Hi,
I have an application where I need a servo to move the controls on a machine, but I also want the controls to be able to be manually moved when there is no power being applied to move the servo. And on top of this I would like the servo to be able to track its position when it is being manually moved.
Does anyone know of a servo that can do this?
Thanks
Kurt
Hello @Kurt_EM1
What exactly do you mean by “manually moved”? Moving a servo by hand could damage the internal gearing, I guess that is what you are trying to achieve because you mentioned: “no power being applied to move the servo”. If the servo is powered and you want to have a manual control (but not literally using your hands) you have many options like using a potentiometer, a joystick or radio control .
About the position tracking, normal servos don’t have any external feedback which will tell you what position they are in but there are ways to modify servos so that you can read the position from its potentiometer, although you could damage the servo in the process. You can read more about it in this post.
You could also buy a servo with feedback, for example, a Lynxmotion Smart Servo which provides information from many sensors, but you would still have to power the servo to get the data.
Finally, in order to suggest a specific model, it would be great if you could give a little more information about the project requirements for example torque and speed (here are other questions that could also help).
Hello Geraldinebc15
Thanks for your feedback.
If you think of a gas peddle; in automatic mode it would be controlled by the servo, but in manual mode it would be controlled manually my force from a foot. I was hopping there was a servo that could handle that, but maybe a servo is not the way to go.
Maybe a stepper motor in a sort of “rack and pinion” configuration would be better. I think the stepper could be moved manually without damage.The stepper could have an encoder.
Could this work? Could the stepper motor, under power in auto mode, hold a static position against the spring of the gas peddle with out damiging itself?
Thanks
Kurt
Hi @Kurt_EM1,
From my experience, you could use the servo that doesn’t have a brake. You can control it and you know its position. Also, when it is only powered on, you can read out encoder position.
I know a lot of these, but they are industrial grade and very expensive.
