Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: dan1els0n on November 01, 2009, 05:55:42 PM

Title: Need help controlling 18 servos for my hexapod!
Post by: dan1els0n on November 01, 2009, 05:55:42 PM
I am new to this area, so i appologise if i ask newbie questions!
I am currently struggling to decide what method would be the best to control all 18 leg servos, and possibly one on the head for panning. I bought the MSR-H01 Hexapod Robot Kit frame, 6 x Hitec HS-225MG servos, and 12 x Hitec HS-645MG servos to start with. I also bought a ESD200 Bluetooth Serial Module for wireless communication back to my PC. I
I have been doing a lot research and I am overwhelmed at all the different ways of interfacing and am unsure of the best way to go. I have moderate skills in both programming and circuit design, and i am trying to design the servo control and interface board myself as a project! any suggestions as to what chips or ucontrollers I could use would be very much appreciated!
Title: Re: Need help controlling 18 servos for my hexapod!
Post by: Soeren on November 02, 2009, 03:54:19 PM
Hi,

If 19 servos and some comms are all you need from this interface, just select a microcontroller that has got 3 full ports (of 8 bit each) of a processor family that you're comfortable with - a 28 pin controller should be about the right size.
That approach is only viable if you can do the programming for the servo signals yourself and if that's not the case, you may want to shop for a controller board which has got enough servo lines and means to use them in a simple way.