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Pixhawk analog servo support?

Posted by Stefan Oosterhout on March 6, 2014 at 8:18am

Hi,

Currently I'm looking at PixHawk to autopilot a Techpod drone. I can't seem to find whether the pixhawk supports analog servos, which run on 50Hz. I'm asking this because a lot of FBL systems for helicopters have no analog servo support.

Does anybody know? I've downloaded the software but I can't really do anything with it (change servo frequency) unless the pixhawk is connected.

Thanks!

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Replies

  • Developer
    Andrew Tridgell July 10, 2014 at 4:12am

    The APM:Plane firmware runs all servos at 50Hz. It should work with all servos.

    Cheers, Tridge

    • Andreas Breitenstein > Andrew Tridgell July 10, 2014 at 6:08am

      Hi Andrew,

      I have noticed that the servo movement is very "steppy" (for lack of a better word) Why is this?

      My Camera gimbal servo is not running smooth but it looks like it is moving in small steps to get to its endpoints. I am using digital servos for the gimbal.

      Thanks Andreas

      • Greg Fletcher > Andreas Breitenstein July 10, 2014 at 9:38am

        Digital servos are kind of "steppy". I use analog servos on my gimbal for this reason.

  • Chris Card July 9, 2014 at 8:38pm

    The parameter    RC_SPEED   allows a range of 50Hz   to  490Hz  update rates.

    You may access this parameter from the Full-Parameter-List  section of the Config/Tuning tab in Mission Planner.

    • Mike Mac > Chris Card July 10, 2014 at 3:22am

      That’s the problem – the Airplane firmware does not have that parameter.

      For multirotors that RC_SPEED parameter is only for ESC control and is not used on the servo channels.

      .

  • Mike Mac July 9, 2014 at 3:11pm

    Works perfect with HXT 900 servos so it must be 50 Hz.

    If someone is a good code reader It would be nice if they could figure that out and post the answer.

    It would be a nice enhancement to be able to adjust servo frequency. Multi rotor firmware has that logic so they could just copy over the code.

    .

  • Steven McAdam July 9, 2014 at 12:52pm

    I would like to know the answer to this as well.

    • Stefan Oosterhout > Steven McAdam July 9, 2014 at 1:13pm

      Meanwhile I have the pixhawk, and without changing the servo frequency (I wasn't able to find the menu) it didn't fry my $3 HK analog servos. So you can :)

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