Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: dmclifton on March 13, 2011, 07:07:17 PM
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With an Axon, it seems quite simple to run servos directly off of the board itself, which is working great for very simple setups. I'm a little concerned about my next project though - I am hoping to use two sonar sensors and three IR rangefinders, along with four servos - all of which are known to be quite 'noisy'.
I've read that separating motor power is a good idea to avoid issues, so I was thinking I would use a battery pack for the four servos and then a separate battery pack for the sensors and logic.
My question is
a) is this advisable, or is there something I don't understand that makes it not-relevant advice?
b) what is the best way to do this? I mean, I could conceivably rip the power lines out of the connectors on the servos can do something....hackish....with it, but it seems not very 'clean'. I thought of maybe nabbing something like a servo controller, which I could then supply separate unregulated power to and run the servos off that - though of course this carries a price tag and some extra wiring headache of its own (I'm not sure how I would wire the three UART pins from the Axon to the 5 pins exposed by a serial servo driver....)
Appreciate any helpful tips.
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The original Axon can handle it no problem. The three Sharp IRs are noisy enough to reset the power line, so just follow these instructions for adding capacitors:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/axon/axon_FAQ.shtml#sharp_ir_reset (http://www.societyofrobots.com/axon/axon_FAQ.shtml#sharp_ir_reset)
The Axon II has a jumper that lets you split power easily, and the capacitors are already built in so you don't need to add any. If you are ever concerned about noise for your project, just go with the Axon II.
This shows you how to remove the jumper on the Axon II:
Axon II MCU Power Selection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2gmOtyk0DA#)