Opinions on using an Orgtn SVP with a 1/16 scale rc tank?

Hello All,
I’m thinking about buying a 1/16 scale rc tank(Heng Long walker Bulldog)and using the chassis as a platform for doing some experimentation and learning about autonomous robotics. I was thinking of mating it with a Orangutan SVP(I like the number of servos it can control). Does this seem reasonable? I know the built in motor controllers probably will not handle the amperage(I think the motors are 7.2v and the stock controller board will give them up to 3 amps continuous). So, is there a way to increase the capacity of the Orangutan motor controllers?

Tx for any info,
-don

If you want to use the Orangutan SVP but need more motor power, then instead of using the on-board motor drivers you could use one of our motor driver modules and control it with the SVP’s two free PWM outputs and some free IO lines for direction control. Our Dual VNH2SP30 Motor Driver Carrier MD03A would definitely have enough power. If you don’t want to give up lots of IO lines for the motor control, you could use one of our motor controllers such as the Pololu Qik 2s12v10 Dual Serial Motor Controller which can be controlled with serial commands, so it only takes 1 or 2 IO lines. (Also, you can control multiple Pololu serial devices from the same serial lines.)

But a simpler solution would be to just get an Orangutan X2. Its on-board motor drivers are powerful enough to drive your tank motors. You can program it using the Pololu AVR Library, which includes functions for driving the motors and for generating servo pulses on free IO lines. So you would be able to control up to 16 servos from the X2. The pulse timing won’t be as perfect as it is on the SVP (especially if you are using other interrupt-based libraries), and it will take more CPU cycles, but it should be adequate. (And if you find it’s not adequate you could get a Mini Maestro 12-Channel Servo Controller later).

–David