Should Work on any servo with 20mS duty cycle or 50Hz frequency, tested on.
- Tower pro Digital micro servo SG90
- Hitec HS422 servo
- Tower pro MG996R Servo
(Check if your servo matches the freq/duty cycle specifications, most should)
Datasheet SG90 Datasheet Hs422 Datasheet MG996R
The following data applies to the SG90 servo.
The servo has 3 wires one for gnd(brown) 5v power(red) and signal(orange/yellow).
I have verified that it is safe to drive a single servo from the 5 volt rail on Rpi.
However It is possible to damage your Raspberry Pi by drawing
too much current out of a pin(spikes or low current power supply on the pi).
It is best to power it from a 5 Volt source other than a Raspberry Pi rail.
You can still control it from the Raspberry Pi if you use a common ground,
but just get the power (red wire) from an external source.
The Pi draws approximately 700 mA from the +5 V supply. You may draw current from the +5 V pins provided
the sum of that current and the board's 700 mA doesn't exceed the supply you provide to the board.
From the data sheet , we see these servos expects a frequency of 50 Hz on the control line and the position it moves to depends on the pulse width of the signal. 50Hz gives a period of 20mS (Freq = 1/Period)
These servo has a range of 180 degrees.
The Raspberry Pi controls the servo by outputting a PWM signal of varying duty cycle on a GPIO pin connected to signal pin of servo.
For the Raspberry Pi we do not have a change pulse width method for PWM, but we can change the Duty Cycle. Note that:
Duty Cycle = Pulse Width * Frequency
Given a 50 Hz frequency we can calculate the required duty cycle for any pulse width. For example:
We need a 1.5 ms pulse to center the servo, or a Duty Cycle = 0.0015 * 50 = 0.075 (i.e 7.5%). Similarly, 1 ms pulse (- 90 degrees or 0 degrees) requires a Duty Cycle = 0.001 * 50 = 5% 2 ms pulse (+ 90 degrees or 180), Duty Cycle = 0.002 * 50 = 10%
Thus the duty cycle range should be from 5 - 10% with the center at 7.5%.
Every servo is different, so you will need to calibrate it for the best performance. I found 7.5 for center , 11 for max duty percentage or left position (180 degress) and 2 for min duty percentage or right postion (0 degrees) Check datasheet for recommend pulse width and calibrate accordingly.
The software includes a method to convert degrees to pulse duty cycle percentage. for user convenience, this method is also used internally in one of the other methods If user prefers working in degrees they can pass result to the other methods which want pulse duty cycle percentage.
This works as follows imagine we have two points on a graph. (x1, y1) (x2, y2). Where 1 is servo right position 0 degree. Where 2 is servo left position 180 degree. Where x is degree and y is pulse duty cycle percentage. Y 1 and Y2 are calibrated by user = default (2, 12).
(x1 , y1) = ( 0,2 )
(x2, y2) = (180,12).
To get slope of line m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1). The equation of the line using the point slope formula = y-y1=m(x-x1) . We want to find point (x,y) Where y is required pulse duty cycle percentage and x is the given degree. For default values this works out as DutyCycle = 1/18* (DesiredAngle) + 2.
So for default values 90 degree or midpoint is 7.0.
Note: There are two different options for controlling the servo. When using Rpi_GPIO option you may notice twitching at certain delays and stepsizes. This is the result of the implementation of the RPIO PWM software timing. If the application requires precise control the user can pick the pigpio library which uses hardware based timing. The disadvantage being they must install another an extra dependencies.
The library file has a single class which controls the servo The class is called SG90servo but works for all listed as tested.
The class is called SG90servo and their are four methods are
(1) servo_sweep - sets up a continuous sweep from two points Center-wait-min-wait-max-wait-min- and so on until user quits or set limit reached.
