Be Alert - shorted servo cost me a receiver and battery
Guys, I was busy centering my servos before connecting linkages on a new plane. I was using a loose receiver with the battery directly plugged in. I had plugged in my second rudder servo, fiddled with the linkage and then noticed the servo wasn't moving when I moved the stick. By the time I saw the smoke it was too late. Servo is a dead short internally, melted down the connector inside the receiver, battery connector and battery wires. Melted the solder on a couple of pins in the receiver and started to melt the case. Burned my hand yanking out the battery wire, which is a good argument to use a switch when running this sort of tests..
Battery can be repaired by splicing on a new wire, but the $150 AS9310 receiver is toast. I probably have 100 Hitec servos ... I've had one or two die on me, but I've never had one shorted new out of the box like this. Thank goodness it wasn't a LiPo receiver battery.
Bottom line - don't get complacent even with the small stuff. Had I been paying more attention, I could have cut power before much collateral damage was done.
Greg