Moving Servo Motors

[Alan Anderson]

Did you install the servo power jumper on the pins next to the PWM output on the Digital Sidecar?

[Zach S.]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Did you install the servo power jumper on the pins next to the PWM output on the Digital Sidecar?

No. I'm not even sure what that is. Would that be why no servo programming I do ever works?

[Ido_Wolf]

Originally Posted by Zach S.

No. I'm not even sure what that is. Would that be why no servo programming I do ever works?

Probably, it happened to us before too. They basically wouldn't receive any input when the jumper is not connected.

As a rule of thumb, when you try to learn how to use a new component you've never used before, I suggest utilizing the appropriate LabVIEW example first, and consulting one of your fellow teammates from the electronics department (or a mentor if no other student knows), as the vast majority of "component not receiving/returning value" issues come from either faulty wiring or missing a certain VI that you wouldn't think of when utilizing it by yourself.

The appropriate example here is "Servo Camera.lvproj", you might want to combine it with the example "Rectangular Target - 2013" and integrate both of them into your code.

(Keep in mind that in my experience, the camera's servos are incredibly unstable and unreliable, especially if you try to use to camera to "home in" on the target rather than an additional point of view for the drivers)

[Alan Anderson]

Each of the three-pin PWM OUT connectors on the Digital Sidecar is accompanied by a 2-pin PWM OUT +V header. The PWM OUT pins are SIG, PWR, and (-). The PWR pin is where a servo gets its power from, but it doesn't actually provide any power until you put a jumper on the +V header pins.

Originally Posted by Zach S.

Would that be why no servo programming I do ever works?

Signs point to "yes".

[Zach S.]

Thanks for the Vi and jumper note. We added them to our older robot today, and will be trying out my code tomorrow. You guys solved a three year old question for us!