DPRG mailing list archives: DPRG: servo distribution board

Thu May 21 10:56:25 CDT 1998

To reiterate, you need a prototype board or something to put the
chip _on_.  With that, you'll need headers to plug your servos into.
That's what the board I was proposing does.  I would have no problem
redoing the board so that it has a place for the 8 pin pic, and
headers for the serial input, and the headers for the servos, if 
yall thought it was something you could use.  Basically it's another
carrier board again for the headers for the servo, _not_ a
circuit to control servos (I'll be using my 8031 or 16f84 anyway
to control servos and skipping the 8 pin pic solution).
I assume you are hand-making a proto board to do what this layout
does.

By the way, don't you also have to use an rs232 buffer chip
such as the max232a if you want to use the 8 pin pic version,
or does it do the 12volt stuff already???  Or are you bypassing
that and just hooking it directly to the chip at the 5v level?

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My employer won't claim these opinions so I'm giving them away for free.

> I totally agree.  It's half the cost of similar solutions, it's all on one little
> chip vs. a board so it takes up very little space, and it's serial interface
> means it can be controlled by a single line from a micro-p, a desktop computer,
> or a portable computer.
> 
> Also, to clarify, I believe it was erroneously reported in a meeting some time
> ago that one always had to go into setup mode to change the servo position.  This
> is not the case, although you can change it in setup mode as well as active mode.
> 
> Matt Minnis wrote:
> 
> > There is an even cooler way to do this.
> > 1 Special little IC 8 pins!
> >
> > http://www.busprod.com/ferrettronics/
> >
> > These guys at ferrett tronics make an 8 pin servo controller. you send it 2
> > bytes serial @ 2400 in 1 pin and this selects the servo and moves it to
> > that position.  It can handle 5 servos.  I use this on my bot and it is the
> > coolest way to do servos that I have seen yet.  It is so simple.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Matt Minnis
> > (Really wishes he could go to one of your RBNO's)

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