combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

HI Y'ALL! I've been using HS 55 servos for just a few months now, and I have 6 of them. I had my first failure on a throttle servo, and I found that the tiny red wire that leads down to the motor had been cut almost in half, only some of the insulation was holding it together. I immediately suspected that BRUCE had done it during the night, but it looked more like a poor cram job that was done at the factory, and the wire was cut by the edge of the circuit card. I'm happy that it was an easy fix on a non critical channel, but HITEKs' batting average with me is only 5 for 6, in a game where 99.9% is expected now.

jboy381-RCU

good thing it was on throttle...it could have cost you a plane...you must have a rabbit's foot in your pocket...if it was me,i'd be one plane short...

john

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Same thing happenend to me. I examined all four of my 55's and it looked like they all would be affected by the same scenario( or perhaps I'm paranoid) I CA'd a small strip of rubber to the circuit board by the wire. Buy the way the failure was on the throttle also, crashed my first HalfWit due to it. Low knife edge pass, tried to add throttle to get the nose up, didn't happen, resulted in a spectacular cartwheel. Second HW in construction.

Rrragman

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

HI RRRAGMAN! I don't like the look of this, it looks like a design flaw that is lurking like a rattle snake in the mail box[X(]! I wasn't going to look at my other servos, because I feel like a bull in a china shop everytime I go inside stuff like that. I remember my first day on the job as an apprentice electrician and watching one of the journeyman beat the wires back into an over filled "J" box with his hammer.. Could it be that this same guy got a job at HITEK?

HI JBOY! I have had so many lucky things happen, and unlucky things. There is a planetary allignment right now. I lost a glider in a wind storm, folded the antenna and went home. I had a message waiting when I got home telling me to come get my plane. It hit power lines and seperated the wing from the fuselage, and the spear of a fuselage came down and hit the window mullion at a kitchen window while this guys' wife was doing the dishes. It put a dent in the wood window divider, but did not damage the glass! The plane had very little damage. Some time later I was flying with my sister, and she was learning very quickly. I got into a conversation with an onlooker, and by the time my sister handed me back the radio, that plane was gone. A week later I went to the LHS, and the shop owner handed it back to me, mostly unharmed! He was out on a walk through the woods and the bright color caught his attention. The last massively lucky story was when I moved up to a 4 channel UGLY STICK, and stalled it on a landing approach[FOX 40], hit the throttle and it did not rev up good. The plane overshot the run way but drifted into a drainage ditch. I collapsed the antenna and started my walk out to the crash site. After taking quite a few steps towards where the plane went in, it rose out of the drainage ditch and flew away. I pulled out the antenna and scampered back to the pilots' station. The incredibly unlucky stories are more boring than these, plus they are depressing too, so I'll leave them alone!

BMatthews

I'm shocked. I'll have you know I'm not the sort of person that would EVERY stoop to such a low and shoddy sort of behaviour....




Nope, I specialize in cutting half way through landing gears. Almost as much fun and you don't need the time required to get the model apart.....

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

BRUCE, now you know why I don't use landing gear! You missed a great day to have a D-BAT tuneup last SUNDAY! It is good to blow some of the cob webs out before we actually are OUT FOR BLOOD! The new nylon TAIPAN 8-6s work great! The SHARMA .15 looks like a strong runner, and the piston/liner is a drop in to the PAW! What a coincidence, huh?!?! The iron bushed crank is supposed to have better wear properties and a lower coefficient of drag than bronze. There was a good turn out with a couple of new faces. Mel is a tireless crusader to keep this going, he is the first one there, the last one to leave, and carries all the paraphernalia to make it happen.

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

BA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, So the difference between a apprentice and a joureyman is knowing what hammer to use? I always wondered how you guys got all that wire crammed in there. I think your right it must be the same guy. A further note, I did not have the servo that failed isolated from vibration. That and being directly linked to the Norvel probably exaserbated the problem.

Darren

Bipe Flyer

You just need to buy 994 more Hitec servos.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

If I bought 994 more servos from HITEK, I wonder if they might give me some decals to slap on my planes so I can give them free advertising? If no one else is having problems with the HS 50 or 55 servos, then I will just chalk this up to bad luck, my servo was stuffed by a disgruntled robot. If there are other cases like this to report, then let's hear about it because then I will report it to HITEK so they can nip the problem in the bud.

