How to Make an R/C Servo from a Wiper Motor | James Bruton

[@Fr223Laboratories]

Okay, for anyone else out there that is attempting to do this with an IBT_2 motor driver, you don't need to change the program. All you need are a few additional steps in the wiring. Digital pins 5&6 need to go LPWM and RPWM respectively, switching the order of these will simply invert the direction of the servo. Both the L_EN and R_EN pins need to pulled to a HIGH state and should be attached to +5V DC. Both the L_IS and R_IS pins need to pulled to a LOW state and should be attached to ground. VCC should also be attached to +5V and GND simply goes to ground. Thank you James for the code and explanation, my dreams of a robotic riding lawnmower are finally coming true.

[@adf360]

For driving a motor w/out concern for position, you can just make a resistor bridge 10k resistor from power to the analog input pin, and another 10k resistor from ground to the same analog pin. Since the resistance is always in balance, you only get movement from an input and you can adjust the code to give you nice little dead band for neutral. Seriously James, this may be the most universally useful code I've ever used. I've helped so many people and done several RC projects myself and your code is the heart/soul of every project I'm involved with.

[@MrGatlin98]

I was literally thinking about using a wiper motor yesterday because I need a powerful servo for a project. Didn't know where to begin. I look on your channel today and see literally the exact video that I needed uploaded at the same time I needed it. Awesome coincidence

[@horashia495]

This is the best type of videos you should consider making more of thia type of videos in the future ..

[@jyotishmanbharali3757]

These are the kind of videos you should make

[@nobocks]

need a subchannel !

[@yourfriend3999]

yeah but isis used these videos to make remote controlled suicide car bomb 😂

[@tommays56]

Gotta say I am and old maker and really enjoy your channel your ability to take something so complex like this is and give a simple to follow path is really a gift On high speed PLC work we use hardware based inputs that do not depend on scan time to process the task

[@jamesbruton]

thanks I did a bit of PLC in college, but that was in the 90s!

[@tommays56]

James Bruton We our very restricted in what we can use as everything we we build can mangle the operator if it malfunctions and have to use dedicated safety relays and go through a pretty intense safety review

[@tommays56]

cal29seafever.blogspot.com/ Enjoy my most epic 20 month build

[@MakunaRGBIC]

make sure to use unsigned for all your timing variables so that when millis/micros rolls over, the math still works correctly. And yes, (current - last >= interval) is safe and correct to use with unsigned variables and will correctly handle rollover of timing functions.

[@AJMansfield1]

5:00 An even better way to read the pulse in is to use the TC1 input capture unit to measure the pulse length in hardware, so if you have e.g. some serial code that blocks interrupts for a few microseconds and the interrupt is called late, you still have the exact time from the input edge recorded in hardware.

[@malikmark8768]

I know im randomly asking but does any of you know of a tool to get back into an instagram account? I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any help you can give me!

[@zaidenignacio5516]

@Malik Mark Instablaster :)

[@malikmark8768]

@Zaiden Ignacio i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im trying it out now. Takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.

[@malikmark8768]

@Zaiden Ignacio it did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D Thanks so much, you really help me out !

[@zaidenignacio5516]

@Malik Mark You are welcome :D

[@jamesbruton]

What would you do with a giant servo!?

[@raphaelhoornaert7033]

a ventilator to counter the heat wave

[@katrina-ei1jf]

Hit people with it

[@supercomputer0448]

James Bruton why does it say your comment is from 4 days ago

[@maxjackson9191]

supercomputer2004 he first uploads the videos to patreon so he probably commented when he put it up there

[@supercomputer0448]

Magnus Kree ohh

[@michalrutkowski95]

Great video. Just one thing to mention, usually wiper motor have "3 wires", 2 normal (+) and GND in metal housing, so you should use case and one of wire, changing wire you can change speed of rotation but for long use better is to use slower one.

[@apocalypseio]

Thanks for the basic description of PID. Will peek your files. I am day dreaming of a few uses for this already.

