Servo Motor Control with an Arduino
June 03, 2015 by Tim Youngblood (/author/tim-youngblood)
You can connect small servo motors directly to an Arduino to
control the shaft position very precisely.
Because servo motors use feedback to determine the position of the shaft, you
can control that position very precisely. As a result, servo motors are used to
control the position of objects, rotate objects, move legs, arms or hands of
robots, move sensors etc. with high precision. Servo motors are small in size,
and because they have built-in circuitry to control their movement, they can
be connected directly to an Arduino.
Most servo motors have the following three connections:
Black/Brown ground wire.
Red power wire (around 5V).
Yellow or White PWM wire.
In this experiment, we will connect the power and ground pins directly to the
Arduino 5V and GND pins. The PWM input will be connected to one of the
Arduino's digital output pins.
Experiment 1
Hardware Required
1 x TowerPro SG90 servo motor
1 x Arduino Mega2560
3 x jumper wires
Wiring Diagram
The best thing about a servo motor is that it can be connected directly to an
Arduino. Connect to the motor to the Arduino as shown in the table below:
Servo red wire – 5V pin Arduino
Servo brown wire – Ground pin Arduino
Servo yellow wire – PWM(9) pin Arduino
Caution: Do not try to rotate the servo motor by hand, as you may damage the
motor.
Code
When the program starts running, the servo motor will rotate slowly from 0
degrees to 180 degrees, one degree at a time. When the motor has rotated 180
degrees, it will begin to rotate in the other direction until it returns to the home
position.
#include //Servo library
Servo servo_test; //initialize a servo object for the connected
servo
int angle = 0;
void setup()
{
servo_test.attach(9); // attach the signal pin of servo to
pin9 of arduino
}
void loop()
{
for(angle = 0; angle < 180; angle += 1) // command to move from 0 de
grees to 180 degrees
{
servo_test.write(angle); //command to rotate the serv
o to the specified angle
delay(15);
}
delay(1000);
for(angle = 180; angle>=1; angle-=5) // command to move from 180 degree
s to 0 degrees
{
servo_test.write(angle); //command to rotate the servo to th
e specified angle
delay(5);
}
delay(1000);
}
Download Code (/login/?redirect=https//www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/servo-mo
Experiment 2
This experiment is essentially the same as Experiment 1, except that we have
added a potentiometer for position control. The Arduino will read the voltage on
the middle pin of the potentiometer and adjust the position of the servo motor
shaft.
Hardware Required
1 x TowerPro SG90 servo motor
1 x Arduino Mega2560
1 x 20kΩ potentiometer
1 x breadboard
6 x jumper wires
Wiring Diagram
Connect the circuit as show in the figure below:
Servo red wire – 5V pin Arduino
Servo brown wire – Ground pin Arduino
Servo yellow wire – PWM(9) pin Arduino
Potentiometer pin 1 - 5V pin Arduino
Potentiometer pin 3 - Ground pin Arduino
Potentiometer pin 2 – Analog In (A0) pin Arduino
Code
Once the program is started, rotating the potentiometer should cause the shaft
of the servo motor to rotate.
#include //Servo library
Servo servo_test; //initialize a servo object for the connected se
int angle = 0;
int potentio = A0; // initialize the A0analog pin for potentiometer
void setup()
{
servo_test.attach(9); // attach the signal pin of servo to pin9 of
arduino
}
void loop()
{
angle = analogRead(potentio); // reading the potentiometer value
between 0 and 1023
angle = map(angle, 0, 1023, 0, 179); // scaling the potentiometer value
to angle value for servo between 0 and 180)
servo_test.write(angle); //command to rotate the servo to
the specified angle
delay(5);
}
Download Code (/login/?redirect=https//www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/servo-mo
Give this project a try for yourself! Get the BOM.
(https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/bom/HpBxWAt2GA)
Video for Experiment 1
Servo Motor Control with an Arduino - Arduino Direct
Video for Experiment 2
Servo Motor Control with an Arduino Arduino Potentiometer
