Hitec Digital Servos
 

OK I know people are say they are not going to risk their airplanes and all the hoopla. I am looking for people that have really had a high end Hitec servo fail. I am looking at buying some Digital servos and I am not seeing any reason not to buy the hitec servos as of right now. Also what type of customer service do they have. I have flown all JR for the past 7 years and before that I was a Futaba man. I would also like to here if you have good info about these servos as well. If you are currently using them let me know and let me know what you have them in.

Thanks
Chris

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I haven't used them in MY planes, but have put them in planes I've built and flown for people. The seem like VERY nice servos, as good as JR's. They are faster, but dont look as neat, and when you say your running Hitec, people immediately go "oooh, yuck", or "Oh I'm sorry".

I too am looking for Good Digital servos, I like JR's DS8411, but Hitec may be just as good. I'd be interested in how this thread turns out. good luck:D

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I am running Hitec servos in an UltraSport 40, Ultra Stik w/Fox 2.4, electric Zagi, modified GP Spectra w/K&B 2.5cc, and a Bert Baker P47 w/G62. The P47 has all Hitec digitals except for throttle and retract, thats 7 HS 5645's. I have never had a Hitec servo fail. I really don't care what the Futaba, and JR brand name guys say. The higher end Hitec servos are as good, or better than anything Futaba or JR has to offer, and at a much more attractive price. I do not know about Hitec service, as I have not had to use them.

Vince

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I have just gotten a 5735, the one with the blue heat-sink. I am going to be doing some serious testing on it in a couple different airplanes to find out if it is reliable. I need 8 of these for a 42% bipe I am building so before I invest the cash, I plan on beating up the one I have. I'll let you know what I find...

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I have used them in numerous models from racing planes to 40% Carden aircraft and the like. I have yet to have any failures. I did damage gear trains on a pancake deadstick with a 37% A/W Extra that has six 5945's on elevator's. HiTec replaced them all without charge, no questions asked. The failure was due to the impact and the shock transferred to the servos. Good turn around time too. :sunsmiley

I have also been using the 5735's since they first became available. There is yet to be as good a jumbo servo offererd by other's. You get the speed, precision and digital holding power of standard size hi-end servo for a very reasonable price, not to mention the durabilty and bullet proof gears and aluminum heat sink aluminum intsalled in the servo case... :cool:

The HiTec programmer solves all the multiple ganging issues as well as many other's. :p

I highly recommend the Hitec Digitals. :)

Unusual behavior from HiTec digitals
 

I am using a 5945 on the elevator of my Ultra Stick, and it works fine. The strangeness is if I turn on my transmitter and then the plane, the servo will not move for several seconds. Sometimes it takes 15-20 seconds before the servo starts working. If I turn on the plane first, it seems to work immediately when I turn the transmitter on. Once it starts to work, it will continue to work. I just don't understand why there's the delay when I turn the transmitter on first.

Digital servo's
 

I don't understand why you would need a coreless motor in a didital servo. I use 5625's and find even those are too sensitive for me. I have to open up the loop by using exponential on the channel. The 56 series is a lot cheaper than the others.
I'm not into exotic (3D) flying and I don't try to fly my airplanes by flapping the tail feathers.

Hitec Servos
 

Ok this is what I have found out a little about the Hitec servos. From the word on the street the pots where out on these servo's more rapidly then the others, but this is from Car guys whos servos really get abused compared to the airplane uses. I was told this by one of the local racerswho uses the Hitec servos. Has anyone else had this problem.

Chris

Hitec Digital Servos
 

rcavi8ter- The Hitec coreless digital servos use the best components available. There are no corners cut. There is no question in my mind that they are the best servos on the market today... period!

But hey... I don't expect you to take my word, so keep doing what you're doing! :D

Mike.

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I haven't flown with mine yet, hopefully this week I will, but I purchased the 605MGJ's for my SIG SE! well I do know a guy that flys by this church, all's he ever uses is hitec and for one reason, they last longer than any servo hes used. this guys retired and flies EVERYDAY RAIN, SNOW, anything! and he puts about 10 flights-a-day on his planes, he gots tons fo planes, even some of his own desgins, well he used futaba's, many dif. ones, coreless, bb, metal gears, and they wore out after about 6-8 months of use, so he tried JR's servos, and like futaba they wore out, but they seemed to last a little longer, then he tried hitecs, and since then he hasn't switched, hes been probably using them for the last 10 years or so, NEVER had a problem...

Hitec
 

Looks like these are the servos I am going to go with. I am going to see if I can get a deal at Toledo if not my LHS can get them for $50. Thanks everyone for your reply. I will let you know once I get them and get some time on them how I like them. I have several planes to outfit from .40 size stuff to 35% IMAC 3D birds. I hope they work like everyone says. Now the question is who has the best price on the servo programer?

Chris

Hitec Digital Servos
 

rcavi8ter- I would highly recommend the HS-5945's with two 5735's for the rudder for your 35% bird.

I'm sure you will be able to find some good prices on them at Toledo. Make sure you come by and see me at the Hitec booth.

Mike.

