This week the architecture section decided to make a mini claw machine. I joined the end effector (i.e., claw) team and was responsible for the servo motor that would actuate the opening and closing of the claw.

Step 1: Draw a schematic for the servo board following the steps outlined in the KiCad demo video but using the fab library components listed below and the layout from Neil's hello.servo.44 board from output device week. In order to control when the servo arm rotated, I needed to add a button as well, which would be connected to the machine's overall control panel. Since the button would be connected via wires, the only addition to Neil's board was a 10k resistor to an open pin on the microcontroller, as we did when we added a button to the hello world board in electronics design week. I used the following components from the fab library:

• ATTTINY44-SSU: microcontroller
• AVRISPSMD: 2x3 pin header to connect programmer
• PINHD-2X3-SMD: 2x3 pin header to control up to 2 servos
• PINHD-2x2-SMD: 2x2 pin header for power
• AMS1117-5.0: 5V regulator
• RESONATOR: 20 MHz
• RES-US1206FAB: 10k x 2
• CAP-US1206FAB: 10uF

Pro tips: Note that there are two different 5V regulators in the fab inventory that have the same footprint but different orientations of voltage in, out, and ground. The hello.servo.44 board is created for a ZLDO1117 whereas the hello.servo.44.1 board is created for a LM2940. As always, make sure you leave 2-3mm between your outer traces and the edge of the board, increase the track width from 0.25mm to 0.4mm, perform a design rules check, and shift some of the not-to-be-exported PCB text so that it spills beyond the edge cut so that no edge cuts accidentally disappear in mods. Next time, I'll need to space out my board a bit more and make sure I have minimum clearance of 0.4mm; I found when the board was milled, multiple tracks and pins had joined, and both Nathaniel and I spent a good chunk of time slicing copper to separate them.

Step 2: Export your traces and edge cuts for milling! I added some text as well to help differentiate from any other boards being made this week.

Step 1: Import your traces and edge cuts, invert, and mill.

Step 2: Solder the components to your board.

Step 3: Wire a button to the microcontroller side of your resistor and ground.

Step 1: Save Neil's two-channel software PWM c code and makefile.

Step 2: Read this short and sweet wiki on servo control and pulse-width modulation. This was key in helping me understand what Neil's code was doing. Since we only needed the servo to rotate between ~135 degrees at the press of a button and return to position at the release of the button, I only kept the two chunks of code that moved both servos (if two are connected) to their "non-neutral" positions (1 ms and 2 ms), and I changed the 2 to 2.5 ms to increase the range of motion.

Step 3: Read this super helpful tutorial on how to turn on an LED with a button. I used the button_44_c.c code to supplement Neil's servo code with additional code that accommodates an input (the button). Here's my final servo code.

Step 4: Connect the board to your programmer AND to power.

Step 5: Open a terminal in the folder with the saved files and run "make -f hello.servo.44.2.make ProgrammerName." The relevant programmer name can be found in the makefile.

Pro tips: After getting a better handle on what was going on in the c code, I realized, at least for my purposes, it may have been easier to use Neil's hardware PWM c code and makefile, but I don't think it's a big deal.

Step 1: Find a sweet linear servo actuator from Thingiverse to actuate the claw along a line rather than an arc.

Step 2: 3D print it!