PPM signal decoding and driving 10 RC servo motors

Hi All,

Is there an open source PIC project out there which can do PPM signal decoding from a RC (Radio Control) transmitter and drive 10 servo motors with a PIC (PIC18F6680) and a CD4017 decade counter?

Appearetly some how using a CD4017 decade counter with a microcontroller helps to minimize the processing load on the controller to manage multiple RC servos. (Do you know how?)

Aaron

Reply to
<Aaron Molavitz>
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can't be done, those servos need pwm signals find a micro with enoug pins for 1 per servo and do the PWM in software (unless you can find a pic with 10 PWM outputs, I know there's an AVR with that many.)

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
jasen

Sounds like the 4017 is used to multiplex the servos, allowing the PIC to select an individual servo to feed the PWM signal to. I'm not sure what the servos do when not being fed a PWM signal, maybe they stay where they are, maybe they go back to zero position.

Reply to
Mark Harriss

The pulse stream is used to simply clock the 4017. Each servo channel is sent sequential in time. The time between each pulse determines the pulse width sent to each servo. A long dwell time between pulses is detected and used to reset the 4017. This all usually repeats at a 20ms rate.

In other words, the signal sent is pretty much fed direct to the 4017, no need for a PIC!

If you stop signalling the servo, the motor stays where it is but can be rotated by the connected device.

If you wish to replace the 4017 with a PIC, that would make more sense....

Ray

Reply to
Ray

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