Servo controller with PCA9685 and Raspberry Pi

Question

I try to learn how to use a PCA9685 module to control servos with a raspberry pi. I am following the adafruit tutorial which supplies the following code:

# Simple demo of of the PCA9685 PWM servo/LED controller library.
# This will move channel 0 from min to max position repeatedly.
# Author: Tony DiCola
# License: Public Domain
from __future__ import division
import time

# Import the PCA9685 module.
import Adafruit_PCA9685


# Uncomment to enable debug output.
#import logging
#logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)

# Initialise the PCA9685 using the default address (0x40).
pwm = Adafruit_PCA9685.PCA9685()

# Alternatively specify a different address and/or bus:
#pwm = Adafruit_PCA9685.PCA9685(address=0x41, busnum=2)

# Configure min and max servo pulse lengths
servo_min = 150  # Min pulse length out of 4096
servo_max = 600  # Max pulse length out of 4096

# Helper function to make setting a servo pulse width simpler.
def set_servo_pulse(channel, pulse):
    pulse_length = 1000000    # 1,000,000 us per second
    pulse_length //= 60       # 60 Hz
    print('{0}us per period'.format(pulse_length))
    pulse_length //= 4096     # 12 bits of resolution
    print('{0}us per bit'.format(pulse_length))
    pulse *= 1000
    pulse //= pulse_length
    pwm.set_pwm(channel, 0, pulse)

# Set frequency to 60hz, good for servos.
pwm.set_pwm_freq(60)

print('Moving servo on channel 0, press Ctrl-C to quit...')
while True:
    # Move servo on channel O between extremes.
    pwm.set_pwm(0, 0, servo_min)
    time.sleep(1)
    pwm.set_pwm(0, 0, servo_max)
time.sleep(1)

Everything works nicely, the servo moves correctly - however as I quit the program, the servo is still receiving a signal forcing it into one direction. If have tried adding a keyboardinterrupt combined with a break statement however this caused the servo to heat up badly. Now I am afraid to break something. So I wonder how I can stop the signal after exiting the program?

Answer 1

You definitely want to have a way to set a default state if your program quits. In your case a handler for KeyboardInterrupt would be the way to go. Make sure you set servo output to a nominal value in the handler.

servo_middle_position = (servo_max - servo_min) / 2

try:
    while True:
        pwm.set_pwm(0, 0, servo_min)
        time.sleep(1)
        pwm.set_pwm(0, 0, servo_max)
        time.sleep(1)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print "User quit! Moving servo to middle position.'
    pwm.set_pwm(0, 0, servo_middle_position)

I'm guessing you might not actually be using a conventional servo where the PWM duty cycle determines a position - if this was the case, the servo would stop moving once it had reached the desired position. You should note that servos will generate some amount of heat while operating.