In ARC, add the EZ-B v4 Info controll and see what it shows for the input voltage while running your devices. This will let you know what the V4 is seeing.

Servos draw a lot of current. Current is Amps and if you draw more amps then your power source can provide, you will brown out. It is for this reason that LIPO batteries are the best source of power. Most power supplies and definately the AA batteries will not be able to provide the current necessary when moving multiple servos. When a servo starts moving, there is an inrush of current which is normally higher than what the servo is rated for.

Lipo batteries are normally about 25C meaning that if the batter is say a 1300 mah battery, it can supply 25 times that current or 32.5 amps which will be able to handle the inrush of current to the servos.

Sounds like you are running out of amperage. I don't know what "Recommended by DJ Sures" means. Can you show the specs of the power adapter?

Power supplies come in two flavors: Linear and Switching. The linear power supply is always garbage and usually only ships with cordless phones and alarm clocks. The switching power supplies are those used for laptops, computers, televisions, and heavy duty electronics. For a robot such as JD, we use a 30 Amp ATX Power supply.

The fact is, the EZ-B is doing everything 100% as it's meant to be - it's telling you there is a low voltage & it's restarting on low voltage. This is a tell-tail sign that your project needs higher amperage.

The 6 AA battery holder will not provide enough current (amperage) for more than 4 heavy duty servos and 2 continuous rotation servos. To be specific, the 6 AA battery holder will provide power to the number of servos included in the developer kit - no more.

If you wish to power more than the servos included in the developer kit, use a LiPo Robot Battery 7.4v 1300mAh and LiPo Battery Balancer Charger.

Also, be sure to check your wiring for shorts.

Thanks for the quick and detailed replies! Our mentor read your posts and agreed with both of you; our tested power sources did not provide enough current. This caused voltage to spike down during periods of high current draw (all servos firing), which explains the low battery message and the brownouts. Even though the voltage always recovers back to 6.6-7.4v, the low battery message continues until we disconnect from the Controller, though reconnecting quickly allows us to pick back up where we left off. Our understanding is that the Controller assumes that its power source will never rise in voltage after falling and thus shuts down regardless of the voltage recovery.

We resolved the voltage drop temporarily today by hooking up the EZ-B Controller to a 7.2V NiMH battery (www.vexrobotics.com/276-1491.html), which has a capacity of 3000mAh. With this battery, we have yet to get a brownout and only get the low battery message after long periods of use (even then, the message is resolved by resetting the connection). Our mentor recommended against using a LiPo battery because they are prone to swelling and we are unsure about the severity of our voltage drops.

In the long term, we will be routing our power supply around the Controller with a servo power distribution board (servos are still controlled by PWMs from the Controller, but their power is supplied by a separate source). That way, any voltage drops will only effect the servos and will not disrupt the function of the Controller. Do either of you see any flaws in this plan?

Oh, and I misinterpreted our mentor about the 7.4v power plug -- he found it in a thread in which DJ Sures recommended certain specs for a power adapter (voltage rating, current capacity, etc), and another user suggested the plug because it fit the exact criteria you laid out.

Powering the servos from a separate source is a good thing. The v4 can handle it if enough amps are available as you have seen, but I like running servo power directly from the power source. What you are proposing will work well from a power perspective.

Edit Well, I thought about this some more. DJ will have to answer this one. It might be that the servos require a common ground with the v4. It seems like I remember reading that somewhere. I am using a common ground for all of my components but am bypassing the v4 for power to 12 of my 28 servos. There are 4 v4's that are supplying power to the other 16 servos. 2 of the v4's have 4 giant servos attached , 1 has 2 giant servos attached, and 1 has 3 micro, 2 giant and 1 large servo attached. The v4 could drive 24 of these servos if given enough current and if these were not to draw more than 20 amps at one time.

My current Power source can provide 28 amps. If I were to move all of these servos at one time, I would brown out. The way I will be handling this is to either get a 12v 70ah lipo, add another battery in parallel or only move a limited number of servos at a time. I like the first option the best but it is also the most expensive.

Thanks, DJ Sures and d.cochran!

Your responses have helped us resolve the problem and we'll look into whether or not our servos need a common ground with the EZ-B Controller. Thanks for taking the time out to help us.

You absolutely require a common ground. control will be unreliable at best without it.

Alan

Thanks, Alan! You've all been great helps to our project.

Great to see you figured it out. In fact, you had all signs of the problem when you wrote the first post. The great thing about electronics is that it's very simple... It's literally logic. Meaning that if something doesn't work, there's only one fix. If you don't have enough power, the fix is more power - within the limits of the hardware.

Keep in mind that there is a data sheet for the ezb which specifies the max amount of current. The specifications are on peak and sustained current - not combine the two values.

To expand on previous responses of common ground... Yes, you always require a common ground between connected devices. There is no such thing as a device which does not need a common ground. All devices which connect via electrical signals need a common ground. This is because the common ground is used as a reference to understand what voltage the signal is. Without a common ground, there is no voltage reference.

The only time that you would not need a common ground is if the device is receiving/transmitting through non conductive mediums, such as fiber optics or radio frequency - in those incidents, timing synchronization is used and embedded within the transmission. Signal reference would be non electrical and therefore not requiring a common ground.