How to know that your Arduino can handle a servo motor?

[trickybilly]

I am very new to electronics. How to know if my Arduino can handle a motor? I have a "Carson-model Sport 500502015 CS3 Reflex racing servo" - is it ok and how to know? Afrotechmods said that plugging a bigger motor (anything that draws more than a few mA) would be bad for an Arduino. How can I know if it will be too much for an Arduino? I have 2 of these mentioned motors and 2 "little blue" 9G microservos. If I join all 4 for a robotic arm will that be too much?

 

[ISamson]

Can you tell us what Arduino you have?

 

[trickybilly]

Arduino UNO R3

 

[donpacino]

Two things.

1. Can you link the servo specification sheet to show us how much current it pulls.
2. It is good practice to use the aruidino to control the servo, and a separate power supply to power the servo, or the same power supply bypassed around the arduino. you can also use an arduino shield to easily build your solution. https://www.adafruit.com/product/1411

Look at the below tutorial for some help!
http://www.robotshop.com/blog/en/arduino-5-minute-tutorials-lesson-5-servo-motors-3636

 

[Borek]

I believe you are talking about servos used in RC models. If so - it can't, most servos can draw quite a current (often measured in amperes) while the Arduino survives up to tens mA loads (I am not sure now whether it is 50 mA total or 200 mA total, but we are definitely speaking an order of magnitude difference).

However, when driving such a servo you don't power it from the Arduino. Arduino is there just to send the controlling PWM signal, and it can be done directly.

Servo has three wires - black goes to a common ground, red goes to the power (5 V from the BEC or UBEC or something like that), third goes to the PWM source, be it the receiver or the Arduino or whatever. All three wires are part of one cable together and typical receiver supplies the necessary power, so there is only one plug, but it doesn't have to be this way.

 

[donpacino]

I also want to make a note...
An arduino is really just a special microcontroller. Normal micrcontroller you can NEVER pull current more than a few mAs out of. With arduino, there is a 5V rail that is supplied that is also used to power the microcontroller on the board. This means you can pull a few hundred mA from it (which is probably not enough for your application).

If it is enough for your application, don't fall into the trap of thinking it is the norm. You can only do this because arduinos are designed for easy prototyping.