How many servos can a RPi control?

[buchnich]

Hey guys,

I know Adafruit makes a nice shield, but I'm curious of how many servos I can run off the GPIO pins alone. If I powered each servo externally, could I just use a single GPIO header to control the pulses for each individual servo, or does the power need to come from the RPi as well?

Thanks for bearing with me. I'm more of an Arduino guy so some of this stuff is over my head.

Thanks,

Nick

[mikronauts]

joan's pigpio and servoblaster can generate servo pulses on all available Pi GPIO's including serial, i2c and spi

(26, or 28 if you use the hat eeprom i2c pins as well)

The power CANNOT come from the Pi, you have to provide a separate power supply for the servos.

(exception: one, maybe two, 9g servos, unloaded, can be ok)

Hey guys,

I know Adafruit makes a nice shield, but I'm curious of how many servos I can run off the GPIO pins alone. If I powered each servo externally, could I just use a single GPIO header to control the pulses for each individual servo, or does the power need to come from the RPi as well?

Thanks for bearing with me. I'm more of an Arduino guy so some of this stuff is over my head.

Thanks,

Nick

[buchnich]

joan's pigpio and servoblaster can generate servo pulses on all available Pi GPIO's

The power CANNOT come from the Pi, you have to provide a separate power supply for the servos.

(exception: one, maybe two, 9g servos, unloaded, can be ok)

Hey guys,

I know Adafruit makes a nice shield, but I'm curious of how many servos I can run off the GPIO pins alone. If I powered each servo externally, could I just use a single GPIO header to control the pulses for each individual servo, or does the power need to come from the RPi as well?

Thanks for bearing with me. I'm more of an Arduino guy so some of this stuff is over my head.

Thanks,

Nick

So essentially I could control 40 servos?

[mikronauts]

So essentially I could control 40 servos?

No.

26-28, see my edit (posted while you were replying)

[buchnich]

So essentially I could control 40 servos?

No.

26-28, see my edit (posted while you were replying)

Ok. Regardless, thats more than enough for any application I'd need. Thanks for the prompt reply.

[mikronauts]

You are most welcome.