Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: TheDarkLord on June 11, 2011, 10:14:55 AM

Title: Modifying the HS-311 servo?
Post by: TheDarkLord on June 11, 2011, 10:14:55 AM
Hello everyone!
So I have just placed an order for two of the following servo to build my $50 robot.
http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-311_standard.html (http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-311_standard.html)
In the tutorial, it says that to modify the servo, you need to connect the ATMega8 controller to it and download some source files and all that. But in order to do that, I would have to first build the whole circuitry for the robot. I was just wondering if it is possible to modify this servo without going through all that? Because I really would prefer to work through the steps in the order that they're given, instead of jumping forward to 'Electronics' and then back to the mechanics of it. If it is possible, could someone give me some detailed steps please? I am a real novice.

Thanks in advance,
Vignesh R.
Title: Re: Modifying the HS-311 servo?
Post by: adanvasco on June 11, 2011, 10:25:07 PM
Connecting the servos and the sensors is the last step anyway. You can always try to set the potentiometer inside the servo manually in the middle but even with the 1.5ms pulse being sent from the MCU it's tricky. You have the option of buying continuous rotation servos but that adds another ~$10 per servo.
As I said, you can construct everything and at the end, unmount the servos and modify them.
Title: Re: Modifying the HS-311 servo?
Post by: Conscripted on June 13, 2011, 11:04:47 AM
There are other ways to modify servos. You could remove the potentiometer from the circuit board and replace it with two resistors of the same value. (GOOGLE can show you the way) You want exactly the same value so you would need to measure them to ensure that they were the same. Doing it that way is more work and is more expensive because you have to buy the resistors.

I definately do NOT recommend just turning the Potentiometer to the center position and calling it good.

Really the easiest (and cheapest) way is to skip the servo section until after you have built the controller. You won't be missing anything and it will all fall into place.

Post some pics when your bot is complete.

Conscripted