ORIGINAL: Sport_Pilot
ORIGINAL: MinnFlyer
A retract servo is not proportional. It is designed to go from point ''A'' to Point ''B'' at a given command. In other words, your Tx does not tell it how far to move, it just gives a comand to ''move'' and the servo takes over and moves to it's opposite end at its own pace.
So and electronic gizmo wouldn't really work. Now maybe you could reduce the voltage and slow down the motor, but then you'd also be losing power, which is something you DON'T want in a retract servo.
Good point, but if it can be set up to open normally if the timer fails, then why not?
You want a "Fail-Safe" built into the Gear circuit? Now you are adding more expense. And WHAT part of the radio system do you want to monitor the "timer"? The power loss Minn mentioned was not a voltage/signal loss but a reduction of torque. Not enough strength to raise/lower the gear in all situations.