Servos VS DC motor

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Maverickmax

Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 406
Helped: 3

06 Nov 2006 22:40 Servos VS DC motor

Hi

Can anyone tell me the difference between implementing DC motor and Servos?

MM

Kral

Joined: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 1182
Helped: 187

06 Nov 2006 23:22 Re: Servos VS DC motor

Maverickmax,
A servo is a closed loop control system. It may use any number of electro-mechanical actuators, including DC motors. When you refer to a "servo" are you referring to servo-motors that are designed specifically for closed loop control systems?
Regards,
Kral

diemilio

Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 311
Helped: 40

07 Nov 2006 2:18 Re: Servos VS DC motor

Servos and DC motors are quite different. DC motors work with DC voltages or the average voltage of a signal, so the speed of the motor would be proportional to the applied signal. For instance if you take a square wave with diferent duty cycles the speed of the motor would change proportional to the signal's dutty cycle cause affecting it would affect the average voltage (DC component of the signal). On the other hand, servos are mechanisms that work with coded signals. Applying different signals would cause different angle displacements of the motor. Take a look to this website http://www.seattlerobotics.org/guide/servos.html for more info.

Hope this helps,

diemilio