# Servo control from a distance/anyone try this?



## darrylqmiller (Oct 22, 2012)

Searched but not finding much. I would like to make a central station to control skulls, lights, etc.
This year it's just one tri-axle but next year would like more. My thought:
Have the servo control board in the garage and run one CAT6 wire to each skull using this:
http://www.servocity.com/html/cat6_servo_extension.html#.VCLgjUszy2w


----------



## darrylqmiller (Oct 22, 2012)

Crap, sorry. Hit post instead of preview.

With one board I should be able to run a few skulls via Monkey Basic triggering different VSA routines for different skulls.

This year I want to control one skeleton with tri-axle skull using this guy hopefully turned into a cauldron creep.

My Version Of Scary Terry Bucky Greater. Photo by darrylqmiller | Photobucket

Next year I want to add a small child (I've been saving a creepy sing song child calling for his dog for YEARS) and dog skeleton next year. The child would call for his dog and the dog would howl and bark.

I'll use LOR to control back ground light this year since I have it but want to move onto DMX and VSA next year as I used to have a DJ business and lots of RGB spot lights.

Thanks in advance for any input on the CAT6 extended should work well for relatively cheap.


----------



## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

It sounds like it would work, and pretty inexpensively, too. You might try doing a search for the part on the robotics forums to see if someone there has used it. I did a quick search on the name "cat6 servo extension" and found a few discussions.


----------



## darrylqmiller (Oct 22, 2012)

Thanks for the confirmation. Seems to me with my parallax board with 15 outs I would be able to do five skulls off of one board versus getting a different board for each skull. Plus the CAT6 wire will allow me to move the skulls/skeletons around easier each year.

I also googled that but didn't really see anything helpful to me, maybe I'll just have to read outside of the halloween forums for similar applications.


----------



## bfjou812 (Aug 15, 2008)

I used a pair of the Parallax boards ,each one on a separate com port. I was able to run 3 skulls that had 2 axis eyes for a total of 18 servos. I also used a Battleswitch relay to start a 16 relay board to run other devices. There were also some other devices and props that were triggered from the Parallax board that triggered a Prop-1 controller. This was all from VSA and a laptop. It took some creative programming but the whole deal was triggered from 1 PIR sensor. The total outputs used between the 2 boards was 25 - 28. The power supplies were 5v 10 amps as I recall.


----------



## darrylqmiller (Oct 22, 2012)

Awesome. Thanks for the input.


----------



## darrylqmiller (Oct 22, 2012)

Well the servo extensions, send and receive board came today with the 25 foot Cat6 cable. Plugged everything in and it worked flawlessly. This means that with my Parallax servo board that controls 15 servos I should be able to operate up to five 3 Axis skulls from one location with the Cat6 cables running out to the skeletons(supposedly up to 100 Ft away.)

My plan this year is to have the computer and the board with the sending unit in the garage and a Cat6 cable running to the skeleton. He will be nearly free standing and should look pretty cool. Next year I hope to add a small child and dog skeleton to the show, just not enough time this year.

In addition I purchased Monkey Basic Pro and his Gate keeper board. Next year I'm hoping to use that to control everything (VSA controlling DMX lights, multiple 3 Axis routines, audio and projector for Atmosfear FX.) Should be like a show that people can stand and watch from the street mixed in with pneumatic props that will be motion activated when TOT's come to the door.

Down side is that while Monkey Basics seems to work well and is easy to use I'm using it on an older computer with XP so the required VSA Console won't work on that computer. Since my version of VSA is so old it can't updated due to no support on Brookshire's side. My fault since it clearly states on Monkey Basics's website requirements needed just scanned over and didn't clearly read it.

Up side is I have a Windows 7 Laptop that I used to use for DJing but the screen is broken. New screen is supposed to be here Monday so I'll buy the newest version of VSA, VSA console and put Helmsman Pro on that and all should be good. Plus the projector is due to be here Monday and my Entec Open USB is coming so I should be able to start reprograming by next week.

I'll post some pictures of the servo extension set up when I get it built.


----------



## darryl (Mar 23, 2006)

Following up on promised pictures.
Here's the receiving side I mounted in a small project box from Radio Shack. Plugged the servo ends into this.









I ran a 50 foot CAT6 cable from the sending side, which I mounted into a project box with the Parallax servo controller, out from the garage to the skeleton.










Soldered on a short piece of speaker wire to a jack that I can plug the wall wart into so that I don't have to have the wall wart permanently mounted to the box. Hope this helps or inspires someone.










It worked great every night and I have room for at least four more servo extender units to mount inside the box which I nick named:


----------



## bfjou812 (Aug 15, 2008)

I've also used some PLCs that have worked great. On one prop I used a small Teco PLC and was able to make a trash can trauma do the following with 1 cylinder and only 1 input and one output. 
Rattle for .50 ms 3 times
extend for 2.5 s 2 times and finally 
extend for 15 s then retract
I had a pause of about 1 sec between each action and the whole thing was setup so it could not trigger for 3 minutes after the whole routine was done.


----------

