MetallicaJunkie

I just lost my 30% Aero-Works 260 due to a servo failure. The Rudder went to full deflection, while i was 3D'ing around. It caused me my airplane. I was using the Fromeco Sahara regulated to 6.1 so i dont think it was a voltage issue. Is this one possible way a servo dies? Ive had servo failures wher the servo is just dead and doesnt respond to power. This particualr 5955 is melted on the bottom, still responds to power , andstill goes to full deflection; however it doesnt respong to transmitter input


Has any one experienced this kind of servo death, or know of any one else.

Barry Cazier

My Feedback: (17)

I had a HS5985 fail at full deflection on an aileron on my Wild Hare 50CC Edge. It sucked so much juice that my radio went into failsafe and my engine killed and I did the "inverted flat spin landing". Kinda cool actually. I chalked it up to "just part of the hobby". Didn't bother me that much. Just replaced the servo and repaired the plane and went about my business. But I will agree it is one way a servo can fail.
Thanks
Barry

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

Hitec. Do a search on the 805. Alot of hard over, full lock problems. Of course, your servo is supposed to be top of the line.

Jake Ruddy

My Feedback: (40)

805 is how old?

It was top of the line for Hitec, that doesn't mean they don't fail from time to time. They all do it, just like anything else... nothing is perfect.

Sorry for your loss....

MetallicaJunkie

as long as its not a common problem i will continue to use the 7955's/5955's


Will they fix my servo for a resonable price.... i plan to send the other 4 TG's as well to be checked out. I cant afford to have that same failure happen again.


Thankyou

rc-plane

I had this same problem, it went to full deflection and started to smoke. Luckly I was still on the ground. I know they will not buy you a new plane but they will replace the servo as long as it is under warranty.


rc-plane

Jake Ruddy

My Feedback: (40)

I have generally found their service to be pretty good. Infact in some cases they have allowed me to upgrade to a better servo for a discounted price.

I have heard of this happen from time to time, but I can tell you a group of us probably have 50 of these servos we have beat on and I haven't seen it happen in person.

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

I've heard of this before. Doesn't happen much but does happen. Seems o be some electronic failure that happens after time for a small percentage of them out there. Hitec once gave me free (4) 5645's when my 835 karbonite geared servos broke apart and damaged a plane. I don't even think it was all their fault and they gave me the 5645's for no charge. I just asked if they would do it and they did. It's all I use now. 5955 and 7955. Have not had any fail in 2-3 years.

rc-plane

They do have really good service and they are also very quick to respond to any questions you have. I think it only took a couple weeks for them to send me a new servo, which was the new 7955.

MetallicaJunkie

Im glad to hear thery have good support

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

Exactly my point. You'd think after all these years they could fix the "going to full lock and staying there."It's obviously not isolated to the 805 either. Readposts #1 and #2. How many planes have to be put into the ground before the quality goes up? Years back I did a thread on expensive servos and why they cost so much. I thought they were overpriced. I was told that they were priced higher because of the higher quality components that they were made with. Strange that the cheap $40 805 is failing the same way a $100 5995 is failing. Where's the higher quality? I do own a 5998 and it hasworked flawless for me. I really dolove the gear train. Niceand smooth. Hopefully it will never go to full lock and stay there.

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

Yeah it scares me too. I have these 5955 all around on my Extreme Flight 88" Extra. Would suck to lose the plane. I also have one on the rudder of my Extreme Flight 88" Yak. The rest are 7955's on that plane. Love the gear trains.

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

Well I've seen a few posts over on another forum with 5955's failing and burning a hole in the bottom, but it isn't common as others have already indicated.

One should not consider the 7955's and the discontinued 5955's all that similar. The big issue with the 5955's was the torque drop off as they got warm and it was demonstrated by TBM testing a bunch of different servos for that specific issue. That was the first report I saw and others subsequenty tested various servos to see if what TBM was suggesting was true and it seems to be the case. The 5955's were dropping off almost 1/3 of their rated torque when warm.

The 7955's not only have a higher resolution capability, but they use a different board and motor than the 5955's and do not seem to exhibit the same significant torque drop off when warm, something in the area of 10% which is pretty common among the various tall dollar competitive brands.

closetguy

My Feedback: (13)

i had this happen to also,a 5985 lock up and a 5945 both went to full lock and stayed there.
i also have a flying buddy that has a 5955TG on the rudder and it gets the shakes from time to time trying to find center.
i am starting to think that Hitec servos are not all that dependable.do the other brands of servos do this or is this just a Hitec problem?

