Any body used these servo's yet?

I have recently started developing the V5 hexapod and will be using these servos. First impressions are good, however, The I beleive the default dead band setting of the amplifier to be of no use in my application. So I will need to purchase a HFP-10 servo programmer.

Also I'm curious as to why hi-tec have not used the metal heat sink case on the robot servo as they have with the digital car servo's?

Anybody managed to hack the HFP-10 yet and ,make their own programmer?

M@

I'm think of using their not-so-expensive cousins, the HSR-8498HB. From what I can tell, the programmer also uses the 'HMI' protocol I was talking about, which is what these new servos have which allows serial position signalling, and position feedback, and other goodies. It's talked about a lot on the Hitec Robotics website, but I've yet to find any nitty gritty protocol stuff that would let me get a PIC to use it.

Hmmm..

When I got the HSR-5995TG servos I got excited by something written on the box saying "position feedback", but have not seen anything that would lead me to beleve that they can be controlled ofer a serial type interface? Although it would be the obvious step forward.

The only thing I thought the position feedback may have been referencing, is that fact that when you switch the servo's on, even without a PWM signal they power up and hold their current position. Which means that the internal micro reads the current feedback pot and sets the current drive position accordingly. Which I find an anoying feature.. as there seems to be no way of making the servo's relax. I hope there is a setting you can switch to turn this feature off!

M@

I think it's definatelly something worth looking into. I'll fire off an email to hitec. I do like these new servos generally, and a serial interface would seem to be a fairly obvious evolution in something specifically designed for robotcs. If you do end up forking out for a programmer, I don't suppose I could pay a visit?? I'm in chichester, so it's not too far :)

Ed

Yeah no problem, I will let you know when I get one. I have one on order with 14 servo's, but they are taking for ever!

However, I am about to embark on a 3 month trip to Australia... starting tomorrow! so it will be in the summer some time. :)

M@

Have a great time!

I've just bought a copy of Introduction to robotics, mechanics and control. Bit of a major stretch considering a-level maths doesn't even cover matrices, but i'm getting through it :) Hopefully I'll understand it by the time you get back!

Have a great time.

Here we go! Looks like you send the servo a short (50usec) pulse, switch your port pin to input (needs pull-up resistor) and then read back a variable length pulse 500-2500 usecs in length representing the feedback position (accuracy of 10%) - no probs for a PIC. I'm amazed though - was expecting some kinf of serial communication protocol, not PWM! http://www.robonova.de/store/down/download/files/anleitung_8498.pdf

Nice one sandy,

thanks for finding that out, I'm looking forward to making use of that feature..

Follow the link above for PDF.