[@LordGarth6]

im glad to see ya putting ya code and cad up for most thigns now

[@barmetler]

That's cool And you can simply change the servo's range by changing the pully sizes

[@jamesbruton]

yep

[@ck-fz8zy]

So useful, these motors are everywhere

[@DesignedbyWill2084]

The pulseIn is only giving you +/- 1us jitter verses 4us in the "improved" code. The pulseIn has an optional 3rd value of timeout. It defaults to 1 second (hence the one second +/- 5us steps in your jitter graph) and should be set closer to the 20ms timing of the RC PWM signals. Try pwm = pulseIn(8, HIGH, 30000); Timeout is in microseconds.

[@mfx1]

And of course if you change your pulley ratio you could make it go a lot more than 10 turns. Also put some sanity check code on the pot analogue value so the motor can't go any further than the endstops and break it.

[@OMNI_INFINITY]

Thanks for posting the files and explaining all of that!👍🏻

[@douglarue8485]

Well done! I did this 3 years ago for a Maker Faire project( RC PRS ) but didn't include PID so I will try your code. Thanks. BTW, I used an Arduino Pro Mini and an L298 with my pot connected to the shaft via laser cut gearing. I like the belt/wire setup but will be mod'ing to use contactless magnetic encoder and will probably shift to a Teensy.

[@BasementCreationsChannel]

Thanks a lot for this video James, it really helped me in making my own brushless servo

[@superfunnymonkey123]

What did you use as a motor driver ?

[@JamesCoyle95]

I really wish you would use #define to define some constant values... You could give each pin an actual, meaningful name and then if you need to change what pin it's attached to you can just change the one #define. You really should have one for the 255 values too as they are all related. It's a simple thing that makes your code more readable and maintainable.

[@ZodiusInfuser]

Either that or static const‘s, which effectively do the same thing but preserve type information.

[@ZodiusInfuser]

The underlying arduino compiler definitely supports them, but I will admit the IDE does a poor job of pointing such things out. It wasn't until I switched to using the VisualMicro plugin for VisualStudio that I realised the arduino compiler supports a large amount of C++, including templates.

[@JamesCoyle95]

Angry Rambo Show they aren't really complex to understand though and would actually help beginners to better understand what the code is doing as you are replacing random pin numbers and constants with a meaningful English representation. digitalRead(POTENTIOMETER); is much easier to understand than digitalRead(1) for example.

[@KuraIthys]

James Coyle True, but at the same time you're adding a layer of indirection between the code and the hardware, and now you have to look in two places to determine what pin is connected to which code. Makes for more readable code, sure, but actually obfuscates the hardware/software interface. Say you plug the potentiometer into a different pin (accidentally, or on purpose). Now you'll have code that states it interacts with the potentiometer, but actually doesn't. (not even the worst case scenario). If your project is pure code, yes. Absolutely. But you are manipulating hardware and software in parallel and could change either arbitrarily and now you have a label in the middle that may or may not be meaningful, depending on the hardware design.

[@JamesCoyle95]

KuraIthys You only have to look at where your defines are (the top of the code) and change one value rather than having to update several uses of that pin that could be anywhere in your code. Your points don't make sense. You are defining in one place that pin 1 is the potentiometer so then you attach the pot to pin 1 on the Arduino. If you attach it to a different pin you then update your define statement to point to that new pin and all references to that pin in your program are updated to reflect that you changed which pin you're connecting it to.

[@ianfarquharson3772]

Always enjoy and like you vids. If you watch any vid it's the least you can do for all the time N effort the creator puts in. It's just a bonus I enjoy yours lol. TkEZ»UK

[@deeareus9886]

nice job, i'm happy that some one still use rc remotes :o)

[@janfpv1006]

PID Tuning is something we have to dael with verry often in the fpv drone hobby. Sometimes weather force you to lower P because of the change of air density

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

This was phenomenal James. Very informative!!

[@firozkamarudin]

You have build the transformers ,,,,great job James !!!

[@silverhead8243]

James, this is very usefull drive system for your dog robot, it is strong, fast and compact, even you can find a smaller wiper motors with the same torque. Think about it.

[@patprop74]

Perhaps, Same style video, only difference , use those cheap 433MHz transmit and receive rf modules sold on ebay. i'm sure many would appreciate that.

[@jimmymark8232]

Good idea James, thanks 👍

[@hotrodlincoln7_180]

Thanks James you got a like and subscribe from me!!! Building an autonomous lawn mower with a window motor for steering and want it to reset to neutral when I let off the input. This is exactly what I was looking for!!! Thanks

[@nigelmdl]

love this! Hope you create more vids like this. Great now to watch it again and then read the code again.

