Question School project (Hopeful)

Hi guys and girls, im fairly new to this so you will have to be patient with me im afraid.

I am basically building a small rig with hobby servos (just to start off with) and am hoping to do it as a project in my school to encourage students into an engineering career.

I am using the code at the bottom of this thread.

I have the servos connected to pin 4 and 3. The arduino and servos have been tested and work.

When running the game the virtual axis all move fine.

however the arduino does not seam to be getting any signal. if i put a serial.println in anywhere in the code it does not print to the serial monitor, unless i place it in the void loop. this makes me think that the data is not being sent to the arduio and it is just constantly looping in the loop.

i have tried every combination of Interface-output, bit rates and axis assignments that i could find on the forums but noting works. I have also tried other codes i have seen people share but that does not work for me ether.

sorry forgot to put the code in


#include <Servo.h>
const int kServoCount = 2; // how many servos we are handling
const int kRIGHT = 0; // constants for our servos
const int kLEFT = 1; //
const int kPins[kServoCount] = {4, 5}; // pins to which the servos are attached
const int kValueCharCount = 3; // how many characters we must read in for a new servo position value
const int kServoScale[kServoCount][2] = { { 0, 179 } , // Right servo scaling
{ 179, 0 }}; // Left side servo scaling

Servo servoSet[kServoCount]; // our array of servos
int servoPosition[kServoCount] = {90, 90}; // current servo positions, initialised to 90
int currentServo; // keep track of the current servo being read in from serial port
int valueCharCount = 0; // how many value characters have we read in

// set up some states for our state machine
// psReadServo = next character from serial port tells us the servo
// psReadValue = next 3 characters from serial port tells us the value
enum TPortState { psReadServo, psReadValue };
TPortState currentState = psReadServo;

void setup()
{
// attach the servos to the pins
servoSet[kRIGHT].attach(kPins[kRIGHT]);
servoSet[kLEFT].attach(kPins[kLEFT]);

// initialise their position
updateServo(kRIGHT);
updateServo(kLEFT);

Serial.begin(9600); // opens serial port at a baud rate of 9600
}

void loop()
{

}

// this code only runs when we have serial data available. ie (Serial.available() > 0).
void serialEvent() {
char tmpChar;
int tmpValue;



while (Serial.available()) {
// if we're waiting for a servo name, grab it here
if (currentState == psReadServo) {
tmpChar = Serial.read();
switch (tmpChar) {
case 'R' : currentServo = kRIGHT;
Serial.println("reading right servo value");
break;
case 'L' : currentServo = kLEFT;
Serial.println("reading left servo value");
break;
}
currentState = psReadValue; // start looking for the servo position
servoPosition[currentServo] = 0; // initialise the new position
valueCharCount = 0; // intitialise our position characters read in from serial port counter
}

// if we're ready to read in the current servo's position data
if (currentState == psReadValue) {
while ((valueCharCount < kValueCharCount) && Serial.available()) {
tmpValue = Serial.read() - 48;
if (tmpValue < 0) tmpValue = 0;
servoPosition[currentServo] = servoPosition[currentServo] * 10 + tmpValue;
valueCharCount++;
}

// if we've read the number of characters required for servo position, update the servo and start looking for the next servo name
if (valueCharCount == kValueCharCount) {
Serial.print("read in" );
Serial.println(servoPosition[currentServo]);
// scale the new position so the value is between 0 and 179
servoPosition[currentServo] = map(servoPosition[currentServo], 0, 255, kServoScale[currentServo][0], kServoScale[currentServo][1]);
Serial.print("scaled to" );
Serial.println(servoPosition[currentServo]);
updateServo(currentServo);
currentState = psReadServo;
}
}
}

}


// write the current servo position to the passed in servo
void updateServo(int thisServo) {
servoSet[thisServo].write(servoPosition[thisServo]);

}

Earobbie's code is 'basically' what he posted, down to the comments that were left in . I would recommend he go back to the original - nothing wrong with that, if you just want to build a sim.

Thanks guys, its starting to make much more seance to me now One more question however, what should i set in my axis assignments for this set up? i have a left and right servo.

R<Axis1>~L<Axis2>~

I recommend you refer to @noorbeast 's comment .

Thank you, all working just needs some fine tuning.
Could I use NEMA 17 stepper motors and lead screws as liner actuators for the full sized simulation?