User Manual

A separate row of controls is displayed for each of the Maestro’s channels:

Name. Each of the channels may be assigned a name, for your convenience. Channel names are

not stored on the device but instead in the system registry on your computer; if you want to use your

Maestro on a different computer without losing the names, save a settings file on the old computer and

load it into the Maestro with the new one.

Mode. The mode of the channel is the most basic setting determining its operation. There are three

options:

• Servo (the default) indicates an R/C servo PWM output.

• Input specifies that the channel should be used as an analog or digital input. The inputs on

channels 0–11 are analog: they are measured continuously as a value between 0 and 1023

(VCC), at a maximum rate of about 20 kHz. The inputs on channels 12–23 are digital: their

values are either exactly 0 or exactly 1023. Note that the values displayed in the Target and

Position boxes in the Status tab are one quarter of the actual input value, so 1023 is displayed

as 255.75.

• Output specifies that the channel should be used as a simple digital output. Instead of

indicating a pulse width, the position value of the channel is used to control whether the

output is low (0 V) or high (VCC). Specifically, the output is low unless the position value is

greater than or equal to 1500.00 μs.

Rate specifies the pulse rate for each Servo channel. On the Micro Maestro 6, all servos must have

the same pulse rate, while on the Mini Maestro 12, 18, an 24, you can have two different rates and

choose which rate to use on each channel. The pulse rates available are controlled by the Period and

Period multiplier settings described below.

Min and Max specify the allowed values for the channel’s position. For channels configured as Servo

outputs, the Min and Max settings correspond respectively to the minimum and maximum allowed

pulse widths for the servo, in units of microseconds.

On startup or error. This option specifies what value the target of the channel should have when

the device starts up (power-up or reset) or when there is an error. Note that if there is a speed or

acceleration setting for the channel, the output will smoothly transition to the specified position on an

error, but not during start-up, since it has no information about the previous position of the servo in this

case.

• Off specifies that the servo should initially be off (have a value of 0), and that it should be

turned off whenever an error occurs.

4. Using the Maestro Control Center Page 32 of 102