Can I stop servos jumping on startup?

Hi,

I regularly use your Maestro 6 & 12 cards and was wondering whether there was a way to stop the servos jumping when powered up. I produce animatronic figure kits in various scales and it’s a question I get asked a lot from my customers.

It is a problem when the figure is holding something as the jolt can dislodge or throw accessories.

Thanks in advance.
Sym.

Hello, Sym.

In case you have not tried it already, the Maestro does provide the option to not send any signals to the servos by disabling them (there is more information about that in the user’s guide). However, what a servo does when it is powered up will normally depend on the specific servo you are working with. Unfortunately, many hobby servos twitch a few degrees or go to a home position when powered up even if they are not being sent any control signals. For some servos, you might get a better result if you specify a “Go to” position for startup and have the servos return to that position before removing power.

- Patrick

Thanks Patrick, I’ll give it a try.

Regards,
Sym.

2 Likes