BasicMicro - Forums

Fallentine, you mentioned a quadraped, so this board has four fully-implemented servo headers on it. Look in the lower left corner. The eight remaining free pins have individual pins to hook sensors and such to.
The TO220 package I put on the board, if you use the LDO regulator, will support 1.5 Amps if you put a heavy heat sink on it.
I ran the cost calculator on these boards. I can get 40 boards for less than $10 apiece, but they come with no solder mask or silkscreen. Just tinned traces and plated through pads, which is good enough for initial prototypes, but not commercial boards. Twenty fully fabbed boards were ~$15 apiece, with a 15 day turnaround.

Sorry, which questions went unanswered...
Have a nice project.

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kenjj
http://blog.basicmicro.com/
http://kjennejohn.wordpress.com/

My quadruped has 12 servos. 3dof. 4 headers would only work for 4 servos. And though a quadruped can be made with 4 servos, it would be a rather sad quadruped, not like mine is any better atm.

I hope to use two 1.5A regulators on my board, i simply don't like having to use external regulators all the time, like i'm forced to now.
Since i use micro servos, two 1.5A regulators would be plenty for any of my contraptions.
My previous rover only used a single 1.5A regulator, which i attached to the chassis of my rover to use the chassis as a heatsink. I can post a pic on request of that.

Your board would be good for a different project, but would be a bit tough for a quadruped, as i'd need a second board/bread board for more servo headers, so it's no good for my quadruped or my rover (it has a 6 servo arm).

Mine is more of a bot board, specifically for bots, your's is more of a control board to use WITH a servo controller board like the SSC-32.
So someone with an SSC-32 wanting an atom controller to pair it with, yours is definitely the better choice.
Someone wanting an all in 1 board, mine would be the better choice, except mine is all DIY, i'll be soldering 30-40 wires, which i have no problem with. I need to wait for a refund from deal extreme, canceled an order, and then have paypal transfer back into my bank, before i can hitup radioshack for these parts.

Kenjj, 1 more thing, where can i find a 5V 1.5A LDO regulator online with free shipping?

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Basic Micro Blog
Universal Robot Controller

Let's start with this:
http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/browse.jsp?N=511+500003+1001978+5119638+159955&Ntk=gensearch_001|gensearch_001&Ntt=ic+linear|5V+LDO+TO220&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial|mode+matchallpartial&No=0&getResults=true&appliedparametrics=true&locale=en_US&catalogId=&prevNValues=511+500003+1001978+5119638&filtersHidden=false&appliedHidden=false&originalQueryURL=%2Fjsp%2Fsearch%2Fbrowse.jsp%3FN%3D511%2B500003%2B1001978%26Ntk%3Dgensearch_001%7Cgensearch_001%26Ntt%3Dic%2Blinear%7C5V%2BLDO%2BTO220%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchallpartial%7Cmode%2Bmatchallpartial%26No%3D0%26getResults%3Dtrue%26appliedparametrics%3Dtrue%26locale%3Den_US%26catalogId%3D%26prevNValues%3D511%2B500003%2B1001978
This is the results page at Newark Industries for two regulators that meet your specs: fixed 5V output, LDO, TO220 package, 1.5A. That 1.5A spec is the hard part.

As for Ebay, there is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MlCREL-5V-1-5A-Regulator-MIC29150-5-0BT-TO-220-Qty-5-/180558057796?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0a195144
$6 for 5 parts, but there's $2.50 shipping. I used "5V regulator" in the search. You can look further. I was amazed to find a part like this so fast on the first search page.

As for shipping costs, most places will ship free if you buy above a set amount, like $50. The free places are usually in Hong Kong, Taiwan a nd China. How long you wanna wait? Most places in the US will ship US mail for less than $3.

As for the questions, I'd say you are waiting on BMicro to say something.
Later.

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kenjj
http://blog.basicmicro.com/
http://kjennejohn.wordpress.com/

Can't you just run the 'bot off of a 6V Nicad pack? That's what I'm doing. I do have plans to go to 7.2v LiPo, but until then...

Alan KM6VV

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Thanks to Kenjj i got the regulators out of the way.

Ya i could run the VS on 6v, but the nano, like the atom pro need 5v.
6v, though 1 extra volt doesn't seem like much, it would be very dangerous to run the VL on.

Also i don't have any 6v batteries, or nicad for that matter, i hate nicad batteries with a passion.
I have 8.4v, which actually put out 9.4v fully charged-
9.6v which put out a little over 10v charged.
and i also have 10.x volt batteries which put out about 11-12v charged.
All Ni-MH, which are vastly superior to ni-cad, smaller, lighter, more power, and best yet, no charge memory, so i don't need to discharge them before recharging.

I'm getting some 0.5A, 1.5A, 0.8A, and 3.0A regulators, all for "cheap". I'm going to use the 0.5A regulators for Dedicated VL, and either 2x 1.5A or 1x 3.0A for the VS.
Which i'll just attach a simple and tiny "heat sink" to.
I don't anticipate having any power issues this time around, infact i'll be able to replace the regulators on my old rover as well.

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Basic Micro Blog
Universal Robot Controller

How many servos do you plan on running off the VS regulators? 3amps isn't much when it comes to servos.

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Basic Micro - Robotic Technology Evolved

You might want to consider asking for one of these for Christmas:
http://www.basicmicro.com/Power_c_96.html
At only $25 apiece, these lend themselves nicely to the effort. And the fact that they are switchers means greatly reduced heat.
And check this thread out, especially the picture of the board using coins for heat sinks!
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/general-electronics-chat/109844-reasons-uln2003-heat-up.html
Later.

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kenjj
http://blog.basicmicro.com/
http://kjennejohn.wordpress.com/

12x 7g micro servos.
3A with a heatsink on the regulator should do fine.

Though my rover did 2 STD servos, and 1 mini servo, and 4 micro servos, all on a single 1.5A regulator, which with a decent heatsink works fine.
It also used 2 motors off the same regulator.

Right now a 1A, and a 0.5A regulator can do the job, though the 0.5 regulator, is really hot running 4 servos.
So 1.5A works, 3A should be way more than enough.
I'm designing my board so you can disable the regulator(s) with a jumper, then you can supply an external power source to the middle regulator select pin.
If i only use a single 3A regulator, instead of selecting between regulator 1 or 2, i'll have it select between the 3A regulator, or connect directly to the VS lines.
The VS line will also power a single 0.5A or 0.8A 5v regulator for just the nano. And my personal board will have a 5v to 3.3v TTL converter, since my bluetooth adapter is 3.3v. So a 3.3v regulator will fit nicely.
I been a bit busy to finish designing my bot board nano, But i'll probably have all the parts for it in the next day or 2. Depending on how much i can salvage, i need to find and salvage a bunch of 0.1uf caps, which will save me $4, and some 10k surface mount resistors, i know where to get those though, they are just hard to get off.

Pennies might not work. But i always seem to figure something out, i'll probably just cut up some aluminum cans.

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Basic Micro Blog
Universal Robot Controller

Bot board nano thread continues HERE.

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Basic Micro Blog
Universal Robot Controller