Lesson plan

Servo control

Servo control is a method of controlling many types of RC/hobbyist servos by sending the servo a PWM (pulse-width modulation) signal, a series of repeating pulses of variable width where either the width of the pulse (most common modern hobby servos) or the duty cycle of a pulse train (less common today) determines the position to be achieved by the servo. The PWM signal might come from a radio control receiver to the servo or from common microcontrollers such as the Arduino. Small hobby servos (often called radio control, or RC servos) are connected through a standard three-wire connection: two wires for a DC power supply and one for control, carrying the control pulses. The parameters for the pulses are the minimal pulse width, the maximal pulse width, and the repetition rate. Given the rotation constraints of the servo, neutral is defined to be the center of rotation. Different servos will have different constraints on their rotation, but the neutral position is always around 1.5 milliseconds (ms) pulse width.

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Article summary

Servo control is a method of controlling many types of RC/hobbyist servos by sending the servo a PWM (pulse-width modulation) signal, a series of repeating pulses of variable width where either the width of the pulse (most common modern hobby servos) or the duty cycle of a pulse train (less common today) determines the position to be achieved by the servo. The PWM signal might come from a radio control receiver to the servo or from common microcontrollers such as the Arduino. Small hobby servos (often called radio control, or RC servos) are connected through a standard three-wire connection: two wires for a DC power supply and one for control, carrying the control pulses. The parameters for the pulses are the minimal pulse width, the maximal pulse width, and the repetition rate. Given the rotation constraints of the servo, neutral is defined to be the center of rotation. Different servos will have different constraints on their rotation, but the neutral position is always around 1.5 milliseconds (ms) pulse width.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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