PCA9685 Servo Controller by Adafruit
Connection Type
USB
Number of servos
16
Audio Support
No
Camera Support
No
Do you want to make a cool Arduino robot with ARC? Maybe a hexapod walker or a piece of art with many moving parts. The PCA9685 servo breakout (also found in Adafruit's popular PWM/Servo pcb) that works with any Arduino that uses shields: Uno, Leo, Mega, or ADK. We recommend using the Uno because it is compact and, combined with this shield, provides a ton of I/O. However, there are several EZB firmwares on this page that you can use for your desired configuration.
The Arduino can be programmed with the EZB firmware for various capabilities when connected to ARC. The tutorial to program the EZB firmware can be found HERE.
Download Firmware Sourcecode
- Mickey's Firmware (Mar 4, 2019)
- EZ-Genuino_Uno_Adafruit_16_Servo_Shield.zip (Dec 11, 2022)
- Miller's Generic PCA9685 EZB_UNO_PCA9685.zip
Tutorial
Now that you have the firmware, you can follow the tutorial to install it by clicking here.
I went through the steps that used to stop ARC for me:
1 - the wrong baud rate, need 57600 in ARC for the Arduino
2- missing a separate 5v or 6v power supply for the PCA9685
The last thing that usually stops ARC for me was my Anti-Virus program I was using. You can add it to your Anti-Virus program or just shut it off and check to see if that is the problem.
That is all I can come up with at this time, sorry.
Here try this: EZ-Genuino_Uno_Adafruit_16_Servo_Shield.zip
DJ that was the code EzAng said was needed in Post #10 of his. That is why I said what I said in my post. Anyway I loaded your new firmware and the above video shows you how well it works. Note I did test that all this hardware works using the Adafruit PWM servo script and it worked great.
Also ARC is the latest version and is connected to the UNO at 57600 baud as stated above.
EzAng
Smiller29, Also tried your way with no results. I have mine connected to the dedicated pins, R3 has them closest to the reset button, and labeled on the bottom of the board, with SCL closest to switch and SDA the next one over, beside AREF. I get the same as your video regardless which boards or breakouts used.
As I've said before, used ARC for other projects that DID NOT require an expansion board and all work, so still focusing on ARC-UNO-Breakout communication failure, as my exact set up works outside of ARC... Hours looking through code, etc and can't find the smoking gun here. Good luck, and I'll be following updates.
I tried DJ's, Micky's code - it works
I modified their code, it all compiles and uploads it also works,
EZ-Genuino_Uno_Adafruit_16_Servo_Shield-SMM.zip
Micky's and DJ,s code work, and my modified file works well also
@DJ - Thanks for posting the code up top. Proves the community based center this program has. Look forward to contributing as well. Have several projects to share soon, time allowing.
@EzAng - Thankful for your input too, seems its a specific issue, the more the community knows the better!