o u t p u t D e v i c e

for Output device week, I chose to work with a servo thinking i'll use one in my final project [a one arm weaving device]. even Though i was exactly following the servo example, i quickly ran into some issues.

as Soon as power was plugged in, the regulator started to smoke. Rob Hart checked the power and we tried on a bench power supply as well to closely regulate the power input. everytime it still smoked [or was quickly unplugged]. he Reccomended i de-solder components to see if there were hidden shorts. after Finding none, he reccomended we check out the datasheet. THIS IS WHY YOU READ DATA SHEETS...

the Sample board was using a component that looked exactly the same, but when you read the tiny text, they were actually different. this Meant they had different pin configurations...and what i thought was powerIn was actually powerOut and so on... below is some reconstructive surgery. i Wanted to see if i could fix it without milling a new board to 1) confirm it was the problem and 2) conserve resources and time

after The Frankenstein's monster board got working, i layed out a new board with correct pin connections in Eagle for future use.

i Thought it would be a good time to start learning more about servo's and playing with the code. i Read the "servo" chapter in "Make: AVR Programming" to understand how PMW [pulse width modulation] is used to control speed and direction, fasinating! but, For some reason, the sample code was making my servo continiously spin in one direction, luckily i had a continous servo, but it's never re-assuring when code meant to do one thing, does another. the Code stalled a non-continious servo as it was trying to turn past it's limit. i Turned to the How To Make archives and saw many people using the same code, which leads me to believe the Frankenstein's monster board is not actually working. i Was able to change the speed of the motor in C, or the direction of the motor, but not both. it Seemed like changing the same variable would sometimes alter the speed, other times it would alter the direction. more To investigate on this...