okidey
Hi!
My name is Kristian. I have recently ordered the EZ-B Board here, and am excited to consider myself a new EZ-B owner!
Well, almost. I am now awaiting all the items to be delivered, and ofourse have been thinking about various things to build. Naturally I have my questions also..
Together with the EZ-B board I have ordered a total of 18 Heavy duty Servo's, 1 Ultrasonic ping sensor, and 1 Mini servo to sweep the Ultrasonic sensor. I am thinking of building a Hexapod. I intend to use all 18 heavy duty servo's for the legs, 6 legs each having 3 servo's. Similar to a robot I've seen from Lynxmotion, namely the 'Phoenix' Hexapod version. So I need to consider a proper power source. If anyone could give me some suggestions, I would very much appreciate it. I was considering using a set of either 6 or 8 AA recharbeable batteries of 2700mah, would that work?
Also..I am assuming there will be no Bluetooth dongle included so I will have to purhase one here in Holland. An Asus bluetooth stick 2.1 EDR USB-BT211 seems like an interesting option, allthough I have no idea as to wether it would be compatible with the EZ-B. What do you guy's think?
And one other thing.. I was wondering as to wether someone else might have built a similar concept of a Hexapod robot, and wether or not someone here has any experiences and/or useful information regarding the coding for movement and balancing of such a robot.
Any information regarding these 3 questions would be greatly appreciated.
Further more..
I have to admit that I am an absolute beginner when it comes to coding, robotics and
electronics. Right now my knoledge and experience regarding all these aspects is very,
very limited. I am however eager to learn, and like to consider myself smart enough
to be ABLE to learn. But if I seem slow, please bare with me. 
*EDIT
About the battery question, I have read a little further in the forums and have instead decided to go for a Li-Ion 7.4v 2600mah battery pack. I'm guessing that should do the trick.
Thanks, I am looking forward to building my own EZ-B!
Greets, Kristian.
With 18 heavy duty servos, you might wind up needing to supply them with alternate power so as not to brown out the board. Try with the single pack, but if you get connections dropping, there are instructions in recent threads about alternate power, and DJ will soon have an alternate power board to make it easier.
For hexepod motion, I think you could use the new relative servo motion control to do very smooth coordination of the legs.
Alan
yeah if you have more than 4 servos a different power supply will be a must for sure
Thanks for your replies!
Just to understand correctly, if I use the single pack and connections start dropping out, is that a sign of the board burning out?
If I want to make sure I get it right the 1st time, would using 2 Li-Ion 7.4v 2600mah packs, 1 for the board and another for the servo's be my best bet?
Kristian.
Not burning out, browning out. Too much power demand.
@okidey yes two batterys is better to prevent a low current availability for your board. they call this " BROWNING OUT" the board turns off and doesnt function. 7.2 volts may be too much for those servos so go buy a DC to DC regulated power supply, they are usually adjustable from 12v to 6v or lower.
Alright, oops. I missread that.
So I'll just buy 2 packs and try with 1 first, then wait for that alternate power board.
About that Asus bluetooth stick 2.1 EDR USB-BT211. Does anyone have experiences using this? Would this be suitable for the EZ-B?
@ jstarne1 I have ordered the bench table power supply sold here on the website, would that be alright too? or would that be too much? Lets say these servo's 6v. i would have to hook them up directly onto a 6v dc powersource? and lets say a 7v dc powersource for the board?
Thanks for your replies.
Kristian.
You only want a max of 6v directly to the servos. You can either use a 7.2 pack and a voltage regulator (it will get warm, but you'll have plenty of amps for the servos) or you might be able to find a 6v power source with good amperage.
Virtually any BT stick should work. They pretty much all support serial over BT.
Alan
Welcome!
Alot of great folks here with some great knowledge. Your project sounds absolutely sick..can't wait to see it develop!
v/r
kevin