I’m going to start building a phoenix hexapod but I’m going to be working on a tight budget (I wish I wasn’t but the bills do come first) so I was wondering if anyone has tried the HS-475HB servos with a phoenix and if so how did they perform for you!
Thanks for your help.
Check this thread. I should not recommend 475 on the vertical movements because the only link between the tibia and femur is the servo. The 645 has metal gears which are much more solid for this application. You could use 475 for the coxa part though. I did the same on BlackWido 
Xan
Thanx Xan,
Nice work on you BlackWido by the way I’ve been watching your vids for a while now… I like the wii remote control setup you got!
Thanks for your comments, I’m happy to meet one of my YouTube viewers 
Xan
What about the Scanner-RC SSV-9764MG servo? Will it work instead of Hitec 645mg?
Hi,
When it comes to servos you almost always get what you pay for. I used these servos on my Oxyopus. To be honest I regret wasting the money on them. Cheap quality, make a lot of noise and not very accurate. Not recommended. I would say the MG996R are better but they have just a 140 deg of travel. But i can’t say I would recommend them either.
One alternative for you could be using 6 * 645MG + 12 * 475, using the 645MG in the femur joint. But the metalgear are recommended though 
I understand what your saying about you get what you pay for but Ive been looking around on the net and have found some cheap high torque digital servos by a company called tower and from the reviews i have seen so far they have come out as being very good for the price!
I dont suppose you have ever heard of them have ya?
OMG. Use the search feature of this board and look for Tower Pro, MG-995, or maybe even parkie scout… as in a scout that walks like it has parkinson’s disease… and you’ll get an idea of the performance of Tower Pro servos. {where’s the ‘smiley’ of the yellow dude purging when you need it}
Please don’t feel like you are alone in struggling with the cost of quality servos… this topic comes up very frequently… but zenta and others are quite serious when they suggest you really do get what you pay for when it comes to servos.
I understand what the guys are saying… I read the forums alot and see they are always one of the first with the answers, so i do take what they say very seriously!
LOL
Man I can’t find the video… yeesh. I wanted to link it. Even tried just using google but there’s a lot of boy scout stuff on the web. For an experiment it was impressive that the guy did it, and the facts he even got a walk gait working was amazing, but… jeeeze. 
i found it a min ago give me a sec and ill add the link
heres the guys vid…
im not aloud to post links so if you go to projects forum and look for the post titled “Biped Scout with MG995, SSC-32, Bot Baord and Sharp Sensor”
Very good description!
here, it was noDNA who did the project. Cool but shakey. He did appear to have a lot of weight up top so maybe that might make it worse then if it were tethered and the power were remote.
It might be worth an experiment on a hex… the platform is a lot more stable than a biped. I dunno… guess it depends on if someone is willing to risk the money for the test.
have you guys every considered moving onto a biped project as you have done so well with your hex?
Wow this is the first time I actually saw the videos. Guess I missed then somehow. It’s too bad he didn’t use a better servo. It’d be a lot more stable. 8)
Hi the Roboteers,
I’m new too on this forum. I’m a beginner and the first step for me will for sure get the Phoenix kit. But I already think about my own goal: design my own SPIDER based mainly on the famous Phoenix.
By the way, a great thank to Zenta for the PEP (Oxyopus version)! I had a look on Xan’s codes. Thanks a lot too. I’ll try to add 2 more legs and do the IK…
Zenta’s Oxyopus is a very fine project. I wish try to design something similar, with legs longer and body a bit smaller.
a) If using HS645s servos, how max long could be the Femur? Is it so important to keep this value below 8 cm? I’ll try to program a gait with slow moves (slow servo speed).
b) wich difference between the s and MG’s servos; the metal horn only?
Thanks for help.
Hi,
You are welcome!
I’ve also been thinking of adding to more legs to Xan’s code, and I don’t think it should be a very great problem. The calculation speed are good enough I think. Actually, one bottleneck is the communication speed between AtomPro and SSC32. To transfer all data for a hexapod takes about 47 - 49 mS. You can avoid this by not using the “Q” command for waiting for the SSC32 to be ready, but instead start sending the data to the SSC32 47 - 49 mS before its ready. I’ve done this and it works great. The hexapod walks even smoother.
BTW: I’m gonna mention this in Xan’s code thread too.
MG = Metal Gear. The 645 are only MG.
The length of the femur are calcualted easily if you know what’s the total weight of your “spider” robot.
Let me chip in here and state i’m also planning to build a phoenix-ish octopod. Will start rather late because of other occupations thus spending a few weeks on research first.
I plan to utilize the Dynamixel AX-12 for torque and load sensoring. Can’t wait to start on the software.
