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external power supply to pixy/arduino/servo.

Pixy Hardware
#1

Hi! I am planning an installation of three “sculptures” that will recognise different colors and when they do they will follow them with their “heads”. I made a small prototype with the pan/tilt system with microservos and everything was easy for my low knowledge but now that I want to do it in big a lot of problems appeared.

The “head” that is supposed to be moving when the color is detected is made of wood and weights aprox 3kg. and its size is 40cm. my first question is which is the best servo motor to use for that weight and easy performance together with pixy? The second question would be what is the best way of providing power? I would like to do it through batteries but again I don’t really know which rechargeable batteries are the best for this due to the fact that it should be working for 6 hours a day for a complete week.

I am sorry for so many questions but i would really love to make this possible in a bigger scale as i did with my small prototype.

Thanks !

#2

Hello Yoryeline,
3 kg is fairly heavy! Pixy’s servo ports can handle about 1.5A total current, and I suspect you’ll be over that limit if you use appropriately sized motors.

There are lots of vendors that have large servos. Robotshop, Lynxmotion are some examples. You’ll need to have a separate power supply for the servos, but you can still use the PWM control signal from Pixy to control them. Also be sure to use common grounds between the servo power supply, Pixy and the servos.

Hope this helps!

Edward

#3

Hi Edward,

Thanks for your answer!
It already helps to find a solution. I will first of all try to find lighter materials to make everything easier.

I might be asking again future issues though :).
Thanks!

Yor