Sir Not Appearing

Its hard to describe the utter level of disappointment right now. I got my Beetle last Wednesday and started putting the radio gear in last night. I got the steering all set up and had the car sitting on carpet (again, it hasn't been run) and it would easily turn the tires on the carpet with this servo.

Today I drove to the nearest hobby shop (45 miles) and picked up a 5645 for my throttle/brake and a Y-connector since that seems to be everyones favorite method of attaching the steering servo and battery. I got home and promptly began to put the throttle servo in and get it set up. Thats when I decided that I would add in the Y connector. All the wires matched up correctly and I plugged it in. About 3 seconds later, I was greeted with the infamous "hot electrical" smell. I have no idea what happened, but I have tested the reciever and its fine as my throttle servo will work on channel one and two. However, my big $75 steering servo is dead after about 3 minutes of use when combining its on time last night with the few seconds today.

The only way it will move is if you manually turn the wheels to straight, use the controller to turn right, and then they stick there and will not return. I removed it from the car and tried it again. Same thing. If you return the servo horn to the "centered" position, I can turn the wheel right on the controller and the servo turns full-lock to the right and stops. It will not turn left.

Am I out $75, or can this thing be sent somewhere to be repaired for less than the $75-new price?

ammdrew

send it to hitec, as you have seen if they are going to fail they fail immediatly, I have seen them have a nice melted spot on the bottom, hitec stands behind there products well.. Also if it fails immedialty i would return to the retailer and let them wait as it was obvoiusly defective.

raptor 8

i've had my helis and airplanes go in because of hitec servos, i do have some in my cars lol, but NEVER AGAIN in anything that flys. That being said i have the 1/4 scale hitec also on steering and a 8411 jr on throttle and rear brakes. I have not had any servo problems out of them yet buy i have the 3pk futaba controller and have the fail safe set up but don't know what good it would do if i had a hitec on throttle cause if that servo died there would be no way to put it into lock mode anyways.

neb

What Battery pack were you using?

Sir Not Appearing

Its a 5 cell sub-C pack with NiMH cells. 6.0 volts 3300mAH.

RCholic

Sorry to hear that SNA!

You mentioned:
"and a Y-connector since that seems to be everyones favorite method of attaching the steering servo and battery."
I remember reading that you were only operating 1 steering servo... I do not understand where a Y - connector would come in to play with only 1 steering and 1 throttle???

I do not remember reading about this... Would someone explain how that would work? I thought a Y- connector was only for a 2 servo setup.


Also from the Recent posts... I decided to go with the 5C 3300 NiMH, 2 - 5745's for my marder's steering and 2 - 5945's for my Throttle/Hydro Brakes setup. (should be here Wed.! )

Sir Not Appearing

All the posts I kept reading on here and on http://www.largescaleoffroad.co.uk said that you should use a Y connector. At the top of the Y, you connect the battery pack and the servo. The connector at the bottom of the Y plugs into the reciever. That way, the servo is getting a full 6v instead of 4.8.

I'm not sure what happened with mine as I can see no way to reverse polarity with these connectors.

ammdrew

the receiver does not reduce voltage, only older bec models do that, if you plug direct into the futaba pcm or hrs you will give the servos 6 volts.. just fyi,

the reason is to not pull the amprege through the thin tracks on the circuit board of the receiver.

RCholic

I see now! Thanks

[link]http://mcd4x4.com/mods/electronics.htm[/link]

This is the diagram I'm thinking of following for my servo set up... Being able to read German would HELP...

p113

i had this
im pretty sure its down to short circuting the things
difference with me though is that the the stearing went then the throttle so i went to the hobby shop got a new reciver (£30 ish fail safe) no difference (but the reciver i had was broken)
so the next weekend went back and just gave them the car because i didnt want to keep goining in every weekend of cause i would much rather do it myself because i like messing, they told me that both servos were completly dead gone he has this sevo testing thing had to change thembout £60

good luck on getting urs going

p113

Sir Not Appearing

Could I have put too much power through the servo? After looking through some old posts on here and other boards, it appears that some claim that a freshly charged sub-C pack can put out more voltage than what it is rated at and should be left to sit a while before using it to power the radio equipment.


When I burnt my servo up last Sunday, the pack had been charging over night, unplugged from the wall charger, and then into the servo to test the steering. When I tested it Saturday night, it had only been on for a few hours, unplugged and then used for a few minutes.

If this is true, I'm wondering since it wasn't fully charged Saturday night it was safe to use. Then on Sunday after a full night's worth of charging, it provided too much voltage to the servo and fried it. Could that be the culprit? If so, I will make sure not to repeat this (or better yet check it with a voltmeter).

mnf1sand

I run a 6.0volt sub-C 3300mah pack which will peak over 7.0 volts in all my cars for the last year with a single 5735 or 5745 for steering and have no problems. The only problem I have had was one servo melted the first time i plugged it in. I sent it back and put another in the car with no problems. The servo was obviously defective. We have done the direct power system with them and it works fine or presently I am running them in the standard hookup way through the reciever and have no trouble either.I think the direct power way is a bigger deal if you are racing on-road cars on pavment were there is alot of stress on the steering servo, more so then off-road.

We also have a few of our R&D cars out there running Lipo's for reciever packs with even higher voltage through these same servos with no problems to date.