Gilderfluke&Co Sixteen Channel Servo Controller and Joystick Amp - Manual

O PERATING I NSTRUCTIONS
for
S
IXTEEN
C
HANNEL
S
ERVO
M
OTOR
C
ONTROLLER
and
S
IXTEEN
C
HANNEL
J
OYSTICK
A
MPLIFIER
February 27, 1999
The 16 Channel Servo Motor Controller is used to adapt a 0 to 10 volt analog control
signal to the pulse width modulated signal required to control model airplane-style servo
motors. These can be used to animate light weight or short lived pieces of animation as
are often used in motion picture special effects. This type of servo motor is not reliable
enough to be used in most permanent animation applications unless your are willing to
replace them on a fairly regular basis.
The 16 Channel Joystick Amplifier is used to raise the small output swing of a joystick or
other potentiometer to a 0 to 10 volt level. It is often used in conjunction with the 16
Channel Servo Motor Controller. It can also be used to live puppet Atchley Mechanical
FeedBack (MFB) actuators, Electronic FeedBack (EFB) pneumatic and hydraulic actuators,
or any other type of device which requires a 0 to 10 VDC control input.
The Servo Motor Controller has 16 independent inputs and outputs. They can be used
with MACs full-sized animation control systems or with any other source of 0 to 10 VDC
control signals. Up to eight of these cards can be used directly with the outputs from each
analog output card in a full-sized PC¥MACs animation control system for up to 128 servo
motors per analog output card. A full-sized system can contain up to two of these analog
output cards to control up to 256 servo motors at one time.
The 16 Channel Servo Motor Controller is often used in motion picture special effects to
control servo motors through 'live' puppetry. In this case there is no computer or animation
control system used between the operator inputs and servo motor controller. The inputs
can come directly from a potentiometer if it is going to be moved most or all of its stroke.
When using joysticks and similar input devices, the potentiometer's wiper only travels a
small percentage of the overall stroke of the pot. To boost these relatively small voltage
changes up to the levels needed by the servo motor controller, the 16 Channel Joystick
Amplifier can be used.
A Joystick Amplifier can be paired with a set of joysticks and calibrated for a 0 to 10
VDC output. This rig can then be moved between a number of different animated figures
which are expecting this signal level without having to recalibrate them each time.
G ILDERFLUKE & C O . ¥ 205 S OUTH F LOWER S T . ¥ B URBANK , C ALIF . 91502-2102 ¥ 818/840-9484 ¥ FAX 818/840-9485
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