Occidentalis Kernel Module for PWM

The power led D6  will be on if the board is powered.

If the ACT led D5 flashes in a pattern it may mean there is a known error:

• 3 flashes: start.elf not found
• 4 flashes: start.elf not launched
• 7 flashes: kernel.img not found
• 8 flashes: SDRAM not recognised.

http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Green_LED_blinks_in_a_specific_pattern

The servo is 4.8V to 6V, you should not connect it to 12V.

I would try first to boot it with a new SD card and see if that changes anything.

the ACT led doesn't blink anymore.

I have 2 SD's but it doesn't change anything.

I've tested the voltage between the TP1 and TP2 points with a multimeter and i got a 3V value and between TP2 and polyfuse a 2.7V on a side and a 3.2V on the other...i've read that the polyfuse is self repairing over a few days...problem is i'm on a timetable and i don't know what to do...buy a new one or wait..what do you think?

the ACT led doesn't blink anymore.

I have 2 SD's but it doesn't change anything.

I've tested the voltage between the TP1 and TP2 points with a multimeter and i got a 3V value and between TP2 and polyfuse a 2.7V on a side and a 3.2V on the other...i've read that the polyfuse is self repairing over a few days...problem is i'm on a timetable and i don't know what to do...buy a new one or wait..what do you think?

Your raspberry pi has limited the current and should be ok after a while.

If you powered the servo THROUGH the raspberry pi it is completely understandable that the polyfuse went. The 9 servo's (that I have a bunch of) are a lot smaller than your 37g one already draw 0.5A which is too much if you add in the raspberry pi itself.

So you need to power the servo separately, or you need to power the raspberry pi from one of the GPIO 5V pins. Then you lose the "fuse" on the raspberry pi, but if you're careful not to start any fires, that will work....

I'd suggest that you go for the second option: Power the pi through the 5V on the GPIO port. This should get you up and running even before the polyfuse resets....

the PI Works! but the PWM doesn't...

when i hit : sudo ls -al /sys/class/rpi-pwm/pwm0/ it says that no file or directory exists...then i manually downloaded the kernel from adafruit but still nothing...

i actually don't need the PWM part, just to start/stop the motor...

If you don't need the PWM part - to regulate speed - it's much easier to use a darlington transistor array like the ULN2003 to just turn on and off the motor.

Much easier and safer than driving it from the raspberry and dealing with PWM and kernel modules.

http://www.adafruit.com/adablog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/uln2003_motor1.png

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/02/03/part-finder-friday-darlington-transistor-arrays/

It can be driven by TTL voltage levels so the Raspberry can easily drive it.

Said that there are many other ways to do it. L298 H-Bridges, power mosfets, and many other.

But the ULN2003 have everything built in already to safely drive an inductive load. If you don't need reversing the motor - you will need an H-Bridge - or controlling speed - you will need PWM - the ULN2003 is the easiet IC that I have used.

do you know what can i do to have pwm working on the PI?

I don't know much about the Occidentalis distro, but if you want to use their PWM kernel module, and it's not working in your current distro, may be easier just to use that distro, as at least you will know the kernel and kernel module are compatible.

Said that, If I would need PWM on the Pi I would first try the wiringPi library that have hardware and software PWM access and a gpio utility that let you set PWM from the command line just doing:

gpio mode 1 pwm

gpio pwm 1 500

WiringPi

https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/wiringpi/the-gpio-utility/

https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/wiringpi/functions/

https://sites.google.com/site/semilleroadt/raspberry-pi-tutorials/gpio

If you prefer Python the RPIO library is built towards PWM and RC Servo PWM control.

RPIO.PWM, PWM via DMA for the Raspberry Pi — RPIO 0.10.0 documentation