HS-5925 MG Failure - attention Mike Mayberry
 

Friday afternoon I had my Aeroworks Edge 60 - 90 suddenly go into a spin. I could not recover, and it spun in slightly nose down (I was able to use elevator to flatten the spin). Upon examination I found the Rudder deflected full right (65 degrees of throw). The rudder servo (HS-5925 MG) was locked out on full right travel. I turned everything off, manually centered the servo, and turned everything back on. The servo immediately went to full right travel, and did not respond to stick movement. Still at the field, I tried the servo on two other receiver channels with the same response. Now, back at home in my shop Saturday morning I tried the servo again, and it worked normally. I even ran it for 10 minutes trying to overheat it, and it continued to work. I also have the HS-5925's on both ailerons and the elevator. Mike, I would appreciate your comments. I will call Hitec Monday to get their response. My confidence in these servos is severely shaken at this time.
The Edge is severely damaged, and will require extensive work to repair, if at all. :(

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I bought and installed their 5600 series for my H9 Edge and just purchased three of the 5900 series for the tail of my third scale Laser 200. Haven't flown either of them yet but in setting up the planes have not set the travel beyond 130% for fear of them locking up. When driven to 140% in my shop I have found the dual rate switch is erratic and is reason enough to be conservative in my set up.
Mike should have some words to offer on the percent of drive the digitals can sustain.
I like the servos.

Hitec Digital Servos
 

Aerosplat,
While it won't be much consolation, the fact is, ALL servos have a failure potential. I fly JR and Hitec servos, HE Hobbies, hobbico and FMA servos. Some are better than others and I think that Hitec ranks right up there with the top shelf stuff. But I have had failures in one form or another from all of them at one time or another.

5925's and end point
 

Just for the record, the endpoint for all my servos is set at 100%. I never set beyond 100%. Just my personal preference.

Hitec Digital Servos
 

Aerosplat- Were you using a voltage regulator?

Mike.

Re: Hitec Servos
 

I do not believe a word of it.

Vince

Hitec Digital Servos
 

I have a friend that has asked me to ask this very same question!

He uses HI TEC in his 120 sized pattern ships. He has had three of them not "fail", but get REAL SLOPPY! He sent them back to hitec and they repaired them free of charge, seems that the metal gears were wearing prematurely..

What do you say about it MIKE?
I like HITEC, I'm into the smaller flying stuff and have had NO trouble with them!

RON in NEVADA

Hitec Digital Servos
 

Mike just curious here as I just bought a set of 5945 digitals running 6 volt. Are you saying that you need to use one with the digital servos?

My Radio setup
 

Mike,
No I don't use a regulator. Here is my complete radio setup:
Dual 720 ma Sanyo NiMh packs at 4.8 volts
Dual switches, 1 to chan 8, 1 to chan 7.
Futaba 8UAPS radio
Futaba 148-DP Rcvr
4 HS-5925 MG (2 on Ailerons, 1 on Elevator, 1 on Rudder)
1 HS -225 BB on throttle.
Neither Rudder nor Elevator has extensions. Servo leads plug direct into rcvr. Wires are not run together, nor are they parallel to antenna, battery leads, or metal pushrods.
Max endpoint travel is set at 100%.
Rudder is on pull-pull using Dubro heavy-duty servo arm.
The other 3 5925's have not given any problem, just the one on Rudder. At the field Friday after the crash I switched it first to the Aileron chan (1), then to the elevator chan. Each time it went full right and failed to respond to stick movement. Saturday morning in my basement, still mounted in the plane, it behaved normally again. I had not changed anything since the crash, or recharged the batteries.

Hitec Digital Servos
 

Mike, are there known problems when running Hitec digitals with regulators?

Thanks
Alan Angus

Hitec Digital Servos
 

Vince- What most people don't realize is that a low end servo uses a much more inexpensive pot than a mid or high level servo.

DESERT RATT- Metal gears will always wear faster than nylon but are much stronger, and some set ups put more load on the servos accelerating the wear. I would definitely not say there is a problem because our gears resist wear better than most. In fact the JR 8411's are known to develop slop very quickly and they are among the most popular.

AV8TOR- Actually, some regulators can cause problems so we advise against using them with the digital servos. They seem to limit the current to the servo.

Aerosplat- Everything sounds good although with the long arm and the pull/pull it may have caused excessive current draw. Send in the servo and we will repair or replace it at no charge under warranty.

Mike.

Dubro Control Arm
 

Mike,
I am going to send the servo in to be checked. My preference is to have the servo replaced with a new one. My concern is that the problem might not really get fixed since it is intermittent, and I don't want to use $1000 worth of Airplane, Engine, and equipment to test out the repair. But we'll let the technicians have a go at it and see what happens. :)

As for the Dubro heavy-duty arm, I use them because of the hefty construction, especially the splined hole in the center. I am using the clevis holes closest to the center and they are about the same distance as the outer holes on the supplied Metal arm. I also make sure the Clevis holes at the Rudder control arms are the same distance apart as the holes on the servo arm, so there is no torque gain or loss due to mechanical advantage.

premature failure
 

MIKE,

When I said premature wear I'm talking a couple of weeks! When ARLEN sent one back in ,"THEY" told him there were some problems with some of them!
I guess my question would be how do "WE" know which ones are the problem ones? Is there a certain "BATCH" or manufacturing date?
And I find out today that another frind who is running the same servos is noticing Slop appearing in his H-9 edge 540 ailerons.

Any help WILL BE APPRECIATED?

If you need more specifics, please E-MAIL ARLEN (not me, my friend) at [email protected]

THANKS

RON in NEVADA