[@jamesbruton]

thanks, I will be when I know what I'm talking about ;-)

[@bikingnutcase0]

Brilliant! Cheers for posting that information and code, I’ve been trying to do this for a while now after seeing HomoFacien’s video on the same subject, but for me your video is much clearer and easier to follow. I suspect I shall change it to use L298 motor driver ic, so I’ll need to set direction and send PWM to the enable instead of picking which pin to send the signal to, but that shouldn’t be too hard.

[@Workshopshed]

Hey James, great to see you are also building big servos. I don't have RC controllers so I've gone digital with I2C to control the position and provide information back to the host

[@supercomputer0448]

1:38am here but ain't no rest for the wicked

[@lilmelon5400]

Cmon you got work tommorow? Money dont grow on trees

[@truetech4158]

Sniper Sharp107 money is made from plant, and that grows on its own. So does the narcissism as some people keep believing that the banker who put the narcissistic statement on the those always only paper god$ that people dedicate entire lives chasing after. Some are willing to put carbon atoms into the atmosphere in the process of doing so. And sadly roughly 12 million people per year die from pollution. What else is sad, is while clobbering the planets ecosystem, they like to pretend that those 12 million went on to experience an afterlife. Creepy isn't it? #inSCIENCEwetrust

[@supercomputer0448]

True Tech boi it's 4:05am here I don't got the brain power to comprehend what your saying I'm gonna go eat some cereal

[@truetech4158]

supercomputer2004 some food for though then, perhaps after you wake up. You enjoy your Rice Crispies.

[@R_Media_14]

very good ider , you can use this power full servo bulid any robot or mecah , this amazing

[@floflotantan]

I love this kind of video ! I learn so much thanks !

[@ИгорьЧерноусов-б5ж]

Hello, help me set up the program, since in the absence of a signal at the servo input, the motor rotates

[@davecorr4421]

Awesome Video James! Thanks for posting. I have have several WW motors from old projects, i guess i need to order some controllers and start making some new projects!

[@customfabrications]

One could also take the circuit out of a normal rc servo, wire that into the wiper motor with a new pot, and that would prevent needing an Arduino or doing any coding. Of course you would still need the motor driver to handle the current. Just a thought.

[@jamesbruton]

...and you wouldn't be able to tune the PID for he bigger motor and bigger load.

[@customfabrications]

True. Good point. I am curious though to try it and see how well, or how bad, it works. So, I just ordered the motor driver on eBay (I have a few normal servos and a wiper motor already), so I’ll try it and see. When I do, I’ll post a video on my channel and show the result. It may be a few weeks cause the driver is coming from China. I’ll let you know when I post the video.

[@customfabrications]

So I just posted a video showing what happens when you use the circuit from a normal servo to convert a wiper motor. Check it out and see what you think. It works, but.......

[@HarshDethe]

Very helpful. Thankyou.

[@marccloutier3501]

this video is the missing information i was needing to continue on a project!!! but instead of mapping a remote control, I want to call 8 different position while adding effect like adding turn to reach a position !

[@KrisadaNgamsuwan]

ขอขอบคุณ

[@antonwinter630]

loved this vid, it expanded my knowledge

[@MinecraftSubi]

Ok god I love you james

[@MrPmjg]

At 13:12 if the output1 is 0 you will no write the value to pmw. OK that will no be problematic for the PID control, but still it should be correct on the code, by writing just "else" instead of "else if(output1

[@jacobcook1450]

Mario Kart Home Circuit! You legend! ;)

[@rafaelsays175]

My brain is aching after that

[@patprop74]

you might need a giant servo in your brain to turn all the gears and cogs to help presses :P JK

[@lit2021]

You could also change the gear ratio between the motor and the potentiometer to get more than 180°, or less than 180° but with better precision 😊

[@AudomideA]

Wow

[@donvukovic7440]

It is so refreshing to here an English speaker that does not use Americas favorite words: Umm, Uuugh, doh

[@jims2240]

Interesting project. I am looking to do something similar and need two turns at the output so need to use a multiturn pot or use pulleys with a ratio and standard pot. Would like to see more info on the pulley arrangement to help me build something similar. Have searched a bit and haven't found much on similar pulley system. Maybe not using the right search terms...

