Asked — Edited

Power Supply For Either Ezb V4 Or V3

Does anybody have a link or a suggestion as to what AC Power supply I could use with over 20 large Servos? Also if I wanted to use external battery what size and AMPs.

I'm currently using a 12V AD to DC with 1.25 amp power supply. When running the EZB program ( auto position) running 10 large servo, it works for about 3 times then seems to not move the servos. I unplug the power supply and reconnect it and it works for about 3 servo moves.

Any help would be appreciated.


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#1  

You need far more amps. The v4 has a 20 amp fuse. I would look at a 12 volt, 20 amp power supply which would let you do what your battery would allow. Batteries allow you to use a lot of amps.

#2  

You could use an 480 to 850 watt computer power supply but should do some research on what wires to use and how to jumper the power supply to work.

#3  

You can find 12 volt 30 amp regulated switching power supplies on ebay for $20 some even have free shipping.

#4  

So you're saying I can directly connect to the EZB V4 board with a 120V AC to 12 DC power supply up to 20 Amps without damaging the EZB. Correct?

If I us just a 12VDC battery with high amps can I connect it directly to the EZB too?

Thank you, d.cochran and robot-doc.

#5  

Yes, you can also connect 12 volt batteries directly to the EZB(4). You might consider SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) batteries. They will come in a variety of amperage capacities to suit your needs. Of course you will also need a way to recharge those batteries. And again there are several chargers available with different amperage capacities to accomplissh the task.

#7  

Hum. I just burned up my EZB V4 using a 12VDC 8Ah SLA battery, smoke came out of the board and no more lights. It did work for about 2 minutes.

I think I will get a servo power board to power my servos. But now I just blow 199 or so bucks. stress

#8  

https://synthiam.com/Tutorials/Lesson/18

The v4 can handle more that 12 volts. Did you connect it backwards? I have connected multiple v4's to 12 volts multiple times without an issue.

#9  

Did you have the V4 in a power base? If so, it should have blown the fuse in the base before blowing the v4.

#10  

No, I used the adaptor sold on this site and connected + to pos (Red) and - neg (black on the battery. Maybe to much power went to the servos?

Reset button no help.

#11  

I unplugged all the servos and the EZB is working again. I must of fried my servo because if I hook them up to EZB it goes dead again. I will investigate tomorrow.

And now it make sense since the D0 thru D24 port are basically passive/Unregulated Power. I will update once I find out what I did wrong.

Thanks all. tired

United Kingdom
#12  

The V4 has a 20A fuse plus reverse polarity protection. It can handle in excess of 12V. The power supply was not what caused the problem. It would have been something connected to the EZ-B V4 which caused the problem.

First check the servos and anything else which connects to the EZ-B can handle the 12V DC you are supplying them. Then check each item one by one until you find the item which causes the EZ-B to go dead.

PRO
Canada
#13  

Hi @Merne, Are your servos rated for 12V? I don't know many that are, this may be too much voltage for them.

#14  

I am with Jeremie on this.... If you are using 12V with your v4 then your servos are getting 12v.... That's not good... Chances are they won't tolerate more than 7.2ish... Voltage (12V SLA battery) had nothing to do with your mysterious blue smoke episode with your v4. As Rich mention a short or something connected to the board is what caused the problem... Maybe it would help for you to read up on the relationship between amps, volts, watts (basic electrical properties)?

#15  

@Merne.... before you chuck the V4, check the main fuse to see if it is blown... Maybe you just blew the fuse and instead the smoke came from something else you had attached to the V4 at the time?

#16  

Lol after getting some sleep, richard and jeremie are right. the servo can only handle 7.2esh volts. i am going to test the EZ-B tonight.

i think the ezd is ok.

thanks all

#17  

It would appear that you may want to look into getting 7.4 volt battery packs instead of 12 vdc packs. They also come with different amp or milliamp capacities and can be connected in parallel to provide more amperage without raising voltage.

#18  

That's what a'm going to do. i was tired and knew better. hard lession learned, think before you punt.

#19  

@ merne, I have had my InMoov robot up and running for about a year (on an Arduino based OS), however, I am in the process of switching it over to run on EZ-Robot. Here's how I am powering the robot. I have 2 - 6 volt 12 amp hour batteries connected together in parallel, the power from the batteries go to a main bus bar. All of the servo power + & - wires are connected to the bus bar. All of the servo signal wires are connected to the EZBv4. A ground wire is connected from the battery power supply to the ground pin on the EZB. I am also powering the EZBv4 from the batteries. There is an on/off switch between the batteries to the servo's and one between the EZBv4. This way the controller can be turned on and connected before powering up the servo's. This type of set up works great and provides lots of power all 24 servo's in my InMoov.

I hope this helps.

Australia
#20  

Can you please take a photo of your setup? My EZB does not like running on 6V at all. I think I need to give it more power, but the the servos fry after 6V, so they need to be wired around this microcontroller, which is really annoying.

#21  

@BHOUSTON "I have 2 - 6 volt 12 amp hour batteries connected together in parallel"

Slightly off topic, just wondering if you have any easy method to recharge them? Or do you have to disconnect them and charge them one at a time?