Cauldron Skeleton

[JackMan]

Wondering if it would be better to directly connect the + and - of each servo directly to the servo power supply it would be better.  Rather than cutting the trace under the HC-8 board.  Connect the signal on the HC-8.

Don't forget you'll need a common GND between the HC-8+ and your servo power supply.  ;)

[youngti]

Thank you for all your help but I think I am going to have to scrap this prop for this year.  I am concerned that I did something wrong with the HC.  I bridged the cut with solder and then hooked everything back up and the prop just sits there. 

Not having much luck with Halloween this year.  Out of the 6 animatronic props that I have only two are working the way it should.  Can't get my singers or door greeters to work.  I am tired and frustrated and ready to just sit this one out.

[JonnyMac]

Darn.  Perhaps after a bit of a break we can try again converting what is not a Halloween prop into something appropriate for the Christmas season. 

[youngti]

Oh and as far as Christmas that was the deal I made with my wife.  i can do the stuff I do for Halloween but she just wants me to put out the lawn figures and lights on the house.  No animation and no light show.

[JonnyMac]

Check out my column in the November 2012 issue of Nuts & Volts. I show how I used the HC-8+ to controller a string of RGB LEDs for a Hollywood prop shop.  Pictures are in this thread:

http://www.efx-tek.com/php/smf/index.php?topic=1943.0

Here's the deal: Minion's Web and other companies offer those same LED drivers in Christmas lights. I'm trying to get my pal John Barrowman to buy some for his Snoopy doghouse Christmas decoration. You can have lights -- and you can animate them, too!

[youngti]

Wondering if it would be better to directly connect the + and - of each servo directly to the servo power supply it would be better.  Rather than cutting the trace under the HC-8 board.  Connect the signal on the HC-8.

Don't forget you'll need a common GND between the HC-8+ and your servo power supply.  ;)

Common ground.  How would you suggest this?   I am thinking to gather all the com lines of the servos and then pulling them and the com of the power supply to one of the com ttl pins.

[JackMan]

If you are going to use a totally separate power supply for servos, you can combine all of the positive servo leads (R) and all of the negative leads (B) and connect them directly to the designated power supply. Each individual servo signal lead (W) gets connected to the appropriate W pin of the HC-8+ (or whatever controller you are using). Then connect a common GND between the designated power supply and the HC-8+ (negative side of the PS to GND on the HC-8+). This is a nifty alternative if the host controller can't handle the amount of current needed to run a lot of servos at once.

[JonnyMac]

The HC-8+ has a separate servo power supply input that feeds the R pins of the TTL headers and ties the external supply into the system ground. I believe Tim was using that.

[youngti]

I was but seeing how the prop was acting I was concerned that there was interference using the power supply on those alternate solderpads.  The program seems to work with out any servos connected so I though I would separate the power supply completely from the Hc=8

[JonnyMac]

As Jack pointed out you must have common ground. The only thing those pads connect to are the servo R pins and ground (B pins).

[youngti]

Okay so I am ready to revisit this for this year.  I think the biggest issue is using a power supply that will provide more than the 5amp I have been using.  I am going to try this weekend or next to get one localy and then rewire everything.  Question I have is I have already cutting the trace under the HC-8 board.  I am not having much luck re-bridging that, do I really need too?

[JackMan]

If you are using a separate power supply for the servos, I don't believe you need to re-bridge that trace. Just an FYI, an easy way to re-bridge a cut trace is with a small piece of copper wire soldered across the gap.

[youngti]

Okay i think i am really close now.  I have the servos connedted to a 7v 1.2Amp power supply.  The signal wires are connected to Outs-0,1,2,3, LED eyes connected to out-4.  The AP16+ is connected to the HC8+ serial to serial.  I have SFX00.wav and SFX01.wav on the SD card.  I have the show on a micro SD card on the HC8+.  I power it up and the skeleton starts to talk and it  pulls the SFX00.wav file and plays all the way through, pauses and plays the same file again.  I have a PIR connected to the Int1. 

The problem is I can't seem to trigger the second part of the show.  No matter what I do the PIR will not trigger.  I have tried int0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and it will not start the second show.  any help would be appreciated.

[bsnut]

OK, can you post your program code so we can help you better and refresh are memories what you are trying to do?

[youngti]

it is the last post on page three from JonnyMac