Sunday, 4 March 2012

Motorised dish

After weeks of fiddling about with servos, I think the motorised dish is finally built.

I was trying to use 2 Tower Pro MG995 servos which are high-torque and really cheap, but they are terrible. In the end I spent a little more and am now using 2 Towardpro MG996R servos, which are even higher torque, and perfect for what I need. The tilt and pan brackets were ordered from China.

The video shows a simple demo sketch I've written, just to test the strength of the servos. The ADK generates random values (within defined limits) for the azimuth and elevation angle, and then writes them to the servos. Impressively, the whole thing is powered by a single USB port. I have ordered a separate power supply for the motors, but it may not be necessary.

The next step is to finish writing an app capable of controlling the dishes movements (I have started, but was held up by those shocking MG995s, AVOID!)



3 comments:

  1. Hi, i was using similar 2 servo motors (9kg-cm) to hold a solar panel (0.5kg) for 2-axis (azimuth & altitude) rotation, bracket mounting exactly same like yours. To save battery power, I intend to cut power from the servos after adjusting the desired angles, my panel will drop down due to servo weak holding torque. What about yours? are you supplying constant power to the motors even the dish moved to the desired position? If not, any idea how you make the dish to hold?

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  2. I can give for Arduino programming and electronic plane

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  3. Hi Jose Vicente, I'm a telecommunications student and I'm working on a project like this, please if you can help me with all the information you have on this subject, it would be very useful for my work. A hug from Ecuador.
    Best regards,

    Victor

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