9. Input by r/c receiver

joliebrise

New Member
My black box servo tester was used to see how an 08m would handle inputs from 0 to 2.4ms.

Would you be surpresed if I told you I got 9 turns from a Hitec sail drum servo. The box says 3.5

My article gives full details.

Tony

9. Input by r/c receiver

Marine R/C users will want to control their Picaxe microprocessor with their Transmitter/Receiver. Let’s look at the signal coming from the Receiver.
Manufacturers don’t seem to want to disclose this information; there are no standards. All I have found out is what signal is required by analogue Servos. Who knows what is the Digital signal?

Servo PWM specification
Hitec 0.9 to 2.1ms — 1.5ms mid-point
Futaba 1.1 to 1.9ms — 1.52ms mid-point
3 — 5v peak to peak square wave pulse
Peak refresh rate 50Hz (20ms)
Dead band 20 — 40 micros

Rx input to Picaxe
The white/orange signal wire is connected to pin3.
The red +ve power feed from the Rx can be connected if the Picaxe is used to supply power to the Rx. It may be advisable to separate the power sources as this avoids any electrical noise reaching Picaxe from the servo motor.
The black/brown earth connection must be used as it is the signal’s ground.





Picaxe reads Rx signal
Manual 2 page 155
The Rx signal is automatically multiplied by 100 as Picaxe only uses positive whole numbers ie 1.1ms = 110

Pulsin 3,1,w1
Reads the signal on ‘pin3’ and puts its value in the variable ‘w1’
‘w1’ is a word variable as it accepts values upto 1024. (Byte values upto 255) If you are using “Byte b0 and Word w3” variables in the same code be careful of the numbers. b1 and w1 are not alllowed. Read Manual 2 page 10
‘1’ starts the timing when the pulse goes from low to high.

Code:
Init:
w1 = 0
 
main:
pulsin 3,1,w1                        ; code to finding central point
if w1= 144 then high 1          ; light on and remains on at 144
elseif w1 = 146 then low 1     ; light off at 146
endif
goto main
Test
Connect up circuit and see where the joystick is positioned to make the leds light up. Try going max, min and central joystick positions to establish your Rx characteristics. Use these figures for your coding.

Results
Most Transmitters have a switch to alter the direction of servo travel and a lever to make small adjustments to the central point. Minimum — Mid point — maximum stick position.
Normal 40Hz min 100 — 146 — 185 max values of w1. Joystick adjuster +/- 8
Reverse 40Hz min 190 — 146 — 100 max.
Normal 2.4GHz min 118 — 146 — 180 max.

Testing Servos
When testing servos over a year ago I built two ‘Servo Tester’ black boxes to save time getting out the transmitter & receiver. It was also possible to add a scale in msec. You can find details and illuminating results. Look at the Arm and Drum servo tests.

Tester results 0 to 2.4ms min 280 — 120 — 15 max values of w1.

What is a Servo

The Hitec sail winch HS785-HB will make 9 turns from 0.5 to 2.05ms. The box says 3 to 4. Above and below these values, it will run continuously. “Not a lot of people know that”
 
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Great info

Servo PWM specification
Hitec 0.9 to 2.1ms — 1.5ms mid-point
Futaba 1.1 to 1.9ms — 1.52ms mid-point
3 — 5v peak to peak square wave pulse
Peak refresh rate 50Hz (20ms)
Dead band 20 — 40 micros

”
Interesting information, did you measure with a scope or is from specs published by the manufacturer?
I also found that, depending on the setting of the adjustable travel volume (ATV) on a Futaba, the values could range from .75 to 2.2ms.
 

joliebrise

New Member
Info is from their spec sheets.

The scales on the testers are not accurate as I have no means of testing them. Divided the full range of the pot into equal divisions.

Better than nothing but it does show what is possible using Picaxe. Forget what it says on the box, trial and error.
My next section is to experiment with different servos and write up the results. 13. Output by Servos.

Tony
 

westaust55

Moderator
Great information. If I may make a comments, where you have the section:
Picaxe reads Rx signal
Manual 2 page 155
The Rx signal is automatically multiplied by 100 as Picaxe only uses positive whole numbers ie 1.1ms = 110
The statement “is automatically multiplied by 100” may lead to confusion as folks may look at the code expecting to see or need a “* 100” operation.

It may be better to indicate that:
The values from the PULSIN command are in increments of 10 usec.
Thus a pulse of 1.1 msec = 1100 usec which will give a value of 110 in the variable associated with the PULSIN command.
Likewise the SERVO related commands generate pulse durations in increments of 10 usec
Thus with the command SERVOPOS 180
This equates to a duration of 75 * 10 = 750 usec or 750 / 1000 = 0.75 msec.
 

joliebrise

New Member
Thanks Westaust55.

I now understand what happens.

Have inserted you comments with your name and link to the forum post.

Tony
 

srnet

Senior Member
Interesting information, did you measure with a scope or is from specs published by the manufacturer?
I also found that, depending on the setting of the adjustable travel volume (ATV) on a Futaba, the values could range from .75 to 2.2ms.
The standard should be is 1ms to 2ms, bute there can be variation from one manufacturer to another and it depends on TX settings too.

I have a GWS TX that puts out around 1.25-1.75ms on elevator airlon and rudder, 1.0ms to 2ms on throttle.
 

joliebrise

New Member
My research shows that there is no such thing as a standard and manufacturers fail to give accurate data, if at all.
I think is a case for the Trading Standards Office.
 
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