LinkIt ONE Tutorial - Mini Servo

Introduction

What We’re Doing

Servo motor (servo) is commonly used in small robots and other machines to control angular position. It is wrapped by a small gear box, and positioned by the timing control pulses. In this section we control the angular position of the mini servo with the help of potentiometer.

Things you need

  • LinkIt One x 1

  • Break board x 1

  • Slide Potentiometer 10kΩ x 1

  • Servo x 1

Schematic

Connection

Code

Please click on the button below to download the code for the kit:

You can unzip the file to the Examples folder of your Arduino IDE.

To access the demo code open:

File -> Examples -> Starter Kit for LinkIt -> Basic -> L7_Servo

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;              // create servo object to control a servo
int potpin = A0;             // analog pin used to connect the potentiometer
int val;                    // variable to read the value from the analog pin

void setup()
{
    myservo.attach(9);                  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}

void loop() {
    val = analogRead(potpin);          // reads the value of the potentiometer (value between 0 and 1023)
    val = map(val, 0, 1023, 0, 179);   // scale it to use it with the servo (value between 0 and 180)
    myservo.write(val);                // sets the servo position according to the scaled value
    delay(15);                         // waits for the servo to get there
}

Troubleshooting

  • There are three pins in servos and they are color coded respective to their functionality yellow-analog port red – positive, dark brown – ground. So please make connections according to its functionality.

  • Ensure that 5v power supply is connected to the board.

Making it better

If the mini steering worked, we can adjust the speed of rotation by using a potentiometer. Upload the following code to produce different functionality.

To access the demo code open:

File -> Examples -> Starter Kit for LinkIt -> Extend_Lesson –> L7_Servo_Speed

More ideas

How do you control two servo motors simultaneously so that you can make a robot?

Reference

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