When an RC servo is modified for continuous rotation, position seeking is typically sacrificed. That sucks. In this workshop we’ll avoid the trade-off by replacing the built-in potentiometer with an encoder, achieving multi-turn servoing. We’ll run a PID controller on a micro, reading the encoder as input, and driving output to the motor. Finally, we’ll look at opportunities that arise by knowing the servo position, such as the ability to manually train a robot by capturing keyframes.
Nicholas Stedman designs electronic tools and interactive exhibits for creative industries. He’s worked on many projects, including light sculptures, trade-show installations, animatronic window displays, game controllers, wireless circuits, and robots. He’s developing a smart servo called Moti for robotic applications. He also teaches digital media at Ryerson University in Toronto. https://hackaday.io/nsted