servo chatter

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allears
 
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Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:13 pm

servo chatter

Post by allears »

Just purchased a Tower Pro Micro Servo motor and hooked it up to my Arduino Uno with a 10K pot, hooked things up according to the online diagram, and ran the example "knob".

Everything worked perfectly, except that at the extreme clockwise setting of the pot, the servo vibrates and chatters. If I back the pot off just a hair, the chatter stops.

Is this normal? Is there a software fix, or is the servo faulty?

Thanks!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: servo chatter

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

With analog servos, there is typically some variation in the control range. If you are running into the physical 'hard stops' you will see the chatter you describe. You need to tune the code to match the response of the servo.

allears
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:13 pm

Re: servo chatter

Post by allears »

Much thanks! Also noticed that it sometimes chatters in the middle of the range, and that the end-of-range chatter isn't consistent -- sometimes at the top, sometimes at the bottom, sometimes not at all.

If it sits in a position that chatters, does it hurt anything, draw too much current, etc.?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: servo chatter

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Chatter in the mid-range can be caused by noise on the signal line. But it is more common with budget servos such as the Tower Pro. Servos from HiTec and Futaba tend to be more stable over the range of operation.

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