Arduino servo motor on pushbutton

Question

I'm working on my first arduino project and i have my first problem dealing with servo motor , i'm trying to control the servo from my pc with this code but it just spining :

 #include <Servo.h>
Servo servo1; 
long num; 
void setup()
{
 servo1.attach(7);
 Serial.begin(9600); 
 Serial.print("Enter Position = ");
}
void loop() 
{ 
 while(Serial.available()>0)
 { 
 num= Serial.parseInt(); 
 Serial.print(num); 
 Serial.println(" degree");
 Serial.print("Enter Position = ");
 }
 servo1.write(num);
 delay(15);
}

this is my setup enter image description here

Answer 1

I have reformatted your code and the problem becomes very clear (to me).

void loop() 
{ 
 while(Serial.available()>0)
 { 
 num= Serial.parseInt(); 
 Serial.print(num); 
 Serial.println(" degree");
 Serial.print("Enter Position = ");
 }
 servo1.write(num);
 delay(15);
}

You are getting some input from the user and then setting the servo to that point.

When there is no data in the Serial buffer you set the servo to the value of write and delay 15ms before checking the buffer again.
I think what you want to do is if there is no data then you don't want to change the Servo position. In short move the servo1.write(num); line inside the } of the while loop.

Now much more importantly the first time you enter loop() you won't have any data there so the servo will be moved to the number held in num which is? Undefined, it could be anything at all from 0 to 4294967295 and if its the upper end of that it will take a while for the servo to get there, it might seem like all it does is spin. ALWAYS INITIALIES VARIABLES BEFORE USE :)

A minor point, your while loop could be, probably should be an if statement. That will prevent a cat sitting on the keyboard and blocking the servo movement.

• Radu Mihai: i changed the while with if and moved servo1.write(num) and initiales num but as soon as i upload it it starts moving slowly and when i enter a position it just spins faster...
• Code Gorilla: What about long num = 0;
• Code Gorilla: What happens if you take the wire out of pin 7 and leave it disconnected?