Gimbal help!

[Joshuamunson]

I can get my camera to track the backboard using the example rectangle track vi, but when I try to control the gimbal using the two servo example vi, it either doesn't move or glitches out.
the servos are plugged into the digital sidecar. Is that right, or does it need a JAG?

[Cecil]

Make sure there is a jumper placed across the pins right next to the servo cables. This will power them with 6 volts and should make them move.

[Joshuamunson]

It's wired correctly
So it should be in the sidecar?
Our electronics mentor says it doesn't because the servo reads the position and he say it's just a pwm out

[Cecil]

It should be plugged into a PWM port on the Digital Sidecar. Also, next to the PWM pins, there are 2 more pins closer to the center of the board. These must have that jumper installed to provide power to the servo.

If I remember right, on the 2 color servo example, there is a small knob you can adjust to manually move the servos. Does this work at all?

[Joshuamunson]

Im running the 2 servo example and not the 2 color servo. Is there a difference? it has jumpers and when it says its moving the servo, it doesn't move, just the program indicator says it's moving.

[Alan Anderson]

If you try to move the servo with your hand, does it resist, or does it go where you push it? Do you feel any "buzzing" when you try moving it?

[Joshuamunson]

its weird
the gimbal control is in vision processing but there's no resistance, but when I enable it through the driver station, its moves to center and holds there.

[Alan Anderson]

When the robot is disabled, it produces no PWM outputs. That is detected by Jaguars and Victors as a loss of signal and they show their characteristic yellow blink. Servos will just go into neutral when they don't have a PWM signal telling them where to point.

When you ran the servo example, did you forget to enable the robot? That would certainly cause the servos not to move.

[Joshuamunson]

We enable it and it gets the backboard but doesn't follow it
and thank you I didn't know that

[MAldridge]

If it zeros, that means it is at least sending signals to the servos. Are you sure though that you are sending signal to the right pins? The system automatically zeros all PWM outputs, coded or not.

[Joshuamunson]

I think its just code problems because when I try to control it using a control on the front panel it moves just fine
I think it is either the point between finding the backboard and moving the servos or something.
is it possible to get the servo position through the servo or is there zero feedback from it? because I am trying to find the difference between the center of the screen and the center of the backboard and then I take the servo get angle and convert the pixels to degree aspects then add it to said angle.
Am I approaching this completely wrong?

[Alan Anderson]

The servo feedback is all internal to the device. It's reasonable to treat it as something that just goes where you tell it to. If you want to know the servo position, you can assume it's what you last commanded it to be.

When you open the Robot Main vi and click the "Run" arrow at the top of the window, you can open other block diagrams and place probes on the wires to see what value they have while the program runs. Do that to trace where your servo angle command is getting lost.

[MAldridge]

probe the values, but do a quick sanity check first and make sure there are actually servos connected to the outputs you are writing to.