Question about the Prop2 Pins 12-15

[youngti]

Hi all,

Okay I've just about worked all the bugs out of my singing chorus.  Two question I have

Can you use p12 or p13 to send a trigger over to another board?

Second question is, would a low amp state cause servo's to jitter? 

For example, I have 12 servo's (yes twelve off of the prop2) and they use up P0 to P11, then I want to trigger 2 CAP-200's off p12 (using a Y cable, not sure if that is legal) or one off of P12 and the second off P13.  Trick here is I want them to trigger at the same time.  Not sure how long a delay, or if ther is any that would cause them to be off sync.

I have the servo's powered with a 5v, 8amp supply and I've modified a couple of the scripts that I found on the site.  The 4 skulls all move randomly, but they act as if they have palsy.  I think this is due to not having enough amps.  The skulls are the Bucky ones and seem pretty heavy so I bet the servo's (HS-311) are drawing pretty close to 1 amp each.  I may have to add another PS at 5v, 8amp and split the servo's up, 4 and 4.

I know there are a lot of experts here how have spend quite a bit of time working on this same issue.  I have read many of the post and have learned so much from you all.  Thank you. 

[livinlowe]

Yes, your prop-2 will only supply 1 amp maximum, so you need an additional ps.



Edit: You have them powered by a seperate supply. Sorry. Maybe your code is causing the jerkyness. Or you are pulling more than 8 amps?

[JonnyMac]

It sounds like you already have external supplies for your servos, just not enough juice to handle all those loads.  A second P/S is probably in order (perhaps one per skull is best).

As far as the CAP goes, I just now connected one to a Prop-1 so I can tell you how to do it reliably.  First, if they are both running from the same supply then I think it would be okay to start them from one pin.  To be on the safe side, though, I would probably use separate pins -- if you have them, better to be safe than sorry.

To connect a CAP to the Prop-1/2/SX you will connect the black wire from the trigger cable that comes with it to the Prop-1/2/SX GND terminal and the white wire to the OUTx terminal of your choice.  You need to activate the output for 250 milliseconds to get a reliable start (trust me, I ran a lot of tests and anything less than 250 did not always cause the CAP to start).

Here's a bit of code that should help.

' =========================================================================
'
'   File......
'   Purpose...
'   Author.... Jon Williams, EFX-TEK
'              Copyright (c) 2008 EFX-TEK
'              Some Rights Reserved
'              -- see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
'   E-mail.... jwilliams@efx-tek.com
'   Started...
'   Updated...
'
'   {$STAMP BS2}
'   {$PBASIC 2.5}
'
' =========================================================================


' -----[ Program Description ]---------------------------------------------


' -----[ Revision History ]------------------------------------------------


' -----[ I/O Definitions ]-------------------------------------------------

Trigger         PIN     14                      ' SETUP = DN
Cap2            PIN     13                      ' OUT13 <- white
Cap1            PIN     12                      ' OUT12 <- white


' -----[ Constants ]-------------------------------------------------------

IsOn            CON     1                       ' for active-high in/out
IsOff           CON     0



' -----[ Variables ]-------------------------------------------------------

timer           VAR     Byte



' -----[ Initialization ]--------------------------------------------------

Reset:
  OUTH = %00000000 : OUTL = %00000000           ' clear all
  DIRH = %00111111 : DIRL = %11111111           ' P0-P13 are outputs

  PAUSE 1000                                    ' let CAP initilaize


' -----[ Program Code ]----------------------------------------------------

Main:
  timer = 0                                     ' reset timer
  DO WHILE (timer < 100)                        ' wait for valid input
    PAUSE 5                                     ' loop pad
    timer = timer + 5 * Trigger                 ' update timer
  LOOP

  GOSUB Start_CAPs

  GOTO Main


' -----[ Subroutines ]-----------------------------------------------------

Start_CAPs:
  Cap1 = IsOn                                   ' activate CAP triggers
  Cap2 = IsOn
  PAUSE 250                                     ' required - do not shorten
  Cap1 = IsOff                                  ' de-activate CAP triggers
  Cap2 = IsOff
  RETURN

' -------------------------------------------------------------------------


' -------------------------------------------------------------------------


' -----[ User Data ]-------------------------------------------------------

[youngti]

Thank you soooooo much ;D

Just to confirm, connect the black (GND) to the screw type GND terminal and connect the white to the OUTX  screw terminals not the P0 to P15.

When you said same supply you mean the Power supply powering them shold be the same.

Sorry, but I'm trying to understand all of this. 

[JonnyMac]

Confirmed: use the OUTx terminals (as it says in the code comments) and the GND terminal if needed.  If power for the CAR/P is coming from the Prop-1/2/SX then you only need the white wire.