Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: DanCF on December 09, 2006, 05:47:55 PM

Title: USB server controller
Post by: DanCF on December 09, 2006, 05:47:55 PM

Hello. I am new to this, so please excuse any wrong terminology. I am trying to connect servos to my PC to do some animatronics work. All the boards which I find connect through a serial or COM server, however all I have are USB and firewire ports. Does anybody here know of any USB based servo controllers?

Title: Re: USB server controller
Post by: JesseWelling on December 09, 2006, 06:21:21 PM

This would allow you to use any serial device through usb
http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/US232R-10.htm

Note there are USB to TTL serial and USB to RS232 serial...which you need depends on the servo board you have.

Title: Re: USB server controller
Post by: DanCF on December 10, 2006, 12:10:23 PM

OK thanks. One other thing i seem to notice is that I am going to need a power supply. I have a 500watt PC power supply which supplies 12V and 5V currents. If i fix it so that it runs when its not plugged into a motherboard, will that be suitable to power the microboard. I have an 11 amp moter which I need to connect. Does anyone know of a MCU that will handle that much juice?

Title: Re: USB server controller
Post by: Admin on December 11, 2006, 11:43:48 AM

Quote

will that be suitable to power the microboard

microcontrollers require typically .1A maximum (yes, it will work)

Quote

I have an 11 amp moter which I need to connect. Does anyone know of a MCU that will handle that much juice?

what you need to use is called a motor driver (search the forum for it for more info)

and a link for where to buy motor drivers/controllers:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_parts_list_electronics.shtml

Title: Re: USB server controller
Post by: bigorangebus on January 09, 2007, 10:59:35 AM

Hi, I wanted to control servos over USB and contacted these guys www.mirrorbow.com  who have a natty little USB IO board.  The board itself is spec'd to have 24 digital IO, 2 Analog to digital channels and a PWM, all self powered and controlled over USB (though you need extra power for your add ons like servos).  It simulates a com port, which was a boon as its much easier to write a program on a PC to send commands to a com port than to fiddle with DLLs and talk to USB directly.
The good news is that when I asked the tech guy at Mirrorbow about servo control, he already had a prototype which turns one of the ports into an 8 bit servo controller (for 8 servos), so they supplied me with a board with that software in it.  Its working great! 

If anyones interested in the servo functionality make sure you contact Mirrorbow first as I got the firmware on request.

Freddy