circuitpython/docs/tutorial/servo.rst

Controlling hobby servo motors
==============================

There are 4 dedicated connection points on the pyboard for connecting up
hobby servo motors (see eg
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servo_%28radio_control%29)).
These motors have 3 wires: ground, power and signal.  On the pyboard you
can connect them in the bottom right corner, with the signal pin on the
far right.  Pins X1, X2, X3 and X4 are the 4 dedicated servo signal pins.

<img src="/static/doc/pyboard-servo.jpg" alt="pyboard with servo motors" style="width:250px; border:1px solid black; display:inline-block;"/>

In this picture there are male-male double adaptors to connect the servos
to the header pins on the pyboard.

The ground wire on a servo is usually the darkest coloured one, either
black or dark brown.  The power wire will most likely be red.

The power pin for the servos (labelled VIN) is connected directly to the
input power source of the pyboard.  When powered via USB, VIN is powered
through a diode by the 5V USB power line.  Connect to USB, the pyboard can
power at least 4 small to medium sized servo motors.

If using a battery to power the pyboard and run servo motors, make sure it
is not greater than 6V, since this is the maximum voltage most servo motors
can take.  (Some motors take only up to 4.8V, so check what type you are
using.)

Creating a Servo object
-----------------------

Plug in a servo to position 1 (the one with pin X1) and create a servo object
using::

    >>> servo1 = pyb.Servo(1)

To change the angle of the servo use the ``angle`` method::

    >>> servo1.angle(45)
    >>> servo1.angle(-60)

The angle here is measured in degrees, and ranges from about -90 to +90,
depending on the motor.  Calling ``angle`` without parameters will return
the current angle::

    >>> servo1.angle()
    -60

Note that for some angles, the returned angle is not exactly the same as
the angle you set, due to rounding errors in setting the pulse width.

You can pass a second parameter to the ``angle`` method, which specifies how
long to take (in milliseconds) to reach the desired angle.  For example, to
take 1 second (1000 milliseconds) to go from the current position to 50 degrees,
use ::

     >>> servo1.angle(50, 1000)

This command will return straight away and the servo will continue to move
to the desired angle, and stop when it gets there.  You can use this feature
as a speed control, or to synchronise 2 or more servo motors.  If we have
another servo motor (``servo2 = pyb.Servo(2)``) then we can do ::

    >>> servo1.angle(-45, 2000); servo2.angle(60, 2000)

This will move the servos together, making them both take 2 seconds to
reach their final angles.

Note: the semicolon between the 2 expressions above is used so that they
are executed one after the other when you press enter at the REPL prompt.
In a script you don't need to do this, you can just write them one line
after the other.

Continuous rotation servos
--------------------------

So far we have been using standard servos that move to a specific angle
and stay at that angle.  These servo motors are useful to create joints
of a robot, or things like pan-tilt mechanisms.  Internally, the motor
has a variable resistor (potentiometer) which measures the current angle
and applies power to the motor proportional to how far it is from the
desired angle.  The desired angle is set by the width of a high-pulse on
the servo signal wire.  A pulse width of 1500 microsecond corresponds
to the centre position (0 degrees).  The pulses are sent at 50 Hz, ie
50 pulses per second.

You can also get **continuous rotation** servo motors which turn
continuously clockwise or counterclockwise.  The direction and speed of
rotation is set by the pulse width on the signal wire.  A pulse width
of 1500 microseconds corresponds to a stopped motor.  A pulse width
smaller or larger than this means rotate one way or the other, at a
given speed.

On the pyboard, the servo object for a continuous rotation motor is
the same as before.  In fact, using ``angle`` you can set the speed.  But
to make it easier to understand what is intended, there is another method
called ``speed`` which sets the speed::

    >>> servo1.speed(30)

``speed`` has the same functionality as ``angle``: you can get the speed,
set it, and set it with a time to reach the final speed. ::

    >>> servo1.speed()
    30
    >>> servo1.speed(-20)
    >>> servo1.speed(0, 2000)

The final command above will set the motor to stop, but take 2 seconds
to do it.  This is essentially a control over the acceleration of the
continuous servo.

A servo speed of 100 (or -100) is considered maximum speed, but actually
you can go a bit faster than that, depending on the particular motor.

The only difference between the ``angle`` and ``speed`` methods (apart from
the name) is the way the input numbers (angle or speed) are converted to
a pulse width.

Calibration
-----------

The conversion from angle or speed to pulse width is done by the servo
object using its calibration values.  To get the current calibration,
use ::

    >>> servo1.calibration()
    (640, 2420, 1500, 2470, 2200)

There are 5 numbers here, which have meaning:

1. Minimum pulse width; the smallest pulse width that the servo accepts.
2. Maximum pulse width; the largest pulse width that the servo accepts.
3. Centre pulse width; the pulse width that puts the servo at 0 degrees
   or 0 speed.
4. The pulse width corresponding to 90 degrees.  This sets the conversion
   in the method ``angle`` of angle to pulse width.
5. The pulse width corresponding to a speed of 100.  This sets the conversion
   in the method ``speed`` of speed to pulse width.

You can recalibrate the servo (change its default values) by using::

    >>> servo1.calibration(700, 2400, 1510, 2500, 2000)

Of course, you would change the above values to suit your particular
servo motor.