hey are there any special components one might need to connect say 4 to 8 analog servo's such as the hs-311. Is it possible to use a multiplexer for this kind of thing? or do you need an analog out for this kind of thing?
has anyone controlled multiple servo's with Arduino2max?
thanks a lot.
stan
Trying to control that many servos with just the pwm sources from an arduino would get pretty complicated especially if you're also looking at monitoring any sensors. If I was doing this I think I'd use some 555 timers to control the servos. There are lots of servo controller plans out there that are based on 555 timers. Here's one that looks good for this application:
Take a look at page 7 and you'll see the controller circuit. To get them to work with the arduino, I'd replace the pot (R2 in the diagram) with a digital pot like the AD550. This is an increment/decrement type of DP that would be easy to control using the digital out pins on the micro-controller. You could even do some calibration testing that would relate the wiper location of the AD5520 to the location of the servo arm in degrees and set-up a table in the controller software. With that in place, coordinating the servos would be relatively simple.
Good Luck!
Just ran into this earlier today. It's probably a better solution then throwing a handful of chips at the problem.