Servo motor not working

Question

I'm trying to control a futaba s3003 servo motor using raspberry pi 3 but when I run the code the servo just moves a bit then stops. The servo's power is connected to external 6v power supply and I also connected the power supply ground to pi ground and the servo ground to pi ground too.

servo.py

import RPi.GPIO as gp
gp.setmode(gp.BOARD)
gp.setup(7,gp.OUT)
p = gp.PWM(7,50)
p.start(5)
p.ChangeDutyCycle(11)#tried 2,7.5,11,12 

So every time I change the duty cycle and run it, it just moves a bit then will stop and keeps going like that. I want to go from 0 to 180. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You need to understand how hobby servos work.

Perhaps google?

You send a pulse 50 times a second. The pulse is between 1 and 2 milliseconds in length. The length of the pulse specifies an angle. Once the servo reaches that angle the servo stops.

You shouldn't use software timed pulses to control a servo. The timing jitter is not beneficial.

I suggest you use servoblaster, or RPIO.GPIO, or my pigpio to control servos.

Note, RPIO.GPIO is not the same module as RPi.GPIO which you are currently using.

Answer 2

The data sheet of the servo shows that it uses a pulse cycle of 30ms, that means the frequency of your pwm must be 1/0.03=33.333, I didn't use raspberry pi but check if using this code:

p = gp.PWM(7,1/0.03)

If it compiles well it should give you a 30ms of total pulse cycle, if not try:

p = gp.PWM(7,33.333)

Answer 3

You didn't post the data sheet, but it seems to be a 3 phase motor, so you have to somehow rotate the magnetic field inside it. It would require 3 PWM channels and sensors. Even in sensorless topology, you would need to measure voltage on motor phases.