[PD] pd/arduino pwm > servo motor

[info at timvets.net]

are there any other ways / interfaces to control a servo motor from pd ?
similar to for example:
http://www.makingthings.com/products/documentation/max_externals/t_servo.htm

tim

> tim wrote:
>> I have a servo motor which is to be driven by pduino / Arduino.
>> The following firmware directly uploaded to the arduino (near bottom
>> of page):
>> http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/Servo
>> runs well.
> There you have a timing loop running on the arduino.
>>
>> With some modifications the motor moves between 2 positions smoothly
>> enough.
>> However, trying the same from pd using the pduino (fermata) firmware
>> and the arduino help pd patch, it's quite a different story.
>> The pulse-train needed for the PWM control of the servo motor seems
>> too irregular (due to pd/comport timing?) such that the motor is not
>> positioned cleanly but jumps around. (at least, that's my
>> interpretation)
> In that case you send on/off messages from pd to the arduino telling it
> to switch pins on and off.
>> I tried both sending PWM from ports 9,10 or 11 (the Amtel-built-in
>> pwm) and generating some software pwm on other digital out ports.
> I don't think the arduino implements hardware pwm yet, so it doesn't
> matter which pin you use.
>> Is there a way to get rid of this jitter?
> The way is to implement pwm on the arduino itself. There are two ways to
> do this: software and hardware. The Servo firmware uses software to
> set/reset the pins in a timing loop. But it isn't doing anything else.
> The pduino has to do analog conversions and send data as well, so unless
> interrupts are used it would be jittery too at a finer level.
> The Atmel microcontroller itself has 3 pwm pins that can run
> independently of the software once they are set up, but I don't think
> anyone has implemented that yet. If you look at the firmata code it does
> nothing when either mode of pwm is requested. I have translated the
> firmata code to PIC16F767 and intend to implement software pwm for
> servos soon. I don't know when it's going to happen with firmata for the
> actual arduino.
> There is no way to get around the jitter in the comport because it has
> to operate in between the audio block processing time slots in pd.
> I think there need to be pduino commands to move stepper motors too,
> because there are jitter issues there as well.
> Martin
>
>