Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: Orrin on October 06, 2008, 08:13:22 PM
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I have successfully built and uploaded my program to the 50$ robot microcontroller. I have verified the program, but it still doesn't work correctly. The servos only spin in one direction.
At first I thought that the photo resistors were damaged, so I replaced and re-soldered them. This did nothing to help. The only thing that happens when I put on power to the board and servos is a continuous rotation. There is no reversal in direction nor any response at all to light or dark.
Now I think it could be my servos. I had them modified by Servocity.com to rotate continuously, instead of doing it myself (I'm lazy :P). They have a little switch on the outside that reverses direction. Could this have something to do with it? Is there a different pulse signal for this to work?
Thanks,
Orrin ;D
EDIT: The servos also rotate quite slowly.
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(I'm lazy :P).
Perhaps, but you're going to have to do some good old-fashioned troubleshooting. Look at the micro's code. What makes the wheels go forward? Is that input present?
Welcome to what is about 25% of the time spent on the robotics hobby (at least for me). Why doesn't this thing do what I want it to?
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Check everything with a multimeter for anything that shouldn't be happening.
If you change the servo speeds in the software, do the servos change speed?
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I haven't had a chance yet, but the servos don't seem to change speed with the light change. I might end up just making one servo turn and the other one just stay still. It might be slower, but it will still work. I will experiment with different values and see what results.
Thanks for your responses!
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Do you have common ground to all components, motors and board? If not, you will have many strange things happening including the servo spinning in one direction, no control.