The Ball and Beam module consists of a steel rod in parallel with a nickel-chromium, wire-wound resistor forming the track on which the metal ball is free to roll. The track is effectively a potentiometer, outputting a voltage that’s proportional to the position of the ball.
When coupled to the Rotary Servo Base Unit, the tilt angle of the beam can be controlled by changing the servo gear angle. The Ball and Beam module can be operated in stand-alone mode, and the ball position can be controlled via the user interface. The Ball and Beam module can also be paired with an additional Remote Sensor module, in which case the system operates in a Master/Slave mode where the ball on the beam will follow the reference ball position of the second Ball and Beam module.