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[on:]

Hi everyone. Please help!
I am very new with Arduino and my first goal is to make two little modified servo motors work to be the wheels of my first robot. I modified them so now they can rotate 360 degrees. But when I connect them in the servo pins of the Adafruit motor shield, they still work as normal servos. Can someone please tell me if I should connect them in a different place and give me an easy code to download and make them run as if the where little DC motors? Thanks.

[Reply #1 on:]

It sounds like you have not modified your servos correctly to allow continuous movement.

[Reply #2 on:]

As you can read on the adafruit site: "The adafruit motorshield just connects through the servo" So you do not need the shield.
However the connectors are very convenient 
On your problem I agree with Grumpy: "You probably did not correctly modify your servo's"

Best regards
Jantje

[Reply #3 on:]

Thank you guys for the quick response. As far as I know I modified the servos well. After doing it now I am able to get a full turn with my hand. The main thing is that I don´t know if the modified servos should still be connected to the same connector (Serv 1 o Serv 2) in the Adafruit shield  and the fact that I don´t have any code to simulate simple wheels movement so I can see if they can do the job. If you have any code please let me know.

[Reply #4 on:]

Modifying a servo for continuous rotation involves some electronic changes. Once done if you tell the servo to go to a position it will rotate continuously. The fact that it continues to act like a servo means you have not modified it correctly.

[Reply #5 on:]

It does look like you just removed the end-stops. You have to do something to the pot too, or replace it with fixed resistors, I believe.

[Reply #6 on:]

biotech
Maybe you can point us to the instructions you have used to mod the servo?
Best regards
Jantje

[Reply #7 on:]

Hi! I just modified the gearbox to allow continuous rotation but I didn´t touch the electronic thing. So as you all say I didn´t finish the job. The site I used as a reference was:

http://www.roboticapy.com/servo2.asp

Now I found this site and they are showing how to modify a microservo very similar to the one I have:

http://letsmakerobots.com/node/4873

I will have a try and see if I can get the full turn following their instructions. Otherwise, any other info you may send me on this subjet will help me a lot!

Please can someone tell me if the modified servos should still be connected to the Serv 1 o Serv 2 jumpers in the Adafruit? Is there any simple code you can give me for modified servos to act as robot wheels? Thanks to you all!!!

[Reply #8 on:]

Yes, you still attach them in the same way.

When modified correctly, there will be a value, around 90 degrees, where the servo will be stopped. Setting to 0 degrees will be full speed in one direction and 180 degrees will be full speed in the other direction.

[Reply #9 on:]

The servo pot also has to be disconnected from the motor gearing along with removing the gearing stop. Below is how I made some continious rotation servos. You do not need a motor shield on the arduino with the continous rotation servos. Bottom is some servo code you can use to test your servo.

http://www.lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6388

Code:

// zoomkat 10-22-11 serial servo test
// type servo position 0 to 180 in serial monitor
// or for writeMicroseconds, use a value like 1500
// for IDE 0022 and later
// Powering a servo from the arduino usually *DOES NOT WORK*.

String readString;
#include <Servo.h>
Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  myservo.writeMicroseconds(1500); //set initial servo position if desired
  myservo.attach(7);  //the pin for the servo control
  Serial.println("servo-test-22-dual-input"); // so I can keep track of what is loaded
}

void loop() {
  while (Serial.available()) {
    char c = Serial.read();  //gets one byte from serial buffer
    readString += c; //makes the string readString
    delay(2);  //slow looping to allow buffer to fill with next character
  }

  if (readString.length() >0) {
    Serial.println(readString);  //so you can see the captured string
    int n = readString.toInt();  //convert readString into a number

    // auto select appropriate value, copied from someone elses code.
    if(n >= 500)
    {
      Serial.print("writing Microseconds: ");
      Serial.println(n);
      myservo.writeMicroseconds(n);
    }
    else
    {   
      Serial.print("writing Angle: ");
      Serial.println(n);
      myservo.write(n);
    }

    readString=""; //empty for next input
  }
}

[Reply #10 on:]

You do not need a motor shield of any sort to run a servo.

[Reply #11 on:]

Hi,
    While it is completely correct to say that you do not need a shield to drive servos, you will almost certainly need separate power, see the links in my signature for the reasons why, a demonstration why and a very simple solution using an additional 4 AA batteries.

Duane B

rcarduino.blogspot.com

[Reply #12 on:]

Hi guys,

When I posted my question I could never have imagined that I would get this kind of feedback. I am just amazed!

Now I know that I don´t need a shield for the servos, I have good guidance on how to work on the electronics to make them run as DCs, and I also have the code and info on how to power the servo without the shield. What else could I ask?

This weekend I will have a go on the electronics and see if I can get it done propertly. Not very optimistic though as for the time being all the electronic work looks scary to me. Buy I am sure that sooner or later I will get there with your help. When I finally have the servos up and running I will let you know. Thanks a lot to you all!