Bipe Flyer

I've got dozens of Hitec servos; HS81s, Hs55s, HS50s, Hs605s, HS205s, HS225s, HS85s... I've only had 1 Hitec ever give me a probem, but it was because the wire was pinched against a bulkead and eventually vibration broke the wire.

I've had a few other brands fail on me though.

2fast4u

My Feedback: (5)

Never had a Hitec fail so far, but I do have 3 new 55's ready to go into a new Sig Rascle ARF with a Norvel .061 up front. I don't know weather to check them out, or go with my past record with Hitec........[&:]

The lucky stories were GREAT!!!! They really got my morning going well. Thanks!! [8D] Sounds like a GREAT thread to start.... CRAZY EVENTS THAT ENDED WELL.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

HI 2FAST! Glad you liked the stories. Now that I do little things like look at battery voltage, adjust engines before flying, etc., those lucky stories have been scarce. I did have an HS81 go out recently while flying combat, and the elevator stuck in a position where I was flying aileron only with no problem, in fact I stayed on the attack! The HS 55 failure on throttle gave me some warning because the strands of the wire were making intermittant contact. I hate to open this stuff up to look at it because I wonder if I can do as good a job of cramming it all back in as the highly skilled and trained factory worker who is getting paid a bowl of fish heads and rice per day to perform these delicate tasks.

I just got a nasty email from HITEK. They say that they don't pay in fish heads anymore, they have since changed to ROOSTER FEET[X(]!

Bipe Flyer

Oh, I just remembered. I had an HS81 fail on the elevator of a .25 powered Simple Ultimate. I guess it was too much power and too heavy for the servo and some teeth stripped off of one of the gears. If I pulled back it would climb at about 30 degrees and if I released the elevator it would dive at about 30 degrees. It was a pretty tricky approach having only up or down but no level flight. I did manage to get it down safely with a porpoising approach then a dive into a super flare landing. I replaced it with an HS205.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

So in other words you were flying OLD TIME RC!

Andrew

On all my HS-55's, the bottom of the case has a small support/strength rib molded into each corner. It appears that this rib may also serve to support the PC board and keep it level in the bottom of the case. However, in most of the servos I checked the board is canted where one edge (long side) has dropped below the support rib and the other edge is above. I had noted this when the servos shipped, but like CP, decided not to try to reposition the board -- it's pretty tight in the case.

Given CP's experience, I may open a couple of cases and see if the board can be repositioned. Generally, these boards are masked and etched with multiple circuits per card, then cut apart with a board shear -- much like a metal shear. The shearing process leaves a rough, and sometims sharp, fiberglass edge -- I will usually sand the edge slightly, but I doubt this happens at high production rates.

Shearing may be fully automated or manual. When I etch boards, I usually etch an alignment mark along the edge to help when cutting the individual boards apart, but the individual board sizes may vary slightly. If the servo boards are a bit undersized or oversized, they may move around or not seat correctly -- with a sharp edge, any movement (or just vibration) could easily cut thru the wire. You might check your 55's to see if any wires appear to be compressed between the board and motor case.

I only use the 55's on throttle, so failure would not be totally catastrophic (I seem to manage that quite well on my own [&o]). If you have these on control surfaces, then it's a different matter.

the "other" Andrew

Bipe Flyer

At least an escapement has a neutral position. The servo didn't!

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks ANDREW! That explanation makes sense, and a little bit of PM when they are taken out of the box sounds simple enough if I get set up with a magnifying glass. The gear train looked very good , maybe the same size teeth as an HS 81? The lower RPM 061s don't shake the model as much as the old screaming TD 049s did, so it has been many moons since I failed any teeth. Aerodynamic counter balancing control flaps contributes to servo longevity also. The deflections on the HALFWIT are extreme, and the HS55s are getting the job done. Failed teeth in the S133s was so common that I actually became pretty good at changing gears. I would be very interested to know how many HS 55s they can make in a single day?