servo control for a vent puppet some questions

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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Hi all, This being my first post I am a TOTAL NEWBIE!! That said I am looking to add some animatronics to my current vent puppet. I would like to do both eyes moving horz. and vert. blinkers and raising eyebrows. mouth not sure yet hoping to. Here is what I am looking at now for servo needs 3 per eye?(hoping to get it down to 3 for both eyes but not sure yet.( these figures also include the blinkers) 1 for the raising eyebrows and 1 for the mouth if I go that route. I would like to control them with a xbox style controller mainly the 2 joysticks and 1 button. I also might need to mix some of the servos( not sure about this part yet.

That said can it be done with an arduino board? can it be stand alone(meaning not attached to a computer to operate)?
what is a good programming language to learn I just started with vb express but would like to hear advice from you folks here. I am new to all of this and it isn't a project I need done right away so it can get done as I learn.

This project is really because I want to learn how to do this stuff and I love ventriloquism so I figured I would mix the 2
thank you
Kevin

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I think you should be able to do this. The Uno, for example has 14 digital IO pins, of which 6 provide PWM, plus there used to be a SoftPWM library -- not sure if the blog where that's hosted is just temporarily down, or what, but it's likely findable. Or, if you run out of pins, you can use the Mega, or multiplex. There are various servo control boards around, and a servo library. Seems to be lots of threads about Xbox too.

Just start out with doing simple things, and build your project a step at a time, learning as you go.

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aahh thanks now I am understanding things. I was under the impression that the xbox controller went to the computer the to the adruino. that makes more sense now