6 DOF from one Arduino?

I know very little about the Arduino, so it would be great if someone more knowledgeable could confirm/deny/discuss.

The Arduino has 6 PWM pins, so you could drive 6 servos, right? So with the right code, you could have it control a 6 DOF sim?

If yes, what low cost driver could accept the PWM signals and be used to drive 12v DC motors?

mmm A Jrk 12v12 can be driven with an RC pulse. Was the way I first used them back in 2009, two Jrks hooked to a usb servo controller.
Then discovered I could talk to them directly with USB commands.
Opps sorry your looking for a low cost driver.

Driving many servos with arduino is no problem:
you're right a single PWM pin per servo is enough.

you even have dedicated board
https://learn.adafruit.com/16-channel-pwm-servo-driver/overview

yes, but a miniature scale simulator only. You can find some examples in the forum.

here a 4DOF gSeat with servos from @Schluzu http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/ultraforce-gs-4-diy-software.5280/

but if you want to drive 12V DC motor, they are not servos!
For these, you need power and H-bridges

or you can buy 12 DC servos but it's probably expensive.
Do your sourcing and share back the results with us!

How does the Arduino control the servos? Is the PWM signal like a standard RC servo signal? If yes, an ESC can accept RC servo signals, so can we use a bi-directional ESC to drive the 12v DC motors?

You can start by googling a bit and bringing answers rather than questions
Here are some answers

http://dronesandrovs.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/how-to-control-a-brushless-motor-esc-with-arduino/

Powerfull ESC are quite expensive
http://www.robotpower.com/products/vyper_info.html 200$

• 120A continuous current (>250A peak!)

• 7.0V to 42V battery voltage

Sabertooth can be also driven by RC signal
http://www.robotshop.com/en/dimension-engineering-sabertooth-2x25.html

Waterproof ESC with Reverse: 4.8-12V
Forward: yes
Reverse: yes
Continuous Maximum Current: 40 amps
Input Voltage: 4-10 cells (4.8-12 V) 40$
http://www.proboatmodels.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PRB2314

Thanks mat.

I googled for some time, and used many different terms, but the info I found was not very clear. I understand how an ESC works - I'm just asking if it's suitable for this or is there a better solution?

Im in the middle of finishing off code for a K8061 to run 3x sabertooths to run a 3 to 6 dof sim off one cheap controller.
No code will be require by the user like in my existing K8055 application that successfully controls one Sabertooth.
BTW Mat did you finish your Ard code to run a Sabertooth, your existing code fails.

Clearly you guys are more knowledgeable than me when it comes to this stuff, so I'll just throw another idea out there. Forget the ESC for now.

As a single Arduino can already control 6 x servos, can we unhook the servo output from the small motor that is inside the servo, and hook it up to a driver to amplify the signals to run a large 12v motor?

If yes, this would make a very cheap 6DOF controller.

Can be done.
Here's a video of it. I heavily researched it before finding the Jrks in 2009.

Thanks for the vid Rob! Looks like it is indeed do-able.

Unfortunately, it is still a Work In Progress and I haven't finished it. Maybe one day someone could start from this and finish it...