Using NE555N For Servo Driver

[Alfa_Zulu]

hey,

I had the idea of using a 555 timer to output a pulse to control the position of a servo using a variable resistor to control the pulse. I didn't have any 8pin sockets laying around at the time so i soldered it straight in and the fastest pulse i could get was around 2Hz opposed to the 50Hz i believe I need to make it go to 0 degrees so i think maybe i overheated it (it also made a strange sound while soldering) so today I bought a couple of sockets and I'm going to attempt it again today.

could someone please advise me if I'm on the right track, Thanks

-Alfa

[Alfa_Zulu]

ok this is the circuit I'm using, C1 is currently a 10uf cap which i think is apart of the problem, I found a 1uf cap and I'm about to put it in the circuit.

this is a modified circuit I used before and it looked like it was running at around 50Hz

Thanks in advance

-Alfa

[jka]

Take a look at http://www.horrorseek.com/home/halloween/wolfstone/Motors/svoint_RCServos.html. It has some info on servos and a couple of schematics involving 555's and servos. I haven't tried any of them, though.

[amando96]

the values seems a bit high for what you want to do.

[Alfa_Zulu]

what values would you suggest?

[amando96]

[Soeren]

Hi,

This circuit, as it stands (practically unchanged from Tonys old circuit that they nicked, without even a mention)), covers a pulse time range of 0.73ms to 1.46ms, so it will only cover less than half of the 180° servo travel (it won't even zero correctly unless component tolerances stretch the time a bit). Well at least HVLabs have noticed that it won't go 180°, but apparently they didn't manage to corret it.

For 1.0ms to 2.0ms change both R1 and X1 (the pot) to 3k7.
To handle most of all (R/C) servos out there, use 0.6ms and 2.4ms as the extremes (R1=2k2 and X1=6k8) and just keep within the range of the servo being tested (to avoid banging the end stops).

[Alfa_Zulu]

thanks Soeren, helpful as usual.

i might look at the previous schematic shown by amando96 with the increased resistor values.

[amando96]

Yeah that wasn't the schematic i had seen before, i think it was by david cook, "robot room" but couldn't remember what it was then.