Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: macbook on August 31, 2010, 11:51:59 PM
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Hi,
Can someone explain me the exact working of pwm?
I wanna run a servo on my leaflabs maple board... the maple gives 3.3 V output and I've used my servo on 5 V output pins only till date...
Would the servo work on my maple too? With 3.3 V output? Or is there a way to amplify the output to 5 v?
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pwm is the act of giving a simulated voltage through pulses. instead of having a constant flow of power you send pulses of varying frequency which is like sending a lower voltage to a motor. it does not give a higher voltage and in fact has the opposite effect so you will need to use a transistor to provide the full 5v. if you're using servos then assuming you're gutting them and using them as gear motors right? if so don't bother with pwm
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For more info on PWM, watch this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1pai3vhnsY&feature=player_embedded#!) from 1:40 onward.
With servos, you actually do not need to regulate the voltage for them. In fact, if you just plug your servo's power into the Vin pin on your Maple board, hook up the servos ground wire to ground, and attach the signal wire to one of the Maple's PWM pins, your servos should work just fine. Make sure you double check your servos rated operating voltages, because the maple board takes an input from 7-18v. A servo like the HS311 has an operating voltage of 4.8-6 volts.