Analog Servo Operation

    An analog RC servo controls the speed of the motor by applying on and off voltage signals or pulses to the motor. This voltage is constant (the voltage of the receiver battery pack to be exact - 4.8 or 6.0 volts).

    This on off frequency is standardized to 50 cycles a second. The longer each on pulse is, the faster the motor turns and the more torque it produces.

This is the same way the speeds of most motors are controlled. For instance, if you have a ceiling or exhaust fan in your house that is controlled with a variable rotary dial speed switch; the fan motor is not given lower and higher voltages to adjust the speed.

The speed switch simply cycles the 120 volts to the fan motor on and off many times a second. The longer each on pulse is, the faster the fan runs. This is also the same way electronic speed controllers for electric RC helicopters , planes, cars, and boats work.

Now back to our analog RC servo. At rest, there is no voltage going to the motor. If a small transmitter command is given or some external pressure is applied to the servo horn forcing it off neutral, a short duration voltage pulse will be sent to the motor.

The larger the stick movement or potentiometer movement, the longer this "on" pulse will be in order to move the servo quickly to the desired position.

     Remember me saying that these voltage pulses are sent 50 times a second. This means that in one second, there are 50 windows that last 20 milliseconds each (50x20 = 1000 ms = 1 second). The longer each on voltage pulse is in each of these fifty 20 millisecond windows, the faster the servo motor turns and the more torque it produces.

     I just included this info for those of you who really want to know what makes a servo tick. You don’t have to understand all that however, as long as you understand that during small amounts of stick movement or when external forces are applied forcing the servo off its neutral or holding position; only a short duration voltage pulse will be sent to the servo motor every 20 milliseconds. With large stick movements, a long voltage pulse will be sent every 20 milliseconds to the servo motor.

     As you can imagine, a short power pulse every 20 milliseconds doesn’t get the motor turning that quickly or allow it enough time to produce much torque. This is the problem with all analog servos; they don’t react fast or produce much torque when given small movement commands or when external forces are trying to push them off their holding position. This area of slow sluggish response and torque is called deadband.

     Much of RC control, especially with RC helicopters is done with small quick stick movements moving the servo back and forth in very small increments. There are also many changing loads on the rotor system (both main and tail) that are always trying to force the servo off its hold position as well. Don’t forget about the gyro either. The new heading hold gyros or electronic flybar systems are sending hundreds of small correction changes to the RC servos every second.

     If I did a good job at explaining all this, you should realize by now that much of RC helicopter control and movement actually happens within the deadband area of an analog servo.

     This is not really that big of deal for slow human response times, but as I mentioned, a problem for lightning fast gyros and electronic flybars or advanced 3D pilots with cat like reflexes.