Servo PWM input speeds with NAZA

I wrote a email to DJI explaining how I want to use the NAZA to control servos for a pitch quad, all I got back was a mindless drone answer like:

"The NAZA does not support variable pitch quadcopters"

I have a generator we could connect to the servo and simulate ANY rep rate and pulse width.  Then the thing to do would be to monitor the current while you sweep the rep rate.  That should give you a real good idea what's happening at the motor (the part that smokes).

I still maintain it would be really easy to divide the the 400Hz output in two (to 200Hz) by throwing every other pulse away with a processor.

...Tiger

I would be interested in trying that. If nothing else the education aspect would be very valuable. I assume that if you had a 333Hz servo and fed it 333Hz then at rest there would be a certain amount of current, and if the Hz increased then there would be a natural increase in current, but not much if it could handle it. Would be interesting to see if the current drops if the Hz drops as well.

Nobody ever talks (or knows) about the mechanism by which servos burn up with high rep rate, but I figure the motor moves a little with each update due to jitter or whatever.  With that in mind, excessive heat would be generated in both the motor and driver as rep rate increases.  That is going to be easy to see in total power consumption as the frequency goes up.  If we go from 333 to 400 and there is no significant increase in current, you should be good to go.  I'd be in favor of trying it on an old analog servo to just to see what happens to.  Maybe I'll do that in the next day or so.  I agree it would be a really interesting experiment.

...Tiger

Interesting read from a beastX representative, don't know if relevant but it might be ... Worthy reading anyway ...

QUOTE: Closing Paragraph ...

      In the end it is your own reliability which frequency you use. For the flybarless system the higher is better and we give you the possibility to use high frequencies but you have to observe it yourself if this is healthy for the servos or not as there are too many criteria to consider (e.g. voltage, flying style, ambient temperature, ventilation in the heli, ... ) Also keep in mind that some servos may handle high pulse frequencies but not in combination with a regulation system like tail gyros or flybarless units as these are giving too much control signals over a specific time. So there is a big difference between simply running the servo directly connected to a receiver with digital high speed output like futaba 6008HS and the servo connected to a high speed gyro system!

Source: Helifreak

As an FYI in case this is helpful to anyone. I asked the question in the OpenPilot and ArduPilot forums and both had quick response, both systems can be easily configured to output most any Hz rate for the ESC's. OpenPilot can even be set at 760uS centering for really fast servos like the FBL guys use.

So the project has some options if the NAZA does not work out..........