Controlling 18 servos with OpenCM9.04

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Hello forum!

I am trying to control six XL430-W250-T and six 2XL430-W250-T servos, following an example project which uses an OpenCM9.04-C microcontroller to control all 12 servos (or all 18 servos, if you consider the 2XL430’s to be two servos each).

I have very limited experience with servo control, and I am wondering how/if to implement this.

  • Would each pair of XL430 and 2XL430 be daisy-chained to each other, so only six connections are made to the controller?
  • If each 2XL430 is indeed equivalent to two servos, then can the OpenCM9.04 actually be used, when its capacity is controlling 16 servos?
  • Can generic servo controllers be used with generic microcontrollers, provided the servo controllers are capable of handling the power supplied/required?

Thank you!

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You can check out this post for some ideas also. Essentially, you’ll need to power the OpenCM904 separately from the DXLs.

First you need these compatible cables to go from the 904 to the XL-430 DXLs

Then you’ll need a few of these X3P hubs also to keep up to 4 DXLs per daisy chain, also separate power supplies or batteries most likely. It is best to design the batteries into your robot’s framing structure, instead of using a big battery, which would be too heavy,

How do you plan to control these DXLs? Via ARDUINO?

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  1. If the design you’re building is a hexapod or similar, this is probably the simplest way to layout the daisy chain.
  2. The OpenCM9.04 isn’t really limited to controlling any specific number of servomotors. The DYNAMIXEL network provides individual addressable IDs for up to 253 servos. The controller is only limited by it’s processing power and communication speed.
  3. I’m not sure exactly what question you’re asking here. If the question is about servomotors in general, then it really depends on the specific generic servo and microcontroller combination. If you’re asking if DYNAMIXELs can be used with a generic microcontroller, then the answer is that DYNAMIXELs can be controlled by any device capable of RS485 or TTL serial communications.