9/16/22, 9:09 PM Smartphone Servo - Make:

PROJECTS FROM MAKE: MAGAZINE

Smartphone Servo
By Kazuhisa “Kazu” Terasaki
Time Required: 30 minutes

Smartphones have become our primary interface to the network world, and
increasingly, to the real world as well. I call this project GlueMotor, because it works 
like “glue” for putting gadgets together under smartphone control, providing a very
easy way to build simple servo-controlled machines.

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To use it for making simple gadgets or prototyping your projects, attach any
convenient on-hand materials — PVC pipe, chopsticks, Legos, duct tape — to a
GlueMotor, then plug it into your smartphone’s headphone jack. The GlueMotor app
lets you control it with a finger swipe.

How It Works
Controlling a hobby servomotor is relatively easy. It requires a single digital pulse-
width modulation (PWM) signal at 50Hz, which means one pulse every 20ms. The
width of the “high” pulse sets the absolute rotation angle of the servo.

Normally the width of the pulse at center angle is 1.5ms. A longer pulse will set the
angle clockwise of center, and a shorter pulse will set it counterclockwise. The
maximum and minimum angle will depend on the model of servomotor, but usually a
range of 1.5ms ±0.5ms is supported. In a typical R/C car or airplane application, the
radio receiver generates the control signal.

But the radio receiver is not strictly necessary. If you can generate the proper PWM
signal by whatever means, you can control a servomotor in exactly the same way. The
GlueMotor project uses a smartphone to generate the control signal, and outputs it
through the headphone jack.

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PWM servo signals generated by an R/C radio receiver (above) …

… and by an iPhone running the GlueMotor app.

The output from a headphone jack is usually an analog audio signal such as music or
voice. If you can create digital sound data that only has “high” and “low” voltage
values, then play the data through the headphone jack, you can produce a “nearly”
digital signal good enough to control the servo.

To generate this signal, I have developed two applications, one for iOS devices, and
another for Android. The user interface is very simple, converting the onscreen
coordinates of a touch location to the width of two PWM signals, allowing
simultaneous control of two servos. The GlueMotor app is free from the iOS App Store
and Google Play.

NOTE: Some devices may not produce enough voltage at maximum volume for this
project. To test your device, play a sine wave tone through the headphone jack and
measure the output with the AC voltage mode of your multimeter. A reading of 0.6V or

higher should work.

STEPS
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Project Steps View All

1. Prep the phone cable.

2. Solder the harness.

3. Solder the harness (cont'd).

4. Install the app and test it on the servos.

5. Get gluing.

Step #4: Install the app and test it on the servos.

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Go to the Apple iTunes App Store or Google Play, search “GlueMotor” to find the app, and
follow the instructions to install it on your device.

Install the batteries in the holder. If they get hot, disconnect them immediately and check
for a wiring error.

Before connecting the servos, insert the phone plug into your device’s headphone jack. Turn
the volume all the way up and launch the GlueMotor app. The 2 lines should cross right in
the center of the screen. Don’t touch the screen yet.

Connect the servos to your wiring harness, as shown in the photo, by pushing the stripped
ends of the wires into the servo cable header sockets. If you’ve used the wire colors
indicated in the steps above, all you have to do is match the colors.

Touch the screen to move the crosshair. The horizontal position controls one servomotor,
and the vertical position the other. Once it’s working, use zip ties to tidy up the wiring.

September 3, 2013, 6:00 am PDT

PARTS TOOLS

PARTS
Heat-shrink tubing or electrical tape
Servomotors (2) Futaba S3003 or other standard hobby servos
Capacitors, ceramic, 0.1µF–0.47µF (2)
Batteries, AA (4)
Stereo phone plug, 3.5mm (1/8"), with cable A pair of cheap earbuds is perfect.
Cable tie, plastic aka zip tie
Battery holder 4×AA, with wires 
Hookup wire, 22 AWG solid core You’ll use about 12" each of red, black, and yellow.

TOOLS Cookie Settings

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Smartphone or tablet iOS or Android

Wire cutter/stripper
Lighter or match
Sandpaper, 400 grit
Soldering iron and solder
Multimeter

 Tagged make 34

Kazuhisa “Kazu” Terasaki

Kazuhisa “Kazu” Terasaki is a software engineer who loves prototyping low-tech
gadgets out of high-tech junk. He calls this stuff Pachi-Mon, which is Japanese for
“not quite real, but works.”

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