I want to make a rotating 3D-printed head-on-a-spring for my podcast in a box (obviously). Last week I had a play with a tiny servo motor that Richard Sewell had given me ages ago, and discovered the difference between steppers, servos and DC motors. Servos can be modified to go all the way round – they don’t usually, as I found out last week – but modifying the 9g looked a bit hard. Meanwhile John Honniball kindly gave me a little Switec type stepper motor and some excellent links.

Getting it to work didn’t take too long – the code’s below, and there’s a simple Arduino library to make it work (on github) and some instructions to wire it up, including tips on getting the wires attached. I had to prise it apart to make it rotate continuously, but that was easy in this case (the one I had didn’t even have screws, just clips). I haven’t got a 3D-printed head yet, just a bit of wire, foil and foam sheet in its place (on a spring though).

Exciting video: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicecupoftea/16759666917/

#include <SwitecX25.h>
 
// standard X25.168 range 315 degrees at 1/3 degree steps
#define STEPS (315*3)

SwitecX25 motor(STEPS, 4,5,6,7); 
int nLoops = 10;
int currentStep = 0;
int count = 0;
int state = 1;

void setup(void)
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
   char c = Serial.read();
   if(c == '0'){
     state = 0;
     Serial.println("stopped");
   }
   if(c == '1'){
     state = 1;
     Serial.println("started");
   }
   if(state == 1){
     motor.currentStep = 0;         // reset origin on each rotation 
     motor.setPosition(STEPS*2);    // set target to way past end of rotation
     while (motor.currentStep<STEPS-1){
       motor.update();  // turn until rotation is complete
     }
   }
}

It’s eons since I messed with an Arduino, and I’ve forgotten it all. All I have handy is a Duemilanove with ATmega168 and the newish version of the Arduino IDE doesn’t have Duemilanove ATmega168 as an option. Following this otherwise perfect tutorial and with IDE 1.6.1 (which works even though it’s for Java 6 and I have Java 8 on this mac), you get this error if you choose just Duemilanove:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00
[...]
Problem uploading to board.  See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.
  This report would have more information with
  "Show verbose output during compilation"
  enabled in File > Preferences.

But it’s fine if you choose “Arduino NG or older” in tools > board, like this:

The other difference is that these days, you don’t have to reboot after installing the FTDI drivers.

Once I have blink worked, I moved to this servo tutorial, since I have a tiny micro servo 9g from somewhere (Richard?).

In that tutorial it says you need to download and add the servo library; in fact it’s already there in “sketch > import library”.

Initially I got

Arduino: 1.6.1 (Mac OS X), Board: "Arduino NG or older, ATmega168"

Build options changed, rebuilding all
servo1.ino: In function 'void loop()':
servo1.ino:46:3: error: 'refresh' is not a member of 'Servo'
Error compiling.

  This report would have more information with
  "Show verbose output during compilation"
  enabled in File > Preferences.

The tutorial is evidently very out of date with respect to the servo library – this fixed it (and hi Anachrocomputer in that thread!)

From the processing code in that tutorial:

//Output the servo position ( from 0 to 180)
  port.write("s"+spos);

using the serial monitor (set to 19200 baud rate) I should be able to input “s100” in the serial monitor and have the servo move. But nothing happened. So I put some more logging in, and saw garbled stuff or nothing, and I wondered if my arduino is too old to do that baud rate. Doing this it reverses “foo” to “oof” but who knows.

Anyway, a few things:
firstly the code refers to the second servo, so the pin needs to be in analogue 2 not 1?
secondly, the serial monitor seems happier with line endings enabled
thirdly, and the actual problem turns out I had the pin wrong – that tutorial is very out of date, or the library’s changed a lot, or something. What you need is one of these, e.g digital 9.

Here’s the way I got it going.

Use this code:

// Sweep
// by BARRAGAN 
// This example code is in the public domain.
#include 
 
Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo
                // a maximum of eight servo objects can be created
int pos = 0;    // variable to store the servo position
void setup()
{
  myservo.attach(9);  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}

void loop()
{
  for(pos = 0; pos < 180; pos += 1)  // goes from 0 degrees to 180 degrees
  {                                  // in steps of 1 degree
    myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'
    delay(15);                       // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position
  }
  for(pos = 180; pos>=1; pos-=1)     // goes from 180 degrees to 0 degrees
  {
    myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'
    delay(15);                       // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position
  }
}

and the digital 9 pin as in the diagram on that page. Arduino pin naming seems nearly as confusing as the Raspberry Pi’s.

I think this little servo might be a bit noisy for what I have in mind, but it’s nice to have it working.