Questions tagged [servo]

A kind of motor with automatic feedback, usually for positioning, such as a hobby RC servo.

A kind of motor with automatic closed-loop feedback, usually for positioning. A standard hobby RC servo uses 1.0 ms to 2.0 ms pulses to set position; sending 1.5 ms pulses sets it to the center position.

Also see Servomechanism on Wikipedia.

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I'd like to learn how to make my own USB gadgets

I've been writing Linux character device drivers for other people's stuff for some time. I'd like to find a new hobby and the thought of making my own USB gizmos seems really neat. I would be thrilled to be able to control some LEDs, servos, and…
Tim Post
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Is there a way to stop servos from "shaking"?

Very simply, I am controlling servos (9g micro servos) based on some data read in from elsewhere. Everything works fine except that the servos will constantly "shake." That is, they vibrate back with very subtle movements (with intermittent…
sherrellbc
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(How) does blocking a (servo/DC) motor break it?

I don't know why, where or how I picked this up, but I believe that if you power an electric motor while blocking it, and thus stopping it from moving, you'll damage it. I'm thinking of the following type of motor, and possibly servo motors: Is it…
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Stall torque for servo, kg/cm?

I've recently bought some cheap TowerPro SG-50 rc servos from ebay. They seem to work quite well, and despite their small size they are quite strong. But how "strong" are they actually. The datasheet specifies: Stall Torque: 0.8 kg / cm What does…
bjarkef
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Drive a 4.8V servo signal line using 3.3V

I have a servo with an operating voltage of 4.8V. I want to drive the servo from a MCU running on 3.3V. I haven't tried it yet, but was wondering if I needed to drive the signal line to 4.8V using a MOSFET or NPN transistor. Is it possible to…
Matt Ruwe
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Is this a correct way to route current away from breadboard?

I've recently grown interested in electronics and robotics, so I wanted to move my contraption using a servo motor. A 555 chip creates a PWM signal for servo for positioning, and I control the servo with a variable resistor. I'm sure it will be able…
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Unit testing AVR assembly language

How do you unit test your assembly code? I'm working on a serial servo controller as part of a hexapod robot project and the code has got to the point where it's becoming complicated ;) Anyway, I'm used to using unit tests in my day job as a C++…
Len Holgate
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What happened to all of the Dynamic Signal Analyzers?

Decades back there were at least half a dozen instrumentation companies offering Dynamic Signal Analyzers (DSA's). Not Spectrum Analyzers, but rather Dynamic Signal Analyzers. The main differences being dual or multiple channel input and frequency…
docscience
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Continuous rotation 'servo' vs DC motor

Under what circumstances should I prefer a continuous rotation 'servo' to a DC motor, or vice versa? It seems to me that to use a DC motor, I'm going to need three pins from an MCU -- two for forward/backward/brake/coast and one for PWM. On top of…
Clinton Blackmore
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How do I measure the current flow to a component?

I'm building a hexapod robot using simple servos and I was wondering how feasible it was to measure the current flow to each servo (5-6V DC to a maximum of 0.25-1A (I haven't found the spec for the servo's stall current yet)) using, say, an…
Len Holgate
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How can the Arduino Uno support up to 12 servos if it only has 6 digital PWM pins?

According to this: The Servo library supports up to 12 motors on most Arduino boards and 48 on the Arduino Mega. On boards other than the Mega, use of the library disables analogWrite() (PWM) functionality on pins 9 and 10, whether or not…
user41158
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What is the difference between stepper motors and servomotors?

I am not sure I understand what the difference between a stepper motor and a servomotor is. Could someone explain this to me? Also how do these motors behave when they are paused or turned off, do they have enough resistance force to hold something…
Razvi
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Driving a servo with MOSFET

I am trying to build a small battery powered device containing a servo. I would like to be able to turn off the servo to save battery life. I have read previously that MOSFETs can be used to do this, but I am having trouble finding example circuits…
jeremy
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How to achieve very accurate/fine rotation with motor

I am running an experiment where I need to rotate a lightweight dial (<5 grams, so very low torque requirement, and fairly slowly), but need to do very accurate, fine steps of 0.03 degrees. Something like this (shown as direct-drive here, but I'm…
boardbite
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High accuracy servo

I'm looking for a two servos to power a pointing and tracking gimbal I'm building for some optics. I'm trying to find the highest accuracy servos I can buy in the standard servo package (or close to it). Does anyone have any recommendations? Most…
gallamine
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