Servo Motors: Homing & Control
Imagine a blindfolded painter trying to touch up the corner of a canvas. They know they have a brush, but without seeing where their hand started, every stroke is a guess.
1. The Problem: Where Am I?
When you first turn the robot on (or wake up in a dark room), the robot's "brain" knows it has an arm, but it has no memory of where it left it yesterday. Is it pointing up? Is it pointing down? If it doesn't know where it's starting, it can't move to the right spot.
2. The Solution: "Homing" (The Wall Tap)
To fix this, the robot performs a Home command:
- →The Action: The arm slowly moves in one direction until it hits a physical "Limit Switch" (like you reaching out until you touch that cold wall in the dark).
- →The Result: The moment it clicks that switch, the robot says: "Aha! This is 0 degrees." Now that it has a starting point, it can take the blindfold off (metaphorically) and navigate accurately.
The Teacher's Rule
"A robot cannot be precise if it doesn't know where it's starting from!"
1. What is Servo Homing?
Servo Homing is the process where a motor moves to a known, fixed starting position (the "Home" position) so the computer controlling it knows exactly where the motor is located.
2. Why Do We Need to "Home" a Servo?
Standard servos usually have a physical stopper inside. We need homing because:
Safety
You don't want a robotic arm to swing wildly when you turn it on.
Calibration
It ensures that "90 degrees" in the code actually means "90 degrees" in real life.