Been working on my quad walker project for a while now and I’m to the point where I need to make a PCB to distribute power and signal to the servos.
I've started planning out a prototype PCB, though I’m not sure what gauge wire I should be using or if placing a line of solder between pins will be enough.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas that would be great. I can pass on more details, but wasn't sure what is relevant.
Thanks,
The week spot is…
The week spot is the connectors. Since the ones that that come with the servo are picked for that servo you should be fine there.
So the onle one you really have to worry about is the battery connector. Be sure to power the servos separate from the pcu, I like to use battery packs that I can hook directly to the servo power lines.
Good Luck
R.G.
Make a PCB
Would you want to design one for experience? Note that there are many products on the market already which will control walking robots.
The project started of as a
The project started of as a coding project and has kinda grew from there. Most the control boards I’ve seem cone with the software and logic to walk/move.
Don’t really want to make one, but to avoid getting and all in one product which does the coding side that’s where I’m heading.
Got the connections on both
Got the connections on both the servo and batter handled. Just not sure about what to use on the back of the pcb? Do I just make solder lines between the pins or use wire? If wire what gauge? Just haven’t made one before and not been able to find a good answer online.
PCB
I am unsure if you are designing a PCB or mounting components to a board and doing point to point soldering. Regardless I think you need to start with a schemetic.
ok, that that’s where I’m
ok, that that’s where I’m getting things mixed up. I would be doing the later, mounting components and point to point soldering. I thought that was still called making a pcb. I’ve got it laid out on a bread board so im reasonably confident about the design, just don’t want to use wire too thin it can take current from a bunch of servos.
Servo Current
In general hobby servos use 3 wires, Ground, Power, Signal. Very little current passes thru the signal wire. Current thru the PWR & GND are equal and usually can be found in the servo specification. I think a typical three wire servo cable uses 26 gauge wire but that may be a poor generalization if you have heavy duty servos. Multiply the individual servo current by the max number that can be operational at the same time to get you total current and then double that for a safe margin.
Online wire gauge calculators are readily available and I would expect the results to specify 22 to 26 gauge wire.
You may find that having multiple PWR and GND wires from the power source is the easiest. I would make an attempt to insure that the GND’s have extra connections for the servo headers to logic GND (can be light duty).
I strongly suggest making a schematic and using colors and/or line thickness to denote your requirements. Then post the schematic and ask for a review.
program/method
Thanks for that, is there a particular program/method you would use to draw these up.
I can do it pen and paper, but might not turn out that clear once drawn, scanned and updated.
