Best Option for Controlling Motors and Servos

[iliketrainz98]

(Please move if this is in the wrong place)

Hi, I have used a raspberry pi for a long time now, however I have never used the GPIO pins.

Me and some of my friends are building a remote controlled airplane (cool us insane). It hopefully will be made out of balsa wood in the end, and have 2 prop engines. (However this is not really relevent.)

What I am asking here today, is what is the best way of controlling the motors and servos electronically. It needs to be able to receive commands from a transmitter module, and though code be able to turn on and off motors and servos. It needs to also have speed control on these as well. The device must be light and small, as weight is obviously a big issue. Therefore, if it is possible to use a single board, that will be useful. The board must preferably also have some form of a processor onboard, so it can run something like linux. It also must use little power.

What would you recommened? I need to know what kind of board to get. Are there any boards, like the raspberry pi and Arduino that support controlling motors and servos etc natively, so there is no need for extra breadboards or cicitary. If this is not possible, what is the best combination. Using a Raspberry pi expansion board possibly? Are there any other boards similar to the pi that will work?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

[Hove]

Tom,

Servos and motors for RC planes, boats, 'copters, cars etc generally use PWM signals to control either the angle they are at (servos for rudders, tail fins, steering etc) or speed they are spinning (propellers, wheels).

The Raspberry Pi can provide the necessary PWM signals, either with or without add-on board (depending on how many you need - one for each servo and motors)
There are Arduino projects out there that run these things already

Arduino would probably be smaller, faster, and almost certainly there will be a complete free bundle of software available for you to use - have a look at DIYdrones.com and see what you can.

But if it's the "working it out for youself" side that interests you, the Raspberry Pi is capable, more accessible, and makes it easier to build and test the pieces bit by bit.

Your choice - either way, have fun