[@AbcDef-hl2ic]

What a great tuto!

[@smahendra1948]

This is what exactly I was looking for to build a 2 DOF platform for my grand kids.

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

i need 2 do this with learning as little code as possible lol love it

[@johnsmith-oy9kx]

That was awesome!

[@WannabeSpaceman]

"First of all, what am I talking about!?" My life in a nutshell

[@rondlh20]

Great stuff, love it!

[@botak333]

Hi sir, how much value of pot do u used sir?? 5k or 10k sir??

[@diyzona]

Excellent. Thanks

[@bentsprockettech]

If not done. That's pretty funny. Thanks for sharing this with us. :)

[@jonnupe1645]

Commenting for KZbin algorithm

[@KX36]

Nice one Jim.

[@amrsamyounis]

very useful and inspiring

[@ElYeYeBoi]

Cool

[@22Tech]

awesome thank you! i'm trying to build a big servo to turn the steering of a go kart. would a big brushed motor do?

Would this setup work with a brushless motor and ESC? :)

[@yoashuain1]

Thanks tons.😊

[@reasonablebeing5392]

Awesome video. There's going to be a run on wiper motors at the auto boneyards........

[@Dan-wu1cu]

Hey James, quick question. I’m building a remote system for a snowblower as I live in Canada and we get a lot of snow and it sucks having to go out and get cold and wet to clear the lane way.. I’ve done my r&d and my brains been put on paper and refined , I’ve got all the parts I need and I’m ready to build. But I have not ordered any circuit boards yet. (Plan on using an Arduino Uno ((possibly mega for seemless Add ons in the future)) and I’ve been researching the Adafruit 16 channel servo driver) So.. the build will have 7 “servos” but 5 of them I am building out of 3 window motors from a car and 2 wiper motors(for the higher output potential for steering. Need to fight the resistance of snow and the weight of the whole machine) the other 2 of 7 servos will simply be 20kg Rd car servos. So my question is, what would I need to drive the 5 wiper motor servos similar to the one you’ve built in this video? I see your driving one from the motor driver to the pwm pins on your Arduino. Would I need to have 5 of those drivers ? If so. Then would I need make sure I have another analog pins to receiver the signal from each of the 5 pots off each of the 5 wiper motors? Is this possible with the Arduino Mega platform?

[@jamesbruton]

Yes you'll need 5 motor drivers with 10 pwms on the Arduino. If you use the servo library on the MEGA then pins 9 and 10 don't work as PWMs anymore so you might struggle to drive 5 motors.

[@garypreen3175]

James great video but can i make a suggestion to improve things and that would be physically attach the pot to motor output shaft because if you lose the pulley/ belt when using pid to control the position, the motor could run away if it loses the feedback. Just a suggestion again great video

[@jamesbruton]

yes you could do that

[@MichaelRHead-zv2zf]

would you get better control using a rotary encoder in place of a pot on the motor?

[@titanwross]

Very interesting I enjoyed that

[@djmips]

Nice, any thoughts on designing a direct pot feedback as I imagine the pulley setup could slip and fall or at least lose assignment?

[@automacnc86]

Hi, i have a similar design, but it doesn't go to exact center after left or right when i release the stick. Right and left have their different home position, do you know why would it be? There is no mechanical backlash.

[@shubhamankush6992]

can someone tell me can i use digital read instead of analog read from the potentiometer because i want to opearate the motor using digital signals coming from second arduino

[@NomaddUK]

Hi James. Great video as usual. Can you do a step by step tutorial of creating a cheap and small walking bipedal robot, say 6 inches high? You could use it as an ongoing tutorial by adding further functions like speech synthesis, speech recognition, AI etc. If you guys would like James to do this please like this comment so he can gauge interest.

[@ErgoProxyYT]

I don't see why you can't just take his big bipedal robots and make them smaller, with cheaper parts. Also, 6 inches high would probably be more expensive than like 1 foot high, just due to the the cost of small servos vs "regular" servos.

