<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">They are called digital because they use digital techniques. The transistors are either on of off. As far as I know Jerry Pullen was the first to build them and this was his explanation. Doug Spreng who worked with Jerry at JPL was the first to produce and sell a system with them (Digicon). Many improvements were made through the years and eventually JR made what they called a Super Servo that contained a microprocessor. This led to the modern day "Digital' servos that also contain microprocessors. At that point all the previous digital servos began being called analog. The truth is they are all analog and the basic concept has never changed. The input is a pulse that varies in width from 1 to 2 milliseconds and the output position is proportional (analogous) to the pulse width. A true digital servo would be sent a binary coded input (ones and zeros) like a PCM transmitter sends to the receiver.<div><br></div><div>Hope this helps, Jim<br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Jun 23, 2009, at 5:03 AM, Vicente Vince Bortone wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jim,</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I don't know anything about electronics. I am sure that the following question if very simple for you: Why the digital servos are called digital?</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks,</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Vicente "Vince" Bortone</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br>----- Original Message -----<br>From: "James Oddino" <<a href="mailto:joddino@socal.rr.com">joddino@socal.rr.com</a>><br>To: "General pattern discussion" <<a href="mailto:nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</a>><br>Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 12:12:23 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central<br>Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Servo Signals<br><br>What do they say in the Capital 1 commercials, not literally? Transmitters communicate with receivers digitally in PCM mode and analog in PPM mode. Receivers communicate with servos analogy (?) with PWM. The servos are analog.</div><div><br></div><div>Jim O</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Jun 20, 2009, at 7:23 PM, Bob Richards wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="word-spacing: 0px; font: normal normal normal medium/normal Helvetica; text-transform: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-indent: 0px; white-space: normal; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: separate; orphans: 2; widows: 2; "><div><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="position: static; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top">--- On<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Sat, 6/20/09, Richard Lewis<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i><<a href="mailto:humptybump@sbcglobal.net" target="_blank">humptybump@sbcglobal.net</a>></i></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>wrote:<br><blockquote style="padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; position: static; "><br><br><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "><div>And....Interestingly enough.....It does not matter what kind of fancy whopping digital super latest and greatest TX/RX system you have, the signals to the servos are still firmly rooted in good old 1970's technology....:) And...Your super whopper digital brushless whatever servo still has an analog pot for position feedback....:)</div><div> </div><div>I for one am eager to see a leap in servo technology.....Bidirectional serial comms to the servos with the servo being able to feed back torque, amps, position, rate, etc.....and encoder/resolver position feedback in the servos to really catch up with the world we live in......</div><div> </div></div></blockquote><div>Amen to that. We have digital servos and digital receivers, yet they talk to each other via an analog method and use analog feedback.</div><div> </div></td></tr></tbody></table>_______________________________________________<br>NSRCA-discussion mailing list<br><a href="mailto:NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org" target="_blank">NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion" target="_blank">http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion</a></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div><br>_______________________________________________ NSRCA-discussion mailing list <a href="mailto:NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion">http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion</a></div>_______________________________________________<br>NSRCA-discussion mailing list<br><a href="mailto:NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion">http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion</a></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>