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Asked — Edited

Brookstone 50% Off Ez Servos And Other Bits

I was about to order a couple of servos from the EZ store, but was shocked to see how much the shipping was from China. More than the cost of two servos. So i did a quick search and found Brookstone is offering buy one get one free on certain bits, ie servos orientation sensor etc. I ended up doubling up the servos for the same price from the EZ Store. Not sure how long the sale will last.


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#1  
Brookstone has been offering this for some time. I suspect it will continue until they are out of stock.

Don't order things you don't need, but if you order an uneven number of 2 items (ie 3 lever servos, and 3 rotation servos) you may end up with extras. They packaged items for storage in 2 packs, I guess expecting that everyone would order 2 of the same thing, but the BOGO is for any EZ-Bit, mix and match. I got an extra servo and an extra orientation sensor at no charge when I ordered from them.

Alan
PRO
USA
#2  
Great additional info. Might try ordering another batch, this time an odd number to see what happens. Anyone know why they are liquidating their stock?
#3  
@fxrtst I think ez robot and Brookstone parted company a while back....
PRO
USA
#4  
...oh, did not know...
#5  
There are a set number of EZ-Robot parts left at Brookstone, which they are selling at reduced prices. These parts are last years parts and I don't believe that they will receive any new stock from EZ-Robot.

The normal customer that purchased from Brookstone didn't do any research and thought that they were buying a toy more than an expandable robot. Because of this, there were more damaged parts and far more support given to these users. There were returns because the customer didn't understand what they were purchasing and didn't really fall into the education or hobby type customer that EZ-Robot is geared to working with. Brookstone didn't really have the staff to support this product because it isn't simply a "unbox and put batteries in" type product. They are not geared toward supporting a product that they sell as much as most re-sellers. I am sure that there were a lot of customers who loved the robots but from talking to EZ-Robot and talking to Brookstone, it simply wasn't a great fit. Most customers who buy something in the mall aren't the same customers who buy something to really mess around with, expand on and really get to know the inner workings of the device.

Anyway, you can find last years parts cheap at Brookstone right now. Last years parts are what is being sold by EZ-Robot right now, so if you can't wait, Brookstone is a good option. They do ship the products quickly and I have had no issue yet with any of these parts.
#6  
As I recall, EZ-Robots is going with digital servos in the next generation of things. Something to keep in mind.
PRO
USA
#7  
oh..are the current servos analog? For some reason I thought they were digital?
#8  
Yes, the current servos run on digital ports but the pot that is in the servo is analog. The new servos are supposed to be incredibly quiet. I haven't seen them yet.
PRO
USA
#9  
@WBS00001, @CochranRobotics:

I missed that, can someone post the link (digital servo announcement).

generally speaking:

both servos have Gears and analog Potentiometers
both use PPM signals
both use string of pulses to move the motor to the desired position.

The main difference is the servo electronic (inside the servo)
http://www.futabarc.com/servos/digitalservos.pdf

analog servo:
controlled via custom chip
50 Hz pulses

digital servo:
controlled via a micro controller.
300 Hz pulses

A digital servo allows higher motor updates (300 Hz) which gives more precision, fast control, constant & high torque

BUT there are some complains much more noise, more power consumption.

Every servo is different, and each manufacture has their secret servo algorithm, and different hardware quality,

the biggest issue is the power.

I have doubts if is a good choice for small battery robots.
#10  
I wasn't for sure if it had been posted or not on the forum but here is another thread making reference to the fact that EZ-Robot has been working on these.

http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=6768

It is evident that the digital servos were announced at some point due to the comment made by WBS. I can say that what I have been told is that these servos were/are very quiet. There may be other issues that I am not aware of.
PRO
USA
#11  
Interesting. The board that runs the jaw sync for audio with the ALAN line of robots uses only analog servos. I tested an EZ HD servo with it (as I'm converting over the robots to EZ servos). The EZ servos would not work at all with the board. So I assumed that it was the servo was digital. Maybe it's another issue.

As far as a digital servo being quiet my experience has been opposite. When they hold a load every dog in the neighborhood barks!
#12  
That may be true. I didn't actually see these, but am just going off of what I was told. I can say that you can get good deals on the analog servos at Brookstone right now though:)
PRO
USA
#13  
@fxrtst

Quote:


The EZ servos would not work at all with the board.


voltage problem ? I tried an EZ-Servo HD with 5V 10A, and the servo didn't work.

Quote:


As far as a digital servo being quiet my experience has been opposite.


my comment is related to the digital too: more noisy and use more power.
PRO
USA
#14  
Google is your friend...

Sorted by time

Quote:


... We will be offering full range digital servos made specifically for ezrobot in our store in the new year.

post #9
https://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=6761

Quote:


The micro servo we currently offer is actually a digital servo. Digital servos don't provide feedback to the controller unfortunately they just have higher resolution, holding torque, and are usually programmable to take different timing signals.

post #2
https://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=6768

Quote:


All EZ-Robot servos in April will be a new digital version. They include safety shut off and do not emit any noise when holding position. Jeremie and James have just completed their final testing this week. Significantly different compared to the analog versions. Also, they are better aligned from factory and generally do not require servo profiles.

post #9
https://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=8943

Quote:


... EZ-Robot has been working on a torque monitoring servo that also contains stall detection and heat detection. It's a digital servo as well. We have quite a few prototype, but still have a few more hurdles to accomplish before it is available to the public. ...

post #4
https://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=9282
PRO
USA
#15  
the last post is really good news, it will solve common problems.

I'm working on a solution to manage the stall detection (Gripper), and is not easy with an analog a servo.

*EDIT*
Gripper has a micro servo (digital)
PRO
USA
#16  
Thanks for all great info. I checked and you are correct. It's a power issue. The board only supplies 5 to 6 volts directly to the servo. I would have to power the servo separately to use them.

Interesting that the micros are digital and the big ones are not. But explains the price differences in the two.
PRO
USA
#17  
Yes, from my model airplane experiences with digital servos, they can be noisy because they a always busy centering themselves when idle. Just takes a little getting use to it, but sure are nice. Digital servos are the preferred servo for many rc airplane/helicopter competitions ( I do rc aerobatic pattern flyig myself). So will seem to be a good fit for robots ;)
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