Servo Issues

Using Arduino General Electronics
1

Hello,
I just bought an arduino, and am doing my first project. It is very simple, it takes a digital input, and tells a servo to go to one of the extremes based on the input. The sensor is a npn photoswitch (allan bradly, I can give you way more details if necessary). I used the internal pullup resistor to read it. It requires 12v, and the servo I am using is a Hitec HS-311(rated for 6v). I used 8 AAs to power the Arduino Uno R3 and photoswitch, and also fed a dc-to-dc downstepper to go from 12v to 6v.
The problem:
Video - YouTube

Troubleshooting:
I used a multimeter to make sure the servo is receiving 6v
I tested a known good servo to eleminate the servo as the problem. similar issues
I tried different pins on the arduino and breadboard. nothing changed.

The code:
int ServoPin = 10;
int SensorPin = 12;
int SensorVal;

void setup()
{
pinMode (SensorPin,INPUT);
pinMode (ServoPin,OUTPUT);
SensorVal = LOW;
}

void loop()
{
digitalWrite(SensorPin, HIGH); //pullup resistor
SensorVal = digitalRead(SensorPin); //gets sensor
if(SensorVal==HIGH){
analogWrite(ServoPin, 240); //255 is max, 240 in case it wasn't reading the pulses at 255
}

else{
analogWrite(ServoPin,2); //0 is min, 2 is same reason as mentioned above
}

}

I can get you details if you need more, unsure of what else you'd want.
Thanks for the help!

2

The servo is a servo. And a servo requires a pulsed signal.
But don't worry, a library takes care of the pulses.

http://playground.arduino.cc/Learning/SingleServoExample
You only need three functions:
Declare the class before the setup() function with: Servo myServo;
Set the used pin in the setup() function with: myServo.attach( ServoPin);
Set the rotation angle in the loop() function with: myServo.write(50);

The servo should have some time after the myServo.write().
Add a delay(500); at the end of the loop() function.

Writing to an input for the pull-up resistor is no longer needed.
But you need the newest Arduino 1.0.3
You can specify the pull-up resistor with the pinMode() function: pinMode() - Arduino Reference

If you paste your sketch, you can use the code tags. It is the button with a '#' above the input text field.
It looks like this:

pinMode(SensorPin, INPUT_PULLUP);
3

Have you tried the Servo library examples?

File -> Examples -> Servo

-br

4

Yes, a servo must use the servo library to operate and servo.write() commands to position the servo.

You can't use analogWrite() commands for a servo as analogWrite() PWM commands use a 500Hz switching speed and servos expect a 40Hz switching speed.

Lefty

5

Thanks for all the help guys! Man you are fast.
I didn't realize there was a servo library, or that it needed 40hz. I simply guessed that it used the pwm signal.
Problem Solved!