Hi,
I’m driving 6 volts linear actuators using standard RC signals through the help of maestro 24 channel servo controller. I’m passing 1ms to 2ms pulse width signals (time period 20ms) to control the motion of the linear servo (power is not required to maintain the postion of the servo). The linear servo has an inbuilt linear potentiometer and using maestro I’m receiving the feedback. I want to identify what kind of controller opeartion (PID, PI , DP etc) is happening in this case. Can anyone suggest me how to go about this ?
Regards,
Prabhakar.
Hello, Prabhakar.
It is not entirely clear to me what you are trying to do, but it sounds like you are trying to read the internal feedback potentiometer on your linear actuator and use it to determine what kind of control system the linear servo is using. If that is what you are doing, I do not think the potentiometer feedback alone is enough information to determine what kind of control the servo uses; you might try contacting the manufacturer of your linear servo to see if you can get that kind of information from them.
If I have misunderstood your question, can you try rephrasing it and describing what you are trying to do with more detail?
Brandon
Hi Brandon ,
Apologies for not being very clear. I will try again to explain my setup in a better way.
I’m using 24 channel maestro controller to control a linear servo ( with an internal linear potentiometer) through standard RC signals. Input signals are in the form of pulse width in microseconds. For example an input of 1500 microseconds moves the servo to a certain position. I intend to determine the mathematical model of the maestro servo controller operation. For example I want to determine if the maestro controller works as a PID controller or a PI controller or any other type of controller.
Kindly do let me know if I’m not explaining it clearly or if my basic understanding is not very clear about the controller operation and servo motors .
Regards ,
Prabhakar
It sounds like you might be confused about how the servo and servo controller work. The Maestro does not use any special control scheme to drive the servo; it simply generates the pulse width you tell it to. Since standard servos do not make their feedback available, the Maestro has no way of knowing the actual position of the servo. Standard servos have built-in electronics that process the pulse width input and drive the motor inside of the servo accordingly, so the control system used would be dependent on the servo, not the Maestro.
By the way, you might find the information in the “Introduction to Servos” series of blog posts helpful:
Brandon
Hi Brandon,
Apologies for getting back late.
Many thanks for a detailed explanation and it seems my understanding was faulty. I’ve solved my problem too with your help.
Regards,
Prabhakar.
