$50 robot. modifying the servo. believe me, this topic ain't dead yet.

[photray94]

after reading the $50 robot tutorial i got very confused when i came to the modifying the servo step.  it's in part 1 mechanics, specifically where it tells me i need to modify my servo.  So far I really haven't done anything on the $50 robot, and to modify the servo is the first step of the tutorial.

The tutorial says:
"First you must modify your servos so that they can rotate continuously. The factory default will only allow the servo to rotate 180 degrees."

I went to the tutorial page and it says i need to connect my hs-311 servo to my microcontroller, run a .hex file through it and it should be rotated to 0 degrees.

Great, sounds simple enough, right?

Wrong.  i hav negligible experience in syncing together electronics, mechanics, and software to do anything.

here's my question(s):
1.  can i plug the servo directly into just the microcontroller or must i build some circuit whatchamacallit, which will rotate the servo to 0 degrees after loading the .hex file?
2.  for a tutorial that assumes no experience with this kinda stuff, how am i expected to work out all these electronics steps if MECHANICS is step 1, and ELECTRONICS is step 2?

i have looked at the reccomended forum posts for people having trouble modifying the servo and none of them answer my questions.

thank you so much in advance,
ray

[cooldog]

1.  can i plug the servo directly into just the microcontroller or must i build some circuit whatchamacallit, which will rotate the servo to 0 degrees after loading the .hex file?

you have to build the circut before your modify your servos

2.  for a tutorial that assumes no experience with this kinda stuff, how am i expected to work out all these electronics steps if MECHANICS is step 1, and ELECTRONICS is step 2?

the instructions are very detailed and any questions you have your can ask in the forum

[bnicely]

Just getting ready to start my $50 robot today. 

This part confused me a little as well.  I assumed that the very first thing I should do was to modify the servo as it's listed first chronologicly.  Looks like I should skip this step for now till I get some circuitry built.

[whYME]

Just getting ready to start my $50 robot today. 

This part confused me a little as well.  I assumed that the very first thing I should do was to modify the servo as it's listed first chronologicly.  Looks like I should skip this step for now till I get some circuitry built.

Same here.

Reading the $50 robot tutorial it does sound like modifying the servo is purely mechanical and comes before building your circuitry.

Overall it's a great site, thanks for everything you've got here!

[robotmaniac]

hi guys
I already built the robot and I had the same problem and discovered that admin gives you this code to make your live easier what i did was open the servo turn it on and rotate the  potentiometer until the it was centered and did the rest of the thing in the servo tutorial. AND IT WORKED!! or just build the microcontroller and download the code and do all the stuff.