Connecting multiple servos to a robotic arm

Question

I am computer programmer and it's really been long since I have done electronics. I need help on connecting my servos to an Arduino to power my robotic arm. This is the robotic arm that I am trying to build.

I have come up with the connections as shown in the below diagram with my basic knowledge and browsing the internet. I have omitted the signal wires for clarity.

What I would like to know is

• Will this work?

• Is this a good/decent design? I think it isn't as I have 4 battery packs.

  I would like to have a single power source that would save me the trouble of maintaining so many batteries. To do this I have thought of using a voltage regulator but I am concerned about how this would perform if one servo starts drawing too much load. It might suck up all most the power leaving very little for the other servos.

Any suggestions would be greatly helpful.

Answer 1

1. It's will work depending on the characteristics of your batteries and servo motors (draw current and voltage). If you draw more current than the battery capacity you'll damage your batteries (overload or overdischarge) and probably your servos. I suggest to you to use NIMH battery they are more reliable than the AAA batteries

2. Why you want to use single porwer ssource, 4 batteries pack in parallel are more reliable for your servos. If one servo drawing to much current, its will effect one battery and the other servos they are safe. In the other case (one sngle battery), the others servos may damaged by the failing servo. If you use one single battery, you need the arduino to control the current and voltage of the servos and BMS to your battery.