Animatronic figure problem

[Mark Russell]

I am building some animatronic figures for my Centurion but I am having problems whereby when the neck servo is operated it causes interference to the arm servos causing them to jitter like mad. Anybody know how I can resolve this? Eack servo operated on its own is fine with no issues whatsoever.I am using the churchill creations animatronic parts along with the recommended servos.
Thanks,
Mark

[Dennis Jones]

What controller are you using ?

Dennis.

[Mark Russell]

The Pololu Maestro 6 channel
Thanks
Mark

[yves mouton]

Hello Mark,

maybe the gear of the neck servo is broken,
i also had this problem with the head of my tiger 1 crew.
The servo gear missid some thoot.
Hope this helps you.
best regards Yves

[Mark Russell]

All of the servos operate perfectly on their own when operated from the Pololu control board. It is only when they are all connected that the neck servo caused the arm servo to jitter when operated.

[Dennis Jones]

Have you written a program yet or are you operating them from the status page ? have you tried the neck servo on different channels ?

Dennis.

[Mark Russell]

It does it both from the status and if you write a program? But it also causes the interference if you plug it all into a standard radio and reciever? I have tried another neck servo but it is the same. As soon as it sits in close proximitiy to the arm servo it causes interference? I am using MG90S for the arms and CS929MG for the neck?

[Dennis Jones]

Not sure what that is then because I am using the same layout as you and I don't have a problem. The only difference is I am only using cheap and nasty servos. Can you try some screening between the servos such as aluminium foil.

Dennis.

[Maarten Schutjes]

What voltage do you use for the Polulu? It might be underpowered.

[dennypatterson]

mr.jones, what do you mean :cheap and nasty servos:!!!! i gave them to you, !!!!!! so they must have been cheap and nasty , if i gave them away||||||||
denny. but they work...

[Dennis Jones]

Sorry to disappoint you Mr Patterson but the servos under discussion were not the ones you gave me.
Happy New Year.

Dennis.

[Paul Wills]

I had a similar problem and it could be one of two solutions. It could be that you have Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) on the servo's signal wire. effectively, the servo's signal line is acting like an antenna and the data pulses are mixing in with the control board's pulses to confuse the commands. Solution a ferrite http://www.giantshark.co.uk/search.asp? ... &x=23&y=18 a few wraps around should cut out the EMI.

toroid2_300.jpg (9.07 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

Or it could be that you need to program a pause after each movement in your programming. it only has to be a micro pause.

The first one only happened to me when I fitted the figure to the tank but the second I found whilst programming Pololu controller and the same thing will happen if your power drops too low, so try using a bec.

Paul.

[John Clarke]

I had a similar problem when I setup my figures a couple of years ago, Found that the servos just like creating interference with each other when mounted close to each other. Then we fit them in a big metallic box(Tank)which can amplify the problem even more.
Originally I used the more expensive metal geared servos. But in the end changed them for a cheaper plastic geared set and the problem disappeared.
Sometimes different electronic systems just don't like each other and thats a fact.
Experiment with diffent manufactures and I'm sure you'll get a happy result.