serial port of your pc then try it.
Absolutely. Working on it now 
It was buried in the bowels of my robot, so this is a major surgery.
Ok, the SSC-32 appears truly dead. I’ve tested it with three different batteries, and confirmed voltage on the VL screws. Nothing.
I have tried plugging it into Lynxterm, and no love there either.
So in light of this tragedy, I’ll have to get a new board. Any SSC-32Us available yet?
Humm. An image says a thousand words.
Really sorry you have come to this stage. Been looking forward to seeing it walk…
I have to tell you off here im afraid.
Using that 30gage wire that can’t carry much current is a bad thing, and they also contribute to power issues.
Please make sure you use a 12-18 gage wire to power your servos. Use a 6.0vdc NiCd, NiMH, That way more current will be carried to the servos better and will stop limp startups, and will also stop your 9v from draining fast.
I think you have fallen into the trap and so your SSC-32 kept reseting, because the batteries were not able to provide the required current. And weird characters on the terminal window can also be the ssc32 resetting due to low current flow.
Ah, thanks innerbreed, that’s good advice. So, you suspect my SSC-32 is dead too, eh? I guess I’ll order a new one. Lesson learned!
I cannot say if it’s burned out or not. A photo of the bottom side may show signs of this.
But one way or another it’s certainly problematic.
From your last post it would seem it has died, but sometimes these thing can be recoverable.
I burned out 2 SSC’s and a botboard once upon a time. I used the same wires you have.
Fortunately it’s not too high-cost to replace, I’d love to get one of the newer ones though!
Here’s a shot of the bottom. No signs that I can see of anything burnt out, but I’m sure it’s not always visible. Anything else I can try, or should I just throw in the towel?
Yes looks clean. But again that doesn’t mean it’s not burned out. Yes I would suggest getting a new one.
Innerbreed, Should I use thicker wire for the 9 V as well? I’ve got a 9 V 2000mA battery I’m thinking of using in the future.
No. The wire you use for the 9v is fine. The board won’t demand current like the servos will.
There is a 5v transistor on top.
You can look if it’s burned. You could just remplacé it if it’s that
I don’t remember if I saw in your posting, but if you connect something up to VL, did you try to measure the voltage at a +5v pin? (like the pins in section 10 of the drawing lynxmotion.com/images/html/build136.htm)
If you have a plus 5, then voltage regulator is working, if not, probably a good candidate to check/replace… If I was feeling brave, I would then first check to make sure I don’t have any obvious shorts (test resistance from power to ground terminals…) If that looks OK, maybe jumper +5v and ground from a good board to these inputs and see if anything starts to blink…
But that has it’s risks…
Kurt
Thanks Kurt, I did check that but I didn’t get any feedback from the 5V pin.
If you’re trying to control it directly from the computer via the SSC-32’s serial port, where are the Tx / Rx jumpers?
Good eye Coleman, actually I took this picture right after I removed the board from the bot, before I put the jumpers on to do the serial test. I did do the test properly though.
Update: I have ordered a new ssc32 and 6 HS-645s for the vertical hip joints. Can’t wait to see how much better it does!
look forward to seeing it in action… Humm I’ve said that before, lol
Good luck this time.
I just ordered a load of servos too. But they are hs311hb… 
Ordered16 for my animatronic control casings. 
£75.
Two quick questions:
In the hex cfg, what does coxa length represent? The distance from vertical to horizontal servos in the hip?
For min/max angles, which way is min, which is max?