MetallicaJunkie

i had that same problem on one of my elevator servos, i would just pinch the trailing edge on the elevator halve and the shaking would stop. I am going to get them out this week and keep guys posted, i hope they take care of me

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

A buddy has a brand new JR 8611A that has shook around center since new. He runs 6 volt NIMH packs with no regulator. I think he just sent it in to get checked out.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

There seems to be a misconception that the servos we use in our aircraft are supposed to have unlimited service lives, and should work under any conceivable installation condition. Although desirable, this just is not the case. Any servo or other radio component can fail, either when new or after only a few or numerous service cycles. That's just the nature of man made products. You can purchase a $3,000.00 servo that's intended for extreme use high end applications and they can (and do) fail or wear out. This is true with any product, from toys to full scale aircraft. One can upgrade to the best that's available at any price and still experience failures.

Most of the radio equipment importers and suppliers go to great lengths to provide the best product they can at affordable prices to the consumer. Most of them will handle service and failure issues at no cost to the purchaser. That they do this is incredible when you consider that servos can be destroyed by the manner they were installed and rigged by the user. It's not possible for the manufacturers to oversee every installation or to check every servo prior to shipment from the factories.

The only advice I can add here is for people to use care and good sense when installing servos or any other radio equipment, periodically check their equipment and installations for evidence of impending issues, and contact the manufacturers when they have a problem. Using an alarmist approach because a servo failed does not serve either the consumers or the manufactures in a beneficial manner. People see posts like a couple of those preceeding this one and can develop a fear of component failure where none should exist. We should recognize that componen incident of failure is quite low and proceed with the mindset that eventually everything wears out.

MetallicaJunkie

Im sorry if I came across that way, Ive been an avid Hitec servo user since the mid 90's, and will still continue to use them. I just wanted to get intouch with the rc community to see if their were any known issues with this particular servo, and found out what i needed. I don t know of any other way. Ive been flying since 92, and around rc since the early 80's and have never seen a servo die "violently" in such a manner.

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

You will soon understand that when you post a problem with anything here it's all your fault. No biggie. I see it all the time. Thanks for posting your servo issue. The thread is fine.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

There was a time when sudden digital servo failures were indeed a serious problem. Not so much anymore, but there are still the occasional failure. From what I've seen and read a large percentage of failures are user induced. Not all, but more than what one might expect.

Waynesworld

Im sure tired old man is somewhat correct, however i know what closetguy is talking about. I maidened a brand new toc yak54 had 5985s on elevators and ailerons. also a 7955 for rudder. First flight on the plane and the left wing aileron locked up...I managed to land the plane in a corn field. only damage was to replace some covering and getting the corn stalk out of the exhaust. For a servo costing $90-$100 you would think it would last longer than 2minutes on a plane..

drewbags

I have a couple of Futaba 9156's that would shake around center and I have also had a Hitec 985 that smoked up after about 2 mins. I try and give my servos a good work out before I fly them, hopefully that way they might fail early on and not in flight? Having said that we should all appreciate that kit will fail and considering the amount of flying we do these small bits of kit hold up really well.

t309will

Last year I had one of my aileron servos ( 5955 TG ) burn out as discribed above, sent it in to Hitech and they promply replaced it with the new 7955 no questions asked. Just last week I had another do the same thing, this time on my rudder. Sent it back still waiting on the outcome. Luckily I was able to save the airplane both times, I don't want to push my luck too many times, may check in to see about replacing the remaining 5955's in my plane.

octanehuffer

Hitec, Futaba and JR are the big 3. At the FG Huckfest last weekend a friends QQ Python went in because of a full deflection locked Futaba 9156. He spoke with another Futaba sponsored pilot to see what is up. We we told that the gears rolling over was a common problem on that servo. Thus allowing the servo to lock. My point is that even the hi end servos fail, but at a lesser rate. I will still and always run Hitec. Never had a problem. Never heard of any field problems either. Of course, the internet says another story. I for one, do not count most on here credible for an opinion anyhow.

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

"I for one, do not count most on here credible for an opinion anyhow."

Then why bother coming here? Your opinion is better than everyone else's?