It certainly has the option of VL being powered over USB 
Hello , just joined the forum, in my experience the mini usb socket is not very durable and unlike the 9Pin D RS232 interface it cannot be screwed in place. I built a simple usb-rs232 8bit in 8bit out parallel interface a while back using the same one ,but the connector became loose very quickly and the plug kept falling out. My robots tend to thrash about a bit is there an alternative connector that wonāt fall outā¦?
The new SSC-32 will not have a DB9 connector - it will be USB. To secure a USB in place - try securing the cable itself as close to the connection as possible.
Iāve got an arduino and a mega and their USB connectors are pretty solid on those boards. If the new ssc-32 is as strong, then there should be no issues.
The below and previous discussions indicated to me that the USB power would only power the onboard USB to serial chip, and not the ssc-32 chip. Best check the design.
Note that there is no provision for the board to be powered by USB. That would have been much more difficult with (I think) minimal benefit. USB is not sufficient to power servos in a real application, and if servo power is applied, it will power the processor.
Forgive me if I am wrong, but I think there are two different things being discussed here. VL (Voltage Logic) powers the logic circuts which USB is strong enough to do. VS (Voltage Servo) powers servos which USB is not strong enough to do. If VS and VL are jumpered together, a single voltage source will try to power both of them. If that single source is USB, it will fail for lack of power. If they are unjumpered, they will draw from two different sources - a battery or power pack for servos and a separate battery or perhaps USB for logic.
Well I took the āNote that there is no provision for the board to be powered by USBā quote from the first post in this discussion. You might see the concern from the previous development of the ARC-32 board below. That is why I said it might be good to actually verify the board (not the servos) can be powered via USB.
from jagar ic2 provisions could be like ssc-32u as a work base for android and another servo controller for droid servos, i2c as conmunication for the second arc controller to interperate vertual sequencer
Iām getting one of these as soon as they are available! This will make it easy to use the power of the SSC-32 with USB based platforms, such as the BeagleBoard, etc.
8-Dale
We will be refining the design such that VL (the ATMega chip) and the onboard USB -> Serial chip can be powered by USB only. We will not be linking the servo power to the USB port. Any additional feedback is welcome since the design is not yet final.
Are we talking a simple update?, Will it be optional like on the Botboarduino? Or will it work like Arduino Uno where it will always power the board when connected? WIll you have a jumper to enable/disable it? My assumption is it will feed all +5v pins like the ones for digital/analog input/output?
Or are you talking about potentially more major rework? Things like:
a) Support for Serial Servos like Robotis or Dagbu?
b) Make the servo pins have bidirectional support. To optionally support servos that have feedback capabilities, like hitec(HSR-ā¦) and now Orion Robotics servos.
ā¦
Also do you now have a time line on when you expect to have a shipping version?
Thanks
Kurt
The SSC-32U was under development and being finalized at the time RobotShop purchased Lynxmotion. There were several SSC-32U prototypes produced, and the firmware was being completed. An image of one of the prototypes:
robotshop.com/content/images ā¦ 32u-r1.jpg
However, we are considering making some modifications / improvements to the board and produce additional prototypes before proceeding with mass production. This does contradict what Jim wrote back on Wed Aug 15, 2012. The new board will not be ready in time for the SES V1 kit in May, and unfortunately we cannot provide a date as to when it will be ready.
The main modifications include:
- USB rather than serial connection
- integrated XBee headers
- Additional IO
- Surface mounted ATMega
- Improved power options
It will still be a servo controller and although you could change the firmware, the basic version is intended to carry out commands rather than store a program. It will be complimentary to the BotBoarduino, especially when many servos need to be controlled (for example 18 DoF hexapod).
We feel the best approach is to have VL powered via USB or screw terminals. Weāll take care of the circuitry.
Weāll try to make it as versatile as possible.
This can be discussed in the super secret development forum. The feedback is appreciated.
No ETA yet, but for those who might consider waiting for the new board rather than purchasing the current SSC-32, the launch date is too far away.
If anyone has any additional feedback or comments, feel free to post them here.
So are hitec(HSR-ā¦) servos similar to the Orion Robotics servos in their operation and programming?
Alan KM6VV
Sorry, my questions were not very clear.
What I was trying to ask was are you only planning on minor changes from the prototype as shown at the start of this thread, like simply adding the ability to power the processor from the USB or are you considering more extensive changes. My guess is probably only simple tweaks.
Sorry if my question about Botboarduino/Uno was confusing. I am assuming the SSC-32 will still continue to be mainly a servo controller. Was trying to ask about how it handles USB power. The Botboarduino, which like earlier Seeeduino Mega boards has a jumper that allows the board to be powered from the USB or from the power terminal. The Uno (and later Seeeduino boards) removed the jumpers and instead has circuitry that will use the power coming from the Voltage terminal, but will fall back and usb power when available. Both approaches have pluses and minuses. The automatic is nice for boards that you have sitting on your desk and expermenting with and you donāt wish to worry about powering. But manual is nice at times when you want to be able to use a power switch to control your robot (example you need to reset it). With Automatic USB the only way to do that is to have to unplug the USBā¦ Then the USB comm port goes away and ā¦
As for the other stuff will use other forum.
Hope that makes better sense 
Kurt
It has been a long while since I looked at the hitec documents and they never very good at documenting it, so I am taking a guess, that they both do similar things, but are probably not compatible with each other.
Example for the Orion servos: you can output a pulse that has a special small width and then change the pin from output to input and the servo will pulse back to you the current servo location. I believe there are a few other things you can get back this way as well. My guess is that the HSR- servos protocol is similarā¦
Kurt
Correct There was a lot of work done to get the board to this point, so any modifications from this point on (especially with regard to the hardware) will be relatively minor.
For the VL / USB issue, you are entirely correct - each approach has its pros and cons. We have yet to resume work on the board, but weāll try to find the best overall solution.
A hardware change Iāve previously mentioned would be to put a jumper on the 5v going to the chip voltage reference pin. This would allow the user to supply any desired reference voltage to get full range of the analog input voltage when it is different from 5v (I bent the pin out on my ssc-32 so I could use 2.0v for the reference voltage). Also the firmware of the latest ssc-32 had a stop command that was useful for finding the last commanded position to a servo when it was making a timed move. Might be useful for making a bot/servo that moves until contact is made, stop the servo, then read the position of the servo (like below).
All valid points. Appreciate the feedback and weāll see what we can incorporate.