(2) servo_move - moves to a specified location in a single sweep
(3) convert_from_degree - converts degrees to duty cycle percentage
(4) servo_move_step - moves servo from two points in timed steps.
from RpiMotorLib import rpiservolib
myservotest = rpiservolib.SG90servo("servoone", 50, 2, 12)The class takes four parameters on init
- name, type=string, default=SG90servoX,
- Freq, type=int, default=50, help=control freq of servo in Hz
- y_one, type=float, default=2, help=pulse min duty cycle % of servo for 0 degrees
- y_two type=float, default=12, help=pulse max duty cycle % of servo for 180 degrees
y_one and y-two are used by methods numbered 3 and 4.
function, servo_sweep, 8 inputs sets up asweep from two points, Center-delay-min-delay-max-delay- and so on until user quits or set-limit reached.
servo_sweep(servo_pin, center, minduty, maxduty, delay, verbose, initdelay, sweeplen)
(1) servo_pin, type=int help=GPIO pin we will contect to signal line of servo
(2) center, type=float, default=7.5, help=The center dutycycle position of servo
(3) minduty, type=float, default=3, help=The min dutycycle position of servo
(4) maxduty, type=float, default=11, help=The max dutycycle position of servo
(5) delay, type=float, default=0.5, help=Time to wait (in seconds) between steps.
(6) verbose, type=bool type=bool default=False help="Output actions & details",
(7) initdelay, type=float, default 50mS help= A delay after Gpio setup and before servo moves
(8) sweeplen, type=integer , default one million help= is number of times to execute sweep.
example:Setup a class instance called servoone with control freq 50mS with y_one set to 3 and Y_two to 11. Next call method to sweep the servo connected to GPIO pins 7 for step delay of 0.5 second from minduty position 2 to maxduty position 12 and center position 6 with verbose output set to True and initdelay set to 0.01mS , 100 times
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
from RpiMotorLib import rpiservolib
myservotest = rpiservolib.SG90servo("servoone", 50, 3, 11)
# call the function pass by value in this case.
myservotest.servo_sweep(7, 6, 2, 12, 0.5, True, 0.01, 100)
# good practise to cleanup GPIO at some point before exit
GPIO.cleanup()function servo_move 5 inputs
servo_move(servo_pin, position, delay, verbose, initdelay)
(1) servo_pin, type=int help=GPIO pin we will contect to signal line of servo
(2) position, type=float, default=7.5, help=The dutycycle position of servo to move to
(3) delay, type=float, default=0.5, help=Time to wait (in seconds) before move and after setup
(4) verbose, type=bool type=bool default=False help="Output actions & details",
(5) initdelay, type=float, default 50mS help= A delay after Gpio setup and before servo moves
example: to move the servo connected to GPIO pins 7 for step delay of 1 second to postion 11 with non-verbose output and initdelay of 10mS
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
# import the library
from RpiMotorLib import rpiservolib
# initialize an instance of the class passing a name
myservotest = rpiservolib.SG90servo("servoone", 50, 3, 11)
# call the function pass by value in this case.
myservotest.servo_move(7, 11, 1, False, .01)
# good practise to cleanup GPIO at some point before exit
GPIO.cleanup()converts degrees to duty cycle percentage Input degrees, returns duty cycle percentage as floats
from RpiMotorLib import rpiservolib
myservotest = rpiservolib.SG90servo("servoone", 50, 3, 11)
degree = float(input("What degree do you want?\t"))
print("Duty cycle percent = {} ".format(myservotest.convert_from_degree(degree)))servo_move_step(servo_pin, start, end, stepdelay, stepsize, initdelay, verbose=)
servo_move_step - moves servo from two points in timed steps, seven inputs.
(1) servo_pin, type=int help=GPIO pin we will contect to signal line of servo
(2) start, type=float, default=10, help=start position of servo in degree
(3) end, type=float, default=170, help=end position of servo in degrees
(4) stepdelay, type=float, default=1, help=Time to wait (in seconds) between steps.
(5) stepsize, type=int, default=1. help=the size of steps between start and end in degrees
(6) initdelay, type=float, default 50mS help= A delay after Gpio setup and before servo moves
(7) verbose, type=bool type=bool default=False help="Output actions & details",
Example: to move a servo on GPIO pin 26 from 10 degrees to 170 degrees in 3 degree steps every two seconds, with an initial delay of one second and verbose output.
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
# import the library
from RpiMotorLib import rpiservolib
# initialize an instance of the class
myservotest = rpiservolib.SG90servo("servoone", 50, 3, 11)
myservotest.servo_move_step.servo_move_step(26, 10, 173, 2, 3, 1, True)