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Pixy2 Servo's Aren't Responsive

Pixy Hardware
#1

I’m having a hard time isolating what the issue might be for my new Pixy2 servo mount kit.

I have followed the assembly guide and have completed the assembly of the mount. On initialization- I am trying to use the demo program “pan_tilt”. My Pixy2 has already been updated to have a valid signature- and I can see it recognizing the signature correctly on the “color_connected_components” demo.

But after switching to the pan til demo- tracking powered by servo’s doesn’t work. I followed the troubleshooting guide- and confirmed that the pan and tilt connectors are correctly aligned .

I inputted the example manual servo movements into the console of PixyMon

rcs_setPos 0 1000
rcs_setPos 0 0
rcs_setPos 1 1000
rcs_setPos 1 0

and unfortunately only get back response: 0 (0x0) which I assume in an indication that the hardware wasn’t able to be reached for the instruction.

I am powering this device through the provided USB cable with a converter to USB-C on a MacOSX Catalina (10.15.6).

A note on the USB-C converter, I had removed it and plugged the USB directly into a Window’s desktop to see if the problem was the power conversion- and even then the response was the same.

Any help would be much appreciated- thank you!

#2

Hi @HappyHippo,

sorry you’re having trouble! I believe the 0x0 response actually means “command executed with no errors”.

Just so I’m clear, you’re not getting any servo movement at all?

Thanks,
Jesse

#3

Also just to double check - do the servos move with gentle hand pressure when not connected to power, as described here?

https://docs.pixycam.com/wiki/doku.php?id=wiki:v2:my_pantilt_is_acting_sort_of_crazy#check-to-make-sure-there-is-no-mechanical-binding

#4

Thanks for the reply @freed! Yup I get no movement what so ever. I have even removed the arm attachment that connects the servo to the Pixy2 board- to see maybe if that is jamming the servo’s movement, but still when it’s on the pan tilt demo- and recognizes an object, it doesn’t attempt to track by moving the servos :frowning:

I am able to manually move the servos with hand pressure without any attached power.

#5

Hmm. I’m not sure what’s going on here. Let’s see about honing in on the problem - if you unplug one servo, and try exercising them again with the rcs_setPos commands, does anything change?

If you have Pixy2 plugged into power, and try moving the servos by hand, are they hard to move?

Do you have a multimeter handy?

Thanks,
Jesse

#6

Sorry for asking, but have you tried reversing the servo connectors? If the servos were plugged in backwards, you’d get no movement, or power like you describe.

Edward

2 Likes
#7

Thanks for the reply @edge and @freed- I feel incredibly foolish in not checking that the connectors were inverted in the connection sockets :sweat:. I kept on inverting the connectors in the pan and tilt connection sockets :roll_eyes:

I appreciate both your helps and replies. Thanks you!

#8

Hooray! Glad you got it working :slight_smile:

Let us know if you need anything else!