Servo Recorder

How to use the Servo Recorder robot skill

This plugin allows recording and replaying servo movements in specified speeds and direction. Trigger the recording playback and speed using ControlCommand() from scripts.

Realistic Motions
For realistic motion recordings, we recommend creating the recordings with the servo Pad Control. Find more information about the servo Pad here: http://www.ez-robot.com/Tutorials/Help.aspx?id=150

Recording
You can store multiple recordings in this plugin. Each can be given a unique name that allows the recordings to be differentiated - click on the name to rename a recording. Pressing the Add button will append a new recording instance to the list. You may re-record over existing recordings as well. Press the Record button, which will set the instance to begin recording at the first servo movement.

Playback
Individual or multiple recordings can be played back manually by pressing the Play button. Programmatically, you can play recordings using ezscript or Blockly. In Blockly, select the recording from the ControlCommand() block located under Utility. With ezscript, the Cheat Sheet shows the ControlCommand() for starting and stopping the playback of each recording.

Playback Speeds & Direction
The modifier allows playback of speed and direction. A value of 1 means original playback speed in forward direction. A value of -1 means original playback speed in reverse direction. The ControlCommand() also accepts an optional parameter for speed. You can specify a value between -5 and +5 with 0.1 increments. For example -0.5 is half speed in reverse. Half speed forward is 0.5.

There is also a ControlCommand() to set the speed while a recording is being played back. You can programatically reverse the playback direction with the ControlCommand() speed parameter, or change the speed.

Code:

// Play Reverse at half speed
ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", "Play", "No Name", -0.5);

// Wait for 2 seconds
sleep(2000);

// Set the speed to play forward at half speed 
ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", "Speed", "No Name", 0.5);

Variable
There is a variable that returns the status of the playback of recordings. If a recording is being played back, the variable $IsServoRecorderRunning will be true. You can wait for a playback to complete by using WaitFor(). See this example code below, which will run Test 1, Test 2 and Test 3 recordings one after another. The WaitFor() will wait to see when the recording has completed, and the Sleep(100) is merely to ensure the recording has started before checking the variable. The sleep(100) is most likely not required, and my tests without it worked - but I put it in for safe practice. Test in your application to see if it's required as well, it may not be.

Code:

print("Playing test 1")

ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", Play, "test 1")

# Wait a short while to ensure record is running
sleep(100)

# Wait for the recorder to stop running
waitfor($IsServoRecorderRunning = false)

print("Playing test 2")

ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", Play, "test 2")

# Wait a short while to ensure record is running
sleep(100)

# Wait for the recorder to stop running
waitfor($IsServoRecorderRunning = false)

print("Playing test 3")

ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", Play, "test 3")

# Wait a short while to ensure record is running
sleep(100)

# Wait for the recorder to stop running
waitfor($IsServoRecorderRunning = false)

ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", Play, "test 1")

# Wait a short while to ensure record is running
sleep(100)

# Wait for the recorder to stop running
waitfor($IsServoRecorderRunning = false)

print("Playing test 2")

ControlCommand("Servo Recorder", Play, "test 2")