Originally Posted by
JollyPopper
What is S Bus and how does it work? What does it allow me to do that a traditional receiver does not?
It's a Futaba system designed as an attempt to 'lock you in' to buying Futaba's expensive S-Bus servos. And as an 'incentive' for you to do this they now don't make any 'regular' receivers with more than eight channels.
They
say it saves you wiring and complication, but in practice it doesn't as for every three servos you have to buy a little box (more expense) that you connect the servos to. And of course you have to find
accessible places to put these little boxes.
What it boils down to is that they have, in effect moved the 'addressing' of the servos (previously in the 'hardware' form of the numerous output sockets on the receiver) from the receiver to the servos themselves.
It works fine, but for the modeller rather than Futaba it has no real point. It
does allow multiple battery setups, sometime useful in larger planes, but that's dead simple to do yourself on a regular system anyway. But if you
have to have this 'bus' gimmick (which is all it is) then go for the Futaba one. Others now do similar stuff but Futaba's is the only one that has gained significant acceptance.