Hi.
(Australia) I am having trouble powering all 6 servos plugged into the Maestro 6 Channel Micro controller. I was sold a 6Volt Rechargeable NiMH Battery Pack: 6.0 V, 2200 mAh, 5x1 AA Cells, JR ConnectorBattery pack to go with the Maestro.
I charged it and plugged it in to the Maestro and find only 4 out of 6 servos were operating. I unplugged the Maestro to do some work on the project, then plugged it back in and less and less servos worked each time till none worked. I suspected finally the battery pack. It appears it won’t hold a charge so they sold me a wall mount 5V DC 2A Fixed 2.1mm Tip Appliance Plugpack.
My question is…will this power all 6 servos ok?
Thanks for any help!
Bidge
Hello, Bidge.
You might be able to power some of those servos, but unless they all have a very low current draw, I imagine you will not be able to move all of your servos at the same time since that power supply can only source 2A. Typically, we recommend budgeting about 1A per standard servo, so you should probably have a power supply that can source about 6A. You should probably look up the stall current of your servos and add those together to get the better idea of the current requirement of your system. If your combine current draw is above 6A, you might consider powering some of your servos away from the Maestro board.
-Derrill
Hi Derrill.
Thanks for the reply. The servos are micro servos but now I have a new issue. All 6 servos have stopped working one by one? The Pololu board “seems” to be working as it’s connecting to the software but I plugged in a new power supply today and no servos are working at all so it’s either the Pololu Board that is a dud or all 6 servos are duds.
I am waiting on a new set of servos.
EDIT:
Ok here’s something interesting. I thought my servos had burned out (being cheap tower pro SG90’s) so I decided to cut the JR cable from the end of one and try direct connecting it to my battery pack to see if they were dead. After about three attempts at getting power to it the servo actually moved then stopped and I can’t get it to move again. It’s like there’s something wrong inside that’s only connecting to power every now and then. That makes sense to me as they all just stopped working one by one.
I have 6 different brand of servos arriving soon so we’ll see how things go from there but it does look like cheaply made servos are the cause as if they were burned out they wouldn’t move at all I assume.
Bidge
Hello, Bidge.
One possible reason for your servo damage might be accidentally reversing the power connections. When your new servos arrive, be sure your plug the cable in and apply power correctly so you do not damage your new servos in this way.
-Derrill
Hi Derrill.
I think you may be right. As a newbie I had a bit of trouble connecting them up and may have put them in the wrong way. I’ll know better next time.
Many thanks for the help.
Cheers
Bidge
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