Hello all, I am relatively new to Arduino, robotics, electronics, etc. I have been playing around with some servos and have had no trouble linking groups of 2-8 motors and controlling them together.
Now, I want to expand to a project that calls for 19 servo motors total. I know that there are other pieces of hardware like servo controllers that will facilitate the process, but I want to know if it is possible to physically connect and control 19 servo motors to an Arduino Mega 2560, and if so, how would I do that? I have heard about how different pins use a different timer system, and how the different labels on the pins mean different things.
Is it as easy as it sounds? Do I just ignore the labels on the pins and plug in 1-19 as I need? Or will I absolutely need some sort of external hardware?
Go easy on the terminology please 
Like I said, I'm still new to this, and I appreciate any help you guys give me!
There is some information pertaining to the Mega in the Servo library reference.
Even if you can run all the servos you need directly from the Mega,
you might consider using one of the servo driver boards.
Not only does it offload the processing of the signal, freeing up your the timers for other tasks, but it also provides a nice, neat power connection and distribution.
With that many servos, providing them the power they need is not a trivial task. But with one of the Adafruit servo drivers (or clones) it is straight forward.
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=AS_20180228075534&SearchText=servo+driver+arduino
So if I were to ONLY use the Mega, would I have to skip pins 11 and 12 according to Servo - Arduino Reference ? I would connect 1-10, then 13 - 21?
It is very likely that I will get a servo board in the future, and I know that it is pretty obvious that that's the ideal solution, but I just want to see if my mechanical parts work with the motors. Efficiency and smoothness are the next step in the process, but I want make any changes I have to now before I go off on a shopping spree. I have already been eyeing up some Pololu products and have plans for changes, but again, I just want to see if it works before I try to pretty it up.
use of 12 to 23 motors will disable PWM on pins 11 and 12.
You can use those pins for servos. You cannot use those pins with analogWrite (PWM). The servo signals are not PWM (in the Arduino sense).
Just since it has not been said, do not power your servos from the Arduino 5v pin.
This is a good method, but for a large number of servos a solderless breadboard might not carry enough current.
And for comparison, this is what the servo shield would look like
When I was playing with a lot of servos, I used 3 sets of male headers.
All of the grounds soldered together.
All of the servo 5v soldered together.
Then the signal wire for each servo to the arduino pin.
