I’ve build a Panorama Robot 3 years ago with the older 8 channel servo controller from Pololu and had some stability issues.
I was advised to use the Micro Maestro 6 channel as a replacement.
It appears to be that it is not a direct swap between the two controllers and that the maestro needs other commands to work properly.
I’m able to control the maestro using the minissc control mode, but this way I only have 254 steps to control the servo. What I want is
a panning over 360 degrees max in steps of at least 1 degree. Better is it to have more steps to be able to better fine-tune the start and end-point
of the servo rotation.
Fine-tuning was done in the old 8 channel control with adjusting the minimum and maximum servo-pulse in 5 millisecond steps (in the the Pololu control mode).
When I use this mode with the Micro Maestro the servo is al over the place. Steps of 5 milliseconds results in big 10 to 15 degree servo movements and continuing to add
extra 5 millisecond steps will result in movements to the complete opposite direction, I could not find any pattern in movements.
Does anybody have a working arduino to Micro Maestro example in Pololu-mode which for example turns a servo from 0 to 180 degrees in 5 degree steps ?
Just to let you know, I found a working example, see below …
// Arduino to Micro Meastro test
//
// 6 Serial Servo Controller
// SSC RX pin to Arduino TX pin Pin01
// SSC TX pin to Arduino RX pin Pin02
// LIBRARIES---------------// Included libraries
// SoftwareSerial
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
// ---------------------//
// DEFINE------------------// Define constants
// Serial pins
#define txPin 1
#define rxPin 2
// ^^^---------------------//
// INITUALIZE--------------// initalizing pins and bytes etc
// ?
SoftwareSerial mySerial(rxPin, txPin);
// ^^^---------------------//
// SETUP-------------------// setup before we go
void setup() // run once, when the sketch starts
{
mySerial.begin(9600);
delay(1000);
}
// Send a Set Target command to the Maestro.
// Target is in units of quarter microseconds
// so the normal range is 4000 to 8000.
void set_target(unsigned char servo, unsigned int target)
{
mySerial.write(0xAA); //start byte
mySerial.write(0x0C); //device id
mySerial.write(0x04); //command number
mySerial.write(servo); //servo number
mySerial.write(target & 0x7F);
mySerial.write((target >> 7) & 0x7F);
}
// ^^^---------------------//
// LOOP--------------------// The base for the program
void loop()
{
delay(4000);
set_target(1, 8000);
delay(12000);
set_target(1, 7200);
delay(4000);
set_target(1, 6400);
delay(4000);
set_target(1, 5600);
delay(4000);
set_target(1, 4800);
delay(4000);
set_target(1, 4000);
}
// ^^^---------------------//
I was going to ask you to post your nonworking code, but it looks like you might have found what you were looking for. Do you have any further questions?
