[HELP] Mindstorms Question for the Uninitiated

[ZCerberus]

Thinking of doing a project, but I have no mind storms experience.

Can I make a program rotate a servo motor 90 degrees- perform another function or two and rotate the servo -270 degrees or something similar?

Can I, no matter how far the servo motor is rotated "reset" to an original position- like a "home" position?

If so I may need to look closely at Mind storms.

[JJ2]

Yes you can easily, the software is easy to learn and they are videos on how to use it.

[Jim]

You sure can!

Currently I am working on a new Mindstorms project as well, and it would be great to see more projects. So yeah, do it....and share it! I will create a WIP topic too.

[ZCerberus]

Thanks guys- and to reiterate- the servo motor has a reset or a default "home" position it can move to?

This project isn't really making a robot... not exactly... just something that popped into my head related to another project.

I have lots of experience with logic and even some computer programming, so I should be able to use the program without much issue, I just wanted to make sure the servo motor and program would actually do theses things before I went down this path!

[JJ2]

Thanks guys- and to reiterate- the servo motor has a reset or a default "home" position it can move to?

This project isn't really making a robot... not exactly... just something that popped into my head related to another project.

I have lots of experience with logic and even some computer programming, so I should be able to use the program without much issue, I just wanted to make sure the servo motor and program would actually do theses things before I went down this path!

The motors are more like stepper motor and dont rotate a certain degrees but can do something like this.

[rotate A 90] [rotate A -90]

but in the block form of the EV3 program.

[knotian]

Check out the specs on the motor. I believe It is designed to reset back to it's original position.

[Jim]

You can select whether the motor should run a certain time, degrees, etc. It's not returning back to it's original position, like the PF servo motor.

The motors are more like stepper motor and dont rotate a certain degrees but can do something like this.

[rotate A 90] [rotate A -90]

but in the block form of the EV3 program.

I think you can run a certain number of degrees, which allows for precise control of your motor.

You can also run 200ms forward, then 200ms backwards, although this might not end up in the exact beginning position.

[TheMindGarage]

If you want to set a "Home position", you need the Motor Rotation block (yellow) and use the "Reset" mode. This sets the position that will be treated as "0". When you want to return to home, use the Motor Rotation block set to "Degrees", a Math block set to "x" and the motor block. Basically, you want to take the output of the degrees block, multiply by -1 and then use that as the number of degrees to rotate. Example:

Motor is 90 degrees away from start point (block reads "90").

Rotate by -90 degrees.

Home !

[Jim]

If you want to set a "Home position", you need the Motor Rotation block (yellow) and use the "Reset" mode. This sets the position that will be treated as "0". When you want to return to home, use the Motor Rotation block set to "Degrees", a Math block set to "x" and the motor block. Basically, you want to take the output of the degrees block, multiply by -1 and then use that as the number of degrees to rotate. Example:

Motor is 90 degrees away from start point (block reads "90").

Rotate by -90 degrees.

Home !

That's a simple, but very useful tip!! Thanks for sharing it.