On my picrawler, I have a need to relax the servos during runtime. Is there a way to programmatically do this in Pi5 using HAT5? If so, would simply positioning them again reengage?
The microcontroller inside the PiCrawler’s servo has a mechanism that automatically saves signals, so it can indeed only be released by cutting off power.
Can you clarify please? Your response seems to indicate that the problem is in the servo. Is it the servo or the HAT5"? Also, in a response last year (see below), a moderator indicated to set the PWM to zero, but effectiveness is in question.
In our previous reply to you, we had already tested the MCU reset, and indeed it did not release the signal.
At the same time, we also tested other servo models, and those did release properly.
In other words, some servos have a signal‑holding mechanism in their microcontroller, while others do not.
The PiCrawler uses a more robust servo — exactly the type that has this signal‑holding feature.