ORIGINAL: aerobob
I'd be willing to put some money on that published spec being *wrong*.
Digitals by design are pulsing the motor continuously (or nearly so), and the standard coreless aren't.
Maybe "peak current" and "idle current" are the same, but I'll bet $$$ to donuts that the "per flight" consumption of a digital is FAR above that of a comparable coreless.
Anyone know?
I would think you are spot on. No load versus flight loads, even when the servos are neutral are way different, at least you would think that. Sitting on the ground, the servo is not fighting to hold center as hard and it is when flying straight and level, you know that even straight and level there is some load on the servo espceally if any amount of trim is used. At that point the servo is under constant load and using more battery than stiitng on the ground.
JR servos pulse almost full time, that's why you here them buzz all the time when sitting still on the ground, they are trying to hold the surface. Hitec buzz as well but not near as loud, maybe its the deadband thing that you can set in the Hitec digitals because mine are dead quiet when set a 1 usec but noisy as all get out when the surface is deflected and that is with no binding and not going against the bevels.
Imagine what they sound like in the air [X(]