A servo is a tiny mechanical device, which has an output shaft. One can position this shaft in a specific angle by sending the servo with coded signals. As long as the coded signals continue to exist in the input line, the servo will maintain its position as the shaft. Servos are used inside the radio-controlled airplanes for positioning the control surface like rudders and elevators. Sometimes they are used for controlling cars and robots as well. Servos have a major use in robotics. Here are some simple steps on how to control servos.
Servo control with DMX motor
- You will have to find a controller, which is capable of operating under a servo motor by using the DMX data input. There are various other controllers, which are available ranging from professional to hobby. Some of the companies offer a DMX servo controller like GliderFluke, Northlight and Blue Point Engineering. The price of these controllers can range from 46 dollars to 336 dollars. This controller board will control between 8 to 16 servos.
- You will have to get a source of DMX, which is capable of sending the input data required to control all the servomotors. There are various sources for the DMX, but you will have to consider the language of the controller that you have been using. The controllers will have a microchip, which looks for a specific set of instructions to understand this before choosing the DMX source.
- On the DMX source you will have to consider DMX source as the master. All the remaining components on this system will act like slaves doing all the things that they are instructed by the DMX. Some good choices can be ENTEC open DMX, ENTEC pro or Brookshire software RAPU.
- Now, you can get the DMX animation software for controlling the movements of the servos. You can choose to write your own program, which some of the top studios have done or you can use the software that is designed to control the servos. You will find some examples of this on the Northlight website. Otherwise you can consider using the Gliderfluke’s free PC-MACs animation software control or VSA from the Brookshire software. Both these programs will let you control different scenes and it can easily synchronize movement to the sound. The Gliderfluke software is robust, but for that, you will have to use the equipment, which comes along with it. VSA is a more flexible version with the equipment it works with, but for this, you will have to troubleshoot on your own.
- You will have to use the twisted wire to send the DMX data from the source of DMX to the servo controller. The wire length of the DMX controller will be up to one mile, which turns out to be a huge advantage over the serial cable. You will have to attach the cable sections together with the connectors of XLR. For this, you will need to use a 5 pin XLR or a 3 pin depending on the kind of controller you are using. If you want to split the DMX cabling, then you must use the DMX splitter.
- You will have to give a power source to the servomotors. In some situations, depending on the kind of controller you are using, if you are using a smaller servo, then you can power it with servo controller itself. If you are using the new high torque servos or more than four servos, the controller itself will affect the speed and performance. Therefore, you will have to separate the power supply from the servos.
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