tewitt1949

Hi All. The subject title about says it all. I'm building a Jr Falcon with a .061 wasp. I'm probably going 4 channel so to keep weight down, 4 "standard" servo are over kill for power and just add unnecessary weight. There is at least one size smaller servo than standard, do you think they will be OK or are they still bigger than necessary? How much should an ideal plan weigh for an .o61 wasp?

jetranger-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

I have HS81 from Hitec in my Jr. Falcon. You could use Hitec 55 which is smaller and works. There are dozens of small micro servos on the market. Just check them out Futaba--JR-- Hitec--GWS--Hobby-Lobby the list goes on and on

bobferguson

I also have HS81 from Hitec in my electric Jr. Falcon.

Electric Delta

My Feedback: (13)

I really like the Hitec HS-65HB's for 1/2A's. They are working great in my 1/2A Shrike with Norvel AME .061 for power. They are much stronger than the generic (probably re-badged GWS) 9 gram servos by a fair margin, but not too big or heavy, and have the newer tougher Carbonite geartrains. I had a lot of trouble with the 9 gram servos getting play in the gears, centering trouble or jitters from potentiometer wear, and have had to change them out more than once, but since switching to the HS-65HB's, no more trouble at all. The HS-81's are also a good choice IMO, but probably overkill (more power and weight than needed) for 1/2A's.

MikeG4936

My Feedback: (5)

The way I see it (and I very well may be wrong) there are only 3 options for servos in 1/2a.

HS-81 - your standard micro servo

HS-65 - sub-micro, yet high torque/speed

Futaba S3114 - a better alternative to the "feather" sub-micro HS-55. Same price, weight, size... but more torque and speed.

-Mike

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

I've flown Nelson powered quickies with 5 of the HS-81 servos with no problems, other than wear on the output shaft after 10-12 hours. The BB output HS-65's look really good and now there is the HS-45 which also has a BB output shaft.

sharpshooter223

i like the futaba micro, i forgot what the numbers are, and the hs-55, and ive never had a problem with gws stuff.

digital_trucker

I'm liking the HS-65's with the karbonite gears and the bb shaft. They're lightning fast too...

MJD

My Feedback: (1)

I agree that HS-55's work, and I use a lot of them. Torque-wise I think they do the job adequately unless the surfaces are heavy or sticky. I will say though, that they are quite sensitive to knocks, and they are the only servo on which I have stripped gears by accidentally banging a control surface in the hangar (darn that low ceiling and narrow basement staircase..) or on a rough landing. Gear swaps are easy and quick at least. For the price and performance I still buy and use them, but in many small applications I upgrade. I think a few here have abandoned them for 1/2A, and I would never argue with their reasoning.

MJD

Whirlyspud

I hate 55's. They strip if you look at them funny. I've had much better luck and lifespan out of cheapo bluebirds.

Mike

ZAGNUT

My Feedback: (1)

the futaba S3114 are very light, quick and powerful but many complain about them having fragile gears...no problems with mine but then maybe i just haven't used them enough.

just installed a pair of hobbico CS-12 micros in a plane that should fly this weekend. from playing with them on the bench they are just as quick as the S3114 and A LOT more powerful. forgot to say that they're cheap to buy too....



dave

small_rcer

I have tried Bluebirds and other small servos. On my Simple Citabria, with 20+ flights I lost 2 servos, one a bluebird and the other I don't recall the name. In each case the gears were fine. The failure was wire breakage of the wire from the windings on the armature to the commutator. In other words the fragile wires were not potted or encapsulated and were also very tight with no slack in them. They failed likely from vibration. In each case the failure happened in flight, and not in a landing or crash. Very few of the small servos come with rubber mounting grommets to isolate them from the vibrations.

The HS-81 servos have heavier windings in the motors and have not yet shown the same failure.

I have some HS-55s and the Hitec rep assured me they were durable in the 1/2a application but I am reluctant to use them.

I had to disect the motors to find the problems. I had tested each motor after removal from the servo and found there was no rotation. It was not worth repairing the motors and re-assembling them. I could have unwrapped one winding to give me enough length to reconnect the broken wire. If I had I would have potted the wires in epoxy but then would have had to re-balance the armature. We are talking about a $10.00 part so it was a waste of time.

So if the plane can carry the difference in weigh stick with something like the HS-81s for improved durability.

I would be really interested to hear how many others are using HS-55s and how many flights or total flight time you have on them. The 20+ flights with the two failures would represent about 3+ hours of total in the air time.

Is this regarded as a lot of flight time?

Jim H