I need help with a digital servo project

by Joe
(Oshkosh)

Friends,

I have a Zenith 750 aircraft i am building and I have a project I am working on.

I would like to use a digital servo to move a lever with no load 1.5 inches back and forth for heater control. Is there a way I can use a servo to work on a on/off basis and limit the travel to 1.5 inches without using a transmitting controller?

I was thinking about using a servo tester and have a variable rate heater control but I need to set the left right limits similar to the steering a mode car or operating the elevator on a model plane. Does anyone have any ideas they want to share? Thanks! backstagelive@gmail.com

Joe

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PWM solution
by: rcdude07

Servos work on a PWM (pulse width modulation) signal. You can use any small computing device (Arduino, etc...) to program the signal and timing you want to do. In 2008 during college I used a Sun Systems SPOT connected to two servos to program autonomous driving movement (in addition to other sensors for seek and avoid work).

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Set up mechanics for full servo travel w servo driver
by: Ignacio A

Your servo driver approach is a great idea. It's going to be the easiest, and you can get one cheap from Amazon ($15?); you will need a battery. What you might do is set up your servo arm and pushrod mechanics so that with full servo travel from end to end you get the desired distance travel to control your heater. This way, you don't mess with the electronics.

The servo controller may have a switch integrated for full travel of the servo to one end or the other. If it doesn't, and you do want to get inside of the electronics to set up a switch (instead of a proportional knob), the solution can be in setting up fixed resistors in place of the know potentiometer (variable resistance).

Good luck!

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