TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Published 2026-02-07
When you first got the 16-bitservodriver board, did you feel a little confused about where to start? Faced with this small board that integrates many interfaces, I don't know how to connect it to yourservoand controller, let alone how to program it to be obedient. Don’t worry, this is a common starting point for many makers and robotics enthusiasts. This article will take you from scratch to understand its usage step by step, allowing you to easily drive multipleservos and realize your creative projects.
You may have encountered this situation: if you want to make a multi-jointed robot arm or a complex animated doll, you need to control several or even a dozen servos at the same time. If you directly connect the servo to this type of development board, you will find that there are not enough pins at all, and the current output capability of the main control board is also limited, so it cannot drive so many servos at the same time. At this time, a special servo drive board becomes a necessity. It is like a "loudspeaker" and "traffic director" that can amplify the weak control signals from your main control board and distribute them to each servo in an orderly manner, so that they can work synchronously, stably, and powerfully.
The benefits of using a driver board are obvious. First of all, it liberates your main control board so that it can focus on logical calculations and leave the heavy "manual work" to the driver board. Secondly, it can provide a more stable and sufficient current, ensuring that each servo can receive sufficient power and the action will not be "soft" or jittery. Finally, it greatly simplifies your circuit connection. You only need to connect the driver board and main control board with a few wires, and you can easily control 16 servos through the program. The wiring is neat and debugging is convenient.
There are many choices of 16-bit servo driver boards on the market. How to choose? The key depends on several hard indicators. The first is the communication interface. The most common one is the I2C interface. This interface only requires two wires (SDA and SCL) to communicate with the main control board. It occupies very few pins and is very convenient. You need to confirm that your main control board (such as Uno, ESP32) supports I2C. The second is the power supply capability. The driver board itself does not produce electricity. It requires an external power supply to power the steering gear. You need to choose a power adapter with sufficient power based on the total current of all your servos working at the same time.
Another point that is easily overlooked is the logic levels. The working voltage of some driver boards is 5V, and some are 3.3V. This needs to match the logic level of your main control board, otherwise it may cause communication failure or even damage the device. For beginners, it is recommended to choose a driver board with this type of chip solution. It has a wealth of information in the open source community and a large number of ready-made code libraries and tutorials for reference. This can greatly reduce your learning costs and avoid pitfalls in hardware compatibility.
After you get the driver board, the first step is to wire it correctly. This process can be broken down into three parts: power connection, servo connection and control signal connection. First deal with the power supply and find the power terminals marked "V+" and "GND" on the driver board. Connect the positive terminal of your external power source (such as a lithium battery pack or regulated power adapter) to "V+" and the negative terminal to "GND". Remember here that the voltage of the power supply must be within the working voltage range of your servo (commonly used is 6V or 7.4V).
Connect your servo cable to the servo channel on the driver board. Usually, the driver board will have 16 groups of pin headers, each group has three pins, which correspond to the signal wire of the servo plug (usually orange or white), the positive power supply (red) and the ground wire (brown or black). Make sure the direction is correct. Finally, use Dupont wires to connect the I2C interface (SDA, SCL) of the driver board to the corresponding pins of the main control board. At the same time, connect the "GND" of the driver board to the "GND" of the main control board so that they share the same ground. This completes all hardware connections.
After the hardware is connected, the core control relies on software. You need to install the corresponding driver library in the programming environment (such as IDE) of your main control board. For chips, a commonly used library is "PWM Servo". After installation, introduce this library at the beginning of the code, initialize a driver board object, and set its I2C address (usually the default is 0x40).
The key function to control the rotation of the servo is to set the pulse width. You don't need to calculate complex pulse width times directly, library functions usually provide a more intuitive method. For example, you can use the "(, on, off)" function, or the more convenient "(, pulse)" function. For the latter, you only need to specify the channel number (0-15) and a pulse width value (in commonly used servos, 1500 microseconds represents the median, 500-2500 microseconds represents the 0-180 degree range), and the driver board will automatically generate the corresponding PWM wave to drive the servo to the specified angle.
Things are connected and the code is uploaded, but the servo is not responding? Don't worry, let's check them in order first. The first step is to check the power supply. Use a multimeter to measure the voltage between "V+" and "GND" on the driver board to confirm that the external power supply is correctly connected and the voltage is normal. At the same time, observe whether the power indicator light on the driver board is on. The second step is to check the I2C communication. You can add code to scan the I2C address in the program to see if the main control board can successfully find the driver board. If you can't find it, check whether the SDA, SCL and GND lines are firmly connected and the contact is good.
If communication is normal but a certain servo is not turning, the problem may be localized to that channel. Try to change the servo to another channel that is confirmed to be normal for testing. If it moves, it means there may be a problem with the original channel hardware; if it still doesn't move, the servo itself may be damaged. In addition, pay attention to whether the pulse width range set in the code exceeds the mechanical limit of the servo you are using. Excessively large angle commands may cause the servo to get stuck and make abnormal noises, and may damage the gears over a long period of time.
Once you become familiar with the basic controls, there are many more tricks you can play with this little board. You can use it to make a robotic arm with multiple servos, and program each joint to move smoothly to complete actions such as grabbing and carrying. You can also use it to make a bionic spider robot that coordinates dozens of servos on eight legs to achieve complex walking gaits. It can even be used in smart homes to control the opening and closing of curtains, the flipping of screens, etc.
To make the movements smoother, you need to learn how to make multiple servos move together. The core is the "interpolation" algorithm, which means that when the servo goes from the current position A to the target position B, it does not jump suddenly, but calculates several transition positions in the middle, and allows the servo to reach these positions in a short time interval, so that a smooth motion trajectory can be visually formed. There are many open source project codes and algorithm libraries on the Internet. You can learn from them and quickly improve your project level.
What kind of project do you most want to use a 16-bit servo driver board for now? Is it a robotic arm, a robot, or a more interesting interactive art installation? Welcome to share your thoughts in the comment area. If you find this article helpful, don’t forget to like and share it with more friends in need!
Update Time：2026-02-07
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