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A project log for Moti, a smart servo

Moti is a smart servo that simplifies the design of intricate robots.

nicholas-stedmanNicholas Stedman 11/30/2014 at 19:494 Comments

There hasn't been much progress on Moti for a couple of months now as I was busy with teaching and another project. Now that those things are wrapping up, I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

A couple of questions for you. If you had to choose, would you prefer:

1) a few breakout pins and a smaller servo,

2) more breakout pins and a larger servo,

3) more breakout pins that are smaller-pitch (eg. 1.27mm or 2mm instead of the commonly used 2.54mm)?

Lastly, congrats to SatNOGS on winning the Hackaday Prize. It's an awesome project, as were all the finalists.

Discussions

mediaprefect wrote 12/04/2014 at 23:38 point
A few breakout pins, including I2C and a larger servo. Smaller pins are too delicate and fail easily. You don't want two different connector types on the project. Molex Centigrid types are standard for all traditional servos.
I suggest that a "dummy" servo could be used to expand on I/O for lots more pins without the servo and drivers... That is, the same micro controller without any of the motor circuitry but dedicated to sensors, and outputs without the servo case, but using the same power and data daisy chain to be put anywhere in the circuit. Perhaps a Dallas serial number IC to give it a non-programmed address if you don't want to put it's address in firmware.

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crener wrote 12/04/2014 at 16:24 point
I would say fewer breakout pins as most projects will probably be using external control systems (arduino, arm, raspberry pie, beaglebone, etc) not the built in microcontoller. Any in most cases you can put a thin cable were you need it... :)

I mean as long as the Moti is the same size as the "standard" RC servo nobody will complain.

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Guus van der Sluijs wrote 12/04/2014 at 11:00 point
Perhaps less breakout pins and a smaller servo. IO expansion via i2c I think would make sense.

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revwarguy wrote 11/30/2014 at 20:26 point
smaller pitch pins usually means fragile. I don't like fragile around servos. More breakout pins in larger footprint, within reason is good, but eventually both might be in order?

Love this - looking forward to more!

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