Hi,
Sorry if this has been asked before, but i couldn’t find anything on it. Is it possible to run the servos off a 6V DC power supply. Is there any required current/current limit for doing so?
Thanks,
Mayura
Hello Mayura,
github.com/ArcBotics/Hexy/wiki/Powering-Hexy
I dont use more than a 5V power supply.
Greetings, Arcanix
Hi,
Thanks for that. Read that wiki, so no idea how i skimmed past that. So it looks like 5V 5A is recommended. Has anyone had any attempts with lower current?
You can try lower amperage, might work for most moves, might not.
But you risk underpowering the servos, which will probably behave like weak batteries.
Someone (Arcanix?) suggested earlier using a tower-case PC power supply. Plenty of power at 5v (and 12v), and if you don’t have one lying around you can buy an inexpensive one new off Amazon for a tenner or so.
I’m using a 4.2A switching PSU from an old NAS unit. Works fine.
Hmm, PSU is a good idea. Do you have any sort of inline fuse system etc, or have you just straight connected a 5V rail to the servo connector.
Thanks
Yes, just from the 5v rail, with the ground of course.
Modern PSUs may not have a physical power switch, so you may have to turn the PSU on by shorting the appropriate jumper briefly with a momentary-on SPST push button. The manual for the PSU will tell you which that is. I use one on my workbench, no additional fusing.
Gave it a go, and got it working. Big trip up for anyone trying this, is making sure you got load on your psu when you turn it on. Not relevant to all PSU, but some (like mine) need that load to fire it up.
One issue I have found is that when you power it up, while its connected via usb, it tends to kill the servos serial connection. Not sure if its a bug in the code, or some sort of brief voltage spike in the logic circuit is crashing the firmware. But once this has occurred, the only way to fix it seems to be to disconnect the usb, and reconnect. Looking at device manager, it seems like it momentarily disconnects and reconnects. The device manager still sees the board, but it seems impossible to reconnect using pomoco. If anyone knows whats happening, let me know. I will investigate more, once i have a better set up to talk with the board.