How to Control DS04-NFC Servo with Arduino ~ Arduino Geek

Actually a servo motor has feedback sensors that report the position / angle of rotation when rotating. Well, departing from this sense that initially made me 'cheated'. The DS04 name is 'servo' in the market. But in reality, this kind of motor does not have a feedback sensor which can be read to determine the current position. The feedback sensor can be a potentiometer or encoder read with optocoupler. When I open DS04-NFC servo’s casing, it did not have both. So the right term for this motor is 'continuous rotation' motor, not a ‘servo’.

DS04-NFC Specifications

DS04-NFC continous rotation motor has the following technical specifications:

- Torsion: 5.5 kg / cm (at 4.8 V)

- Speed: 0.22SEC / 60 (at 4.8 V)

- Working voltage: 4.8V-6V

- Working temperature: 0⁰ C - 60⁰ C

- Current: <1000 mA

- Weight: 38 gr

- Size: 7.4 x 1.7 cm

How to Control DS04-NFC ‘servo’ - Arduino

To control the motor with Arduino is easy enough. But remember, the motor is not a servo, so it’s also different controlling mechanism from the servo motor. If the servo, you simply issue an command ‘servo.write (destination_angle) to drive the motor to the destination angle (example: servo.write (90) to drive the motor to the angle 90⁰). Well, for the DS04-NFC 'servo' is different ways of control. You must issue a PWM pulse with a certain pulse width. The rules are as follows:

2000: turn right (clockwise = CW)

1500: stop

1000: turn left (counter clockwise = CCW)

If you leave a PWM pulse with a nominal 1000, the DS04 motors will continue to rotate (continuous rotation) to the left. This motor will continue to rotate until you issue a PWM pulse with a pulse width of 1500. At this point it became clear what the difference is with the servo motor, isn’t it?

DS04-NFC – Arduino Circuit

To start DS04-NFC ‘servo’ experiments with Arduino, simply connect both of them with following configurations:

Arduino	Motor DS04-NFC
5V	red
Gnd	black
9	white

DS04-NFC ‘servo’ – Arduino Sketch

In terms of its software, to issue a PWM pulse with a certain pulse width, you can use 'writeMicroseconds (pulse_width)' command. Here is an example of DS04-NFC motor control with Arduino. If you upload the source code below, your DS04 motor will rotate to the right (CW) for 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds), turned to the left (CCW) for 3000 milliseconds and then stopped

* DS04-NFC – Arduino sketch example

* ArduinoGeek.com

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int pos;

void setup()

{

myservo.attach(9);

myservo.writeMicroseconds(2000); // CW

delay(5000);

myservo.writeMicroseconds(1000); // CCW

delay(3000);

myservo.writeMicroseconds(1500); // stop

delay(100);

}

void loop() {

}

You can develop source code / sketch above according to your needs. The DS04-NFC ‘servo’ motor is fitting for applications requiring continuous rotation (> 360⁰). An example is to move the robot or smart car. This motor is not suitable for applications that require accurate positioning motor based on the rotation angle. For such needs, you should use the actual servo motors. In next tutorial, I will present how to modify the motor DS04-NFC into the actual servo motors. Stay tuned on this blog.

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