Last Updated on October 8, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
From Quora
“There are several single-board-computers that are similar in size to the Raspberry Pi and are capable of running Python and connecting to multiple servos. Some popular options include the Arduino Mega, the BeagleBone Black, and the Odroid XU4. Each of these boards has its own unique features and capabilities, so it really depends on your specific project and requirements.
The Arduino Mega
is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega1280 or ATmega2560. It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 15 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button.
The BeagleBone Black
is a low-cost, community-supported development platform for developers and hobbyists. It is a single-board computer with an AM335x 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 512MB DDR3 RAM, 4GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage, and a USB client for power and communications.
The Odroid XU4
is a powerful Single Board Computer (SBC) which is built around the Samsung Exynos5422 Cortex-A15 2GHz and Cortex-A7 Octa core CPU. It has 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and more.
There are no SBC models that I know of that will handle more than a few servos.
The PCA9685 is an Arduino servo controller for up to 16 motors.
- This very basic tutorial
- shows how to set this up on a Raspberry Pi. There are many SBC’s that are more powerfull than Raspberry Pi, but the 1.2GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A53 with 1GB of DDR3 is quite fast for a servo controller.
- A more advanced tutorial shows the PCA9685 with an Arduino UNO, providing more detailed overview of the board. Additional details are provided for setting up multiple PCA9685 boards for up to 64 servo controllers