3-axis skull + eye movement

[JackMan]

I'm currently working on a 3-axis skull (Bucky) with eye movement.  What's the best method (and hardware) for programming smooth control of 4 servos? This project will also have jaw movement handled by an audio/servo driver so in addition to smooth control of the skull and eye movements I need to be able to program the skull motions with selected portions of the audio (except for the jaw of coarse).

[JonnyMac]

Of course, "best" is in the eye of the beholder.  For complex moves my opinion is that you should use an external animation control program -- trying to put complex moves into BASIC (PBASIC or SX/B) is very tedious. 

[JackMan]

Yeah, that's what I figured. Any software suggestions?

[JonnyMac]

You can go with VSA or Vixen.  Neither is perfect in my opinion. 

VSA has a weird, non-intuitive interface, and horrible customer support (my opinion, based on experience).  Vixen is free, but was not originally designed for servos (it's a lighting controller) so using it becomes a bit of a work-around.

Of course, users have in fact succeeded with both.  My friend, Peter, created his own servo animation system and I really wish there was something more like it commercially available.  You can see his stuff at www.socalhalloween.com.

[JackMan]

Don't mean to go off on a tangent here but are you familiar with ROBO-WARE? I don't know much about it but it looks like it might be a good choice. Let me know what you think.

http://www.rentron.com/Robo-Ware.htm

[JonnyMac]

Well, the interface certainly looks more intuitive for controlling servos, but having never actually used it I can't make any other judgments.

[JackMan]

It does appear user friendly and after the servo setup is complete it has the ability to generate the code for downloading to a controller. I think I'll give it try in the next few weeks, I'll post my results. Thanks.  8)

[JackMan]

Well, just received the RoboWare software yesterday and it only took one night of playing around  to give it a big thumbs up.
This is the first animation software I've used and as far as servo control goes, I don't see how there could be anything better than this. Very user friendly, lots of great features, and the ability to generate code in Basic I, Basic II, Basic SX, and PIC. VERY smooth servo action even with several servos operating at the same time.  ;D

[JonnyMac]

That's really good to know; thanks for the report.