Raspberry Pi Dynamixel Servo Controller board

Software

■  Software

For reading datas and controlling the Dynamixel Servomotors we are using DynamixelSerial1 Library from Savage Electronics. This lib is very easy to implement and use. For more informations about downloading and adding them, please read the part above.

• Reading Position, Temperature and Voltage

The Dynamixel Servomotors have a integrated encoder and several sensors for a high accuracy and realibility. The paramters can be read about the second UART interface (Dynamixel.read[…];) and be send to the RPi with the first one (Serial.print([…]); A example which should show you how easy it is to use the lib and read datas was published below.

#include DynamixelSerial1.h

int Temperature,Voltage,Position;

void setup(){
Serial.begin(9600);              // Begin Serial Comunication
Dynamixel.begin(1000000,0);  // Inicialize the servo at 1Mbps (Standard) and Pin Control 0
delay(1000);
}

void loop(){
Temperature = Dynamixel.readTemperature(1); // Request and Print the Temperature
Voltage = Dynamixel.readVoltage(1);         // Request and Print the Voltage
Position = Dynamixel.readPosition(1);       // Request and Print the Position

Serial.print(” *** Temperature: “);   // Print the variables in the Serial Monitor
Serial.print(Temperature);
Serial.print(” Celcius  Voltage: “);
Serial.print(Voltage);
Serial.print(”  Volts   Position: “);
Serial.print(Position);
Serial.println(” of 1023 resolution”);

delay(1000);

}

• Controlling Dynamixel Servomotors

In comparison to reading, controlling Dynamixel Servomotors is much easier. At the beginning of the code you have to define the lib, the motor ID and baudrate, as shown in the example above. After that you are able to control the motor.

void loop(){

Dynamixel.move(1,random(200,800));  // Move Servomotor with ID 1 radomly from 200 to 800
Dynamixel.setEndless(1,ON); //Endless rotation
Dynamixel.turn(1,RIGTH,1000);
Dynamixel.ledStatus(1,ON); //Define status LED
Dynamixel.moveRW(1,512);

delay(1000);

}

The complete example can be visited after adding the Board and libraries to your Arduino IDE. A description of doing this can be read above.