Use a preset template

The fastest way to get a working preset is to start from a built-in template. The Fixo wizard's Pages 2 and 3 are the new home of this flow; this how-to walks through the canonical RC-car and hexapod cases, and the same shape applies to tracked-vehicle and differential-2wheel.

What the wizard does

Three things, fully automatically: substitutes your parameter values into the template, expands forEachActuators rules into concrete actuators with semantic tags, and adds the result to your FixoPresetBook ready for the editor or the runtime.


Before you start

You need a working OctoMY™ with the Fixo Studio reachable. No connected hardware required to run the wizard — you can author the preset offline and inject it later.


Path 1: RC car with steering + throttle (5 min)

The canonical hobby RC-car shape: one servo for the steering linkage, one servo (driving an ESC) for throttle. Uses the new rc-car-steering template + steering_throttle lobe.

  1. Launch the Set up Fixo wizard from the agent main menu.

  2. Page 1 — Introduction: read the concept sentence, click Continue.

  3. Page 2 — Pick template: select rc-car-steering in the list (it carries an Official badge). Click Continue.

  4. Page 3 — Configure template: fill in the parameters. The form is reactive — the BnI band at the bottom reflects the live state as you type.

    Field Example value Why
    Board uno The car's MCU
    Steering servo pin 9 Wire this matches your physical setup
    Throttle servo pin 10 Wire this matches your physical setup

    Once every field is set, Continue lights up.

  5. Click Continue to advance to Page 4 — Build & Inject. Click Build to compile via the embedded LLVM/Clang, Flash when a serial port is detected, then watch the band light up Running when the firmware responds. Click Done to exit with Green completion.

The wizard:

Path 2: Two-motor differential (also 5 min)

For a side-by-side differential chassis (left + right wheels driven independently). Same flow as above, but pick differential-2wheel on Page 2 — that's the new name of what used to be called rc-car. The template uses the differential_drive lobe, which blends forward + yaw across the two wheels.


Path 3: Hexapod (5 min, parameter tweak optional)

A more interesting case because the leg count is parameterised. Default is 6 legs (the canonical hexapod), but you can dial it up to 8 (octopod) or down to 4 (quadruped) and the wizard generates the actuators accordingly.

  1. Launch the wizard, pass Page 1.

  2. Page 2 — Pick template: select hexapod.

  3. Page 3 — Configure template:

    Field Example value Why
    Board arduino-mega2560 A 6-leg hexapod needs 18 PWM channels — Mega has 15, you'd need a Servotor32 or external PWM driver for 18
    Name my-hexy Your label
    Leg count 6 (default) Crank to 4 or 8 if you have different hardware
  4. Click Continue.

The wizard runs three forEachActuators rules — one for each leg joint — substituting per iteration. Result with legCount = 6:

Actuator Tags
leg_0_coxa ["leg_0", "coxa"]
leg_0_femur ["leg_0", "femur"]
leg_0_tibia ["leg_0", "tibia"]
leg_1_coxa ["leg_1", "coxa"]
... ...
leg_5_tibia ["leg_5", "tibia"]

The stanza references the hexapod-walk stanza template. When the editor / runtime expands that template, auto-connect uses the leg / joint tags to wire each lobe output to the right actuator.

You'll still need to assign pins

The wizard leaves pin: -1 (unassigned) on every actuator — pin assignment depends on your wiring, not the template. Open the preset in the editor and either assign pins by hand or let the auto-allocator pick them.


After the wizard

Whatever template you picked, you now have a preset ready to edit and build:

  1. Double-click the preset in the manager to open the editor.
  2. Assign pins, trim, sensor list (templates leave the sensor list empty by default).
  3. Build & inject following Configure Fixo Controller.

Tweaking a template-generated preset later

The preset has no link back to its source template — once it's instantiated, it's a regular FixoPreset. So changes you make in the editor stick. If you want to regenerate from the template with different parameters, run the wizard again with a new name.


See also