Servo tester

[stephane.savard]

Does anyone know of where I could find a servo tester? Basically these are for analog servos (i.,e. not digitial), you plug in the servo, and then with a small knob can exercise the servo at center, and move it in both directions.

Why I need this is that when I'm building my planes, I don't want to have use my transmitter, receiver, receiver battery, and switch to test my linkages!

I've seen some homemade ones, but I have no talent for building my own, so I need wither a commercial or pre-built one.

[Ionel]

Try this link:

http://www.greathobbies.com/productinfo/?prod_id=AST105

[Xavier]

I like that one (http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=JRPA915) and I use it very often. I should have got it sooner.

You could connect 2 servos at once and cycle them using the knob from one end to the other. You could also connect the servos in the other 2 slots and then you could have the servo go from one end to the other non-stop and you adjust the speed with the knob.

Xavier

[stephane.savard]

The small greathobbies gizmo is perfect, and what I need. The JR thing is no good though, I use Futaba shift. thanks!

[xed]

The small greathobbies gizmo is perfect, and what I need. The JR thing is no good though, I use Futaba shift. thanks!
Servos are all compatible regardless of the manufacturer, unless you want to manipulate specific properties of some brands (e.g. Hitec digitals have specific settings that can be manipulated by their own Hitec programmer) but otherwise, that thing should work with any servo.

[Xavier]

As Greg mentionned, any (almost) servo could be tested on the JR unit. Actually any servo could be used on any receiver except very few specific. I have JR, Futaba, Hitec, Blue bird, Spektrum, etc servos running on JR, Futaba and Spektrum receivers with no problems.

[Eric Marchand]

Aren't the ground and positive wires inversed between Futaba and Jr ? IF so, you'd need to run an adapter or reverse polarity on the servo connectors, no ?

Maybe I'm mistaking...???

[bob forest]

Eric, that is for the transmitter for charging. the polarity is not the same. Otherewise re the receivers, you can use any servos you wish, jr or futaba. I know this, because my winter radio, JR, I have to make sure I don't by mistage plug in the futaba charging jack, which I did once, luckily their is a fuse, which it blew. new fuse and back in business, and have not done it since.

[stephane.savard]

Anyway, the cheaper the better, and ordering from Canadian stores is definately cheaper than from US stores :)

All I need it for is to quickly center the servo and test the end points for the linkages while building my planes. But still, its more money than I thought, 25-30$ for a little gizmo like that? I may just deal with the wires and transmitter for something that I only need once or twice a year :)

Every penny counts!

[Eric Marchand]

I'm sure ther's a way to rig a system that does just this for a few dollars of parts. Any electronicly inclined geeks, er, I mean modelists out there ?

[jeffrey g]

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/gadgets.htm

servo driver #4 looks like what you need !!

[Andrew Fernie]

I have an oscilliscope, so if anyone does build one and wants me to check its calibration for 1ms, 1.5ms, and 2ms, let me know.

Andrew

[Eric Marchand]

I love how they say : "The circuit above speaks for itself and requires no explanation"...I BEG TO F...ING DIFFER !!!???:nooobadlink:

Can someone give me "Tab A into slot B" type instructions please ??? :helpme:

[stephane.savard]

"This is a cheap and worthwhile project"

I'm with you on that Eric, it's cheap for the tiny minority that can decipher that diagram, and worthwhile because they can turn around and sell the finished product to us poor guys for 30$ :)

Electronics is a skill that I always wanted to have, but my parents bought me a little chemistry set as a kid, not the electronics set :D Plenty of little projects like this that would be fun to do.

[beto9]

Grab the receiver, connect to servo, turn on the TX, connect the battery directly to the Rx et.... voila!

Gizmos!? Why?

[Paul Weijers]

Hi Stephane,
You can build a simple servo tester for about $10.-- to $15.-- dollars. I have one I use occasionally, that is why I would not go out and buy a big thing.
You are welcome to the schematic and just get some high school kid with a soldering iron to put it together.
Paul

[Eric Marchand]

Great, after "Are you smarter then a 5th grader", now we're going to have "are you dumber than a high school kid"...

All right, I'll bite...Paul, can I get a copy of that schematic ?

[Paul Weijers]

Yes Eric, I'll e-mail you the schematic with an explanation of how it works. Sorry I'm running behind on my e-mail. I'm retired, too busy.
give me 24 more hours.
By the way, the one shown earlier by antoon does not work. It takes two IC's, not one.