Introduction

Trim Mode is a special gamepad mode that allows you to finely adjust the servo motors' default positions. This is needed because the servo horns that come with your servos only have 22 positions available for installation. This means the closest you can come to having perfectly aligned servos is plus or minus 8 degrees.

Trimming your servos will ensure the robot stands straight, it will help the robot to walk in a straight line (at least on smooth surfaces), and it will ensure all the servos are equally contributing to supporting the robot. This will increase the servo life by ensuring no servo is carrying more load than it's supposed to.

The trimming process only takes about 5 minutes, and it only has to be done once after assembly (or after swapping a servo). Trim positions are stored in the robot's EEPROM (sort of like a very tiny flash drive inside the Arduino Nano) so turning the robot off won't erase trim settings.

Firmware Version Required for Trim Mode

Trim mode is a new feature in the Vorpal Hexapod V2 and later versions of the software. This software is standard in all our kits ordered after July 16, 2018. If you ordered a kit from us on or after that date, you should have the V2 firmware. If you ordered a kit from us before that date, you do not have V2 firmware.

For instructions on updating your firmware to V2, see Vorpal_The_Hexapod_Arduino_Setup_Guide

Putting the Gamepad in Trim Mode

Trim mode is invoked by booting the gamepad while simultaneously holding down the W1 button. The exact steps are:

Turn off the gamepad.
Hold down the W1 button, and keep holding it.
Turn on the gamepad.
Wait 5 seconds or so, then release W1. You should now be in Trim mode.

To make sure you really are in Trim mode, press the R2 button on the gamepad. This should cause the robot's legs to toggle between "ADJ" mode positions and "STOP" mode positions.