Hi, I recently decided to make a small animatronic for halloween this year and purchased the parts. I intend to run 2 HS-425BB Servos and a single HS-65HB servo off of a Pololu Mini Maestro 12 channel (USB) controller board. I will be building a control box and connecting to the servos up to 50 feet away via a CAT 6 cable using the Pololu 4 Channel Servo Extension CAT6. I purchased this Power Cord 2 Pack 12V 2A Power Supply, 24W 12 Volt DC Power Adapter with On/Off Switch, 110V AC to 12V Wall Plug Transformer for LED Strip Lights with 5.5/2.1mm DC Female Connector - Amazon.com which is a 12v 2A cord with adaptor to connect it to the board. Is this too powerful for the servo’s as they state they use 5v and the board can handle up to 16v from what I’m seeing.
Hello.
It sounds like you are confusing the Maestro processor’s operating voltage range for the servo voltage range. Standard servos are generally intended for use with a nominal 4.8-6V power source. From a quick search it looks like that applies to the servos you mentioned as well, so if that’s the case, you should not connect them to 12V (which could damage them).
The Maestro’s operating voltage range (5-16V) is separate from the servo voltage. The Maestro receives power through the VIN pin and the servos can be powered from the servo power rail. If you are using an appropriate supply for both the Maestro and your servos (i.e. around 6V), you can use the VSRV=VIN jumper on the Mini Maestro boards to power both from a single source. You can find more details in the “Powering the Maestro” section of the Maestro user’s guide.
Brandon