Objective: To control a servo speed using a potentiometer.
Materials: Arduino, hookup wire, USB cable, 5v servo motor, potentiometer.
Tools: None were required, may want a wire strippers to make/modify hookup wire if needed.
Procedure:
- Wired Arduino and servo
- Ran the “Sweep” example to make sure board and servo motor were working.
- Wired in the potentiometer
- We had trouble making both the servo motor and potentiometer fit into a 5V header slot. A breadboard probably would have made this significantly easier.
- The servo motor seemed to be acting erratically, we programmed in a serial monitor output and were able to see the readings of the potentiometer. That’s when we realized the numbers were just telling the server to move to specific spot – I had been thinking it was telling the motor to move a specific speed. The fragile wiring was also a contributing factor to the erraticness.
Results: We successfully controlled the servo using a potentiometer.