[@nguyenduckhanh55]

Hi James thank you for your video. I try to wire circuit as you but control by adruino. I use Adruino it self to power both driver and servo and the motor doesnt work. Is it because the voltage isnt enough

[@nielsvdmarel]

Really nice video! You could do more video's like these, arduino explaining video's. You could even grab your exisiting projects and show how they work. Like the arm of Ultron :)

[@jamesbruton]

thanks, I'm intending to

[@Soeren_Hetzer]

Thnk you verry much that you have made this video, it will help me a lot in the future. Could you do a follow up in the future where you show how to build a endless (360°) Servo that you could use for a homebulid cnc?

[@jamesbruton]

well with an encoder and an end switch - check out my openDog series

[@Soeren_Hetzer]

James Bruton Thanks

[@champaquaman]

Using this library is it possible to have the Pk, IK, and Dk connected to pots for out of program tuning?

[@AhmetAkifKaya]

PID is everywhere!

[@ToddSandercock]

Doesn’t the “I” value correct the error when under load? “I” or integral increases with time gradually with steady state error until saturation or reaching the target set point. “D” is the derivative which is effectively the rate it approaches the set point, can be used to ensure its not heading towards the set point too quickly.

[@JairoMeirelles]

Thank you! It worked perfect for me!!!

[@neilsmith1145]

Great video! This would work great for a linear actuator that has a pot like the ones on servo city.

[@jostromp7380]

I liked it to see the code with your explanation! Can you do a video where you make a frequency control with arduino? With a recrifier and capacitor and an arduino PWM output wich approaches a sine wave?

[@casper2277]

would the 3d printed parts work on all windshield wiper motors, or does it have to be a certain kind?

[@Grey-Troll]

Would (given tire size) work on any car, or does it have to be a certain kind? :) Had to say it, all in good fun. I'd love to try some 50" tires on my Honda sedan though! haha

[@radiocontrolledevents]

hi James, I'm using the code linked but the first "include" line fails. Only very new to the Arduino. Is there an updated link please? thanks

[@JPN76]

Do you think the arduino is capable of controlling 2 motors that way without any lag or jittering?

[@jamesbruton]

Yes

[@PMX]

4:24 that indentation after if (!done) return is *very confusing*...

[@golfmechanic1714]

Great video. I am making one myself. What ohm rating POT do I need to get?

[@golfmechanic1714]

Just figured out. When using Arduino it does not really matter What ohm rating it is.

[@stevenmiddleton4430]

Cool project! I’m trying to do a similar one with the same parts you have used except I want to control it with a servo tester instead of an RC controller. I tried hooking it up the same way and used the code you had on GitHub. It just spins. Could you help me figure out what I’m missing? Thanks!

[@tomscietvirs2379]

How many PWM signals can I read with this code from the R / C console And just which arduino pinout can I use? Thanks to this code, I finally got to R / C to change the speed and direction of the stepper motor!

[@brofessormex]

I saw a note under problems or issues on the GitHub to turn off output?

[@jamesharris6062]

Hi James could you use the new pi pico to do the same with coding ?

[@MihaiCadariu]

if (!done) return; is correct, because there are no curly brackets around the one line if body. ( 5:40 ) Also because the following two lines are indented wrong (but still syntacticly correct), this can be hard to understand for a human reader. Good video, otherwise!

[@michaeld954]

how do you adjust it to where you want can you get it to do a startup check for center maybe adding end switches

[@thatonecommentor7758]

Have you ever made (or considered making) a near to complete beginner's intro to robot building? Even if you didn't go into the actual "making" of the robot, just discussing the terms and basic features? I'm rather new myself, I only just got interested a few years ago and being still fairly young (high school) would really appreciate it. Thank you for any possible consideration!

[@thumpernats]

This is great, if only i could understand it.

[@Dust599]

code doesn't seem to account for millis roll over... sure it takes 49 days to rollover, but would be disastrous if it happened

[@PKMartin]

So every seven weeks the servo will flip out for 20ms? I think I can live with that

[@Dust599]

would probably be destructive to whatever its in

[@scratchy101]

I'd like to see this done without an Arduino. It should be possible using a servo to drive a potentiometer to drive a circuit that adjusts the position of the wiper motor arm.

[@jamesbruton]

Yes you could do it with analog electronics I suppose...

[@herlufsrensen5356]

Hey James. Are there any way to contact you ? I need to change the rc control to a steeringwheel control with a POT in the end of the steeringcolum. its all made but i'm not sure how to change the code ? Should the PWM be set for A2 input with range of 0,1023 ? Etc. Best regards Herluf