Common Applications

RC PWM

You can control the ODrive directly from a hobby RC receiver.

Any of the numerical parameters that are writable from odrivetool can be hooked up to a PWM input. The datasheet (Pro, S1) tells you which pins are PWM input capable for your device. As an example, we’ll configure the axis to move within a range of -2 to 2 turns.

  1. Make sure you’re able to control the axis0 angle by writing to odrv0.axis0.controller.input_pos. If you need help with this follow the getting started guide.

  2. If you want to control your ODrive with the PWM input without using anything else to activate the ODrive, you can configure the ODrive such that axis 0 automatically goes operational at startup. See here for more information.

  3. In odrivetool, configure the PWM input mapping

    odrv0.config.gpio(N)_mode = GpioMode.PWM
odrv0.config.gpio(N)_pwm_mapping.min = -2
odrv0.config.gpio(N)_pwm_mapping.max = 2
odrv0.config.gpio(N)_pwm_mapping.endpoint = odrv0.axis0.controller._input_pos_property

    Note

    you can disable the input by setting odrv0.config.gpio(N)_pwm_mapping.endpoint = None

  4. Save the configuration and reboot

  5. With the ODrive powered off, connect the RC receiver ground to the ODrive’s GND and one of the RC receiver signals to GPIO4. You may try to power the receiver from the ODrive’s 5V supply if it doesn’t draw too much power. Power up the RC transmitter. You should now be able to control axis 0 from one of the RC sticks.

Be sure to set up the failsafe feature on your RC Receiver so that if connection is lost between the remote and the receiver, the receiver outputs 0 for the velocity setpoint of both axes (or whatever is safest for your configuration). If the receiver turns off (loss of power, etc.) or if the signal from the receiver to the ODrive is lost (wire comes unplugged, etc.), the ODrive will time out after 100ms and consider the input to be NAN, which in turn disarms the motor when connected to input_pos or similar.