Controlling a Servo Motor on CircuitPython

Hey there! Today, we’re diving into the world of servo motor control using Circuit Pi.
First off, we need to get familiar with the initial steps for connecting the servo.
This session is just the beginning, gearing you up for the details on how to connect and control your servo efficiently.
So stick around because there’s a lot more coming your way!.

Alright, let’s dive into connecting that servo motor to your expansion board! Start by checking out the bottom left area of the board—this is where you’ll find four connection points just waiting for your servo.
Now, make sure to use the top connections for ground, VCC , the servo motor itself, and the signal pin.
For those wires, place the brown wire on top and the red wire in the middle; this combo is key for everything to work smoothly.
If you’re just controlling a single motor, go ahead and plug it into the X1 port on the board.
Stick to this connection setup, and you’ll be on your way to optimal performance!.

Setting up the Adafruit servo motor library is super important for controlling your servo motor, but it’s a bit more involved than just downloading one file.
You’ll want to grab the library’s compressed package from their GitHub repo and unzip it.
Inside, look for the ‘Adafruit Underbar Motor’ folder and copy it over to your ‘Rival’ folder on your Circuit Pi device.
This way, you’ll have everything you need to get started with your servo control.
Just a heads up: if you’ve been using older PWM OUT examples in CircuitPython, you might run into some errors, so it’s best to switch to the PWM I/O functionality instead for smooth sailing..

Getting started with controlling a servo motor is pretty straightforward! First off, you’ll want to import the necessary modules like servo and PWM from the ‘other fruit’ library; this stuff is super important for making things work.
Next, set the PWM OUT cycle to 0 at first to kick things off with no output signal, and keep the frequency at 50—that’s the sweet spot for servo motors.
After that, create an instance called ‘servo1’ linked to your PWM settings, making sure to set the MinPulse to 500 and MaxPulse to 2500 for everything to run smoothly.
Get those pulse values right, so the servo interprets the signals correctly.
Then, you’ll want to throw in a while true loop to control ‘servo1’, making it dance from 0 to 180 degrees in 45-degree jumps every second.
Follow these steps, and you’ll have precise control over your servo motor, proving just how versatile it can be!.

In this session, we take a closer look at the servo motor as it moves from 0 to 180 degrees.
We get to see how it can hit different angles like 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180, which is pretty cool! The focus here is all about controlling this nifty servo motor using Circuit Pi, showing just how effectively you can manage its movements.
Finally, we wrap things up by summarizing our results and confirming that we hit all our goals.
Pretty satisfying, right?.