Not at all. if that guy can afford that equipment and flying in circles makes him happy then more power to him. I think you'll find that most Ferrari and Lambourgini owners couldn't get a car around a race circuit once but if they can afford to drive them then why shouldn't they? As for the digitals, they are programmable and have a higher resolution then the analog. As far as centering, avoid the Hitec 5645s as I got stuck with quite a few and thy don't center for beans unless you have the means to adjust the dead band.

The one advantage to digital servos is that they are programmable (hitec's at least, not sure about the others). When you have more than one servo on the same control surface you can match the servos with the use of a programmer (more $$) to make sure that the servos are not "fighting" each other as they move.

I just compared a digital sport servo to a standard ball bearing sport servo. I found that with the standard servo, the control surface did not return to the same position when I let go of the stick (pushed rudder right, let go, then pushed rudder left and let go). There was a difference of about 3 clicks of rudder trim.

I've heard that digital servos 'center' better than standard servos, and I guess this is what they are talking about. The digital servo returns to the same place, at least no difference to the naked eye.

To me, digital servos seem to be more responsive and accurate, and the plane seems quicker to respond.

Well worth the extra $$$ in my beginner's humble opinion.

IMO , unless you're into competition digital servos are a waste of money and just suck the juice from your batteries.

One guy in our club finally went to digital servos and told me he couldn't feel any difference in flight.

For sport flying I would go with non-digital servos. My planes seem to fly better than most others and all I ever use are Futaba 3004 standard servos.

I guess it ain't the equipment but the guy behind the controls.

Just like golf, they try to sell you expensive golf clubs to make you beleive your game will get better and 99.999999 % of the time it never does!

It ain't the club, it's the guy behind it making the swing!

If fuel keeps going up I might sell all my rc planes and start golfing again.....I don't expect to turn pro because I don't feel like hitting 500-1000 balls a day. And most of those guys that hit that many on the pro tour don't even make the cut!

Now, back to the digital servos......

It is true that pilot and flying style will play into the equation of digital servo value. But don’t discount the effects of equipment too much. There is a marked difference in the performance between most digital and analogs, and it does translate to performance in the air you can feel with a good plane. Now if you slap digitals in a crooked plane with unsealed hinge lines and control throws measured with a ruler and the pilot only yanks and banks, putting in digitals would be like getting a Ferrari to haul bricks.

HungryandBroke... I am curious, if all you ever use are Futaba 3004 servos, how do you know your planes wouldn’t fly better with digitals?

Some people just feel better using the best (even if the "best" does not make any significant difference).
Marketing is amazing and any of use could be tempted to buy a high cost equipment (Like golf clubs as has been accurately mentioned) to have an improvement in our skills, on some could be a frustration knowing that it just does not help, on others the difference can jump right away.
Flying helis would be a good point of comparison, you really can feel the difference with digital servos, but helis are more precise machines than almost all r/c planes.
Personally I just do not know if my trusty JR 8103 has the resolution required to transmit the precision steps that a digital servo can use to improve any surface, but I know that the capability of the digital servo itself can improve the centering of the surface (I like to use them on elevator and ailerons only just because of their centering capability).
Digital servos are the future of the servo technologies so sooner or later we will have to move to digitals, even if they just do not suit our needs.

Regards.

Alfred.

Computer frozen problem and double post.

Yep, it definitely depends on the pilot, the plane, and what you want out of your equipment. Personally I don't want a plane that feels like it constantly needs a click or two of adjustment all the time. At this stage of my flying I don't think I would notice the less accurate standard servo on my throttle, so since I have left over analog servos that's where I use them. But if you've got a sport plane and just want to 'burn holes' in the sky, sure you don't need to spend the extra $$$. I am trying to learn to have the most control over my plane as I possibly can, so I prefer to have the plane as accurate as possible.

I've seen these threads pop up a few times over the summer - the difference between analog and digital. What I thought I learned was that digital servos use more of your battery, use full power for all movements, and are more expensive. Somewhere I heard that they center better, though thought that it was probably something I wouldn't personally be able to notice. I just got a great deal on some new digital servos and had a set of analogs laying around, so I figured I'd do a comparison. Since the digital servos are higher torque, it is not a perfect experiment, but I did notice that the digital servos move with a much crisper action, and on higher resistance surfaces, such as the large rudder on my plane, small inputs were not dampened by forces such as (well, my hand for one) friction, or whatever else (drag) might be acting on them.

The point I want to make is that in my own experience, digital servos more accurately return to a neutral position, which eliminates the need of constant trim adjustments.

My favorite thing about digis is how they go limp when they are not being powered. I cant tell you how many times I banged an elevator or rudder into something hard enough that it prolly would of been damaged if the limp servo didn't let the control surface move so easly.

I can't feel a difference in flight either, who is slamming sticks everywhere to need the speed anyway? The difference in performance is 70ms! You'll never feel that in flight. It's just another gimmick in marketing, and in reality, it's only true advantage is that it's cheaper to manufacture.

I fly my planes to have fun and the less flight time I get out of a charged battery pack by using digital servos, the less fun I can have.

You don't have to be a professional golfer to have fun on a golf course and I don't have to have more expensive RC equipment to have fun at the flying field.

I might even enter a plane in the national championship just to show them how well my futaba 3004 servos work and I don't plan on settling for 2nd place!

Nitro-pilot, you don’t understand digital servos. It's not the speed we are talking about, it is deadband and amplifier slopes. In layman terms, digitals lock onto their commanded position better and fight much harder to stay there. This effect can easily be measured (I measured a bunch of servos a while back for this very thing) and easily felt under certain flying conditions. Some don’t care, that is fine, just say so. That would be much better than spreading false info about equipment.

Deathbunny, limp servos when off, that has nothing to do with being digital. It is often from the coreless or brushless motors being used. Good analog servos will do the same thing. Cheap digitals that use 3 pole motors generally won’t go limp when off.

“I fly my planes to have fun and the less flight time I get out of a charged battery pack by using digital servos, the less fun I can have.” Seriously? That is your argument against using digitals? If you don't like them because they are too expensive, fine. No one is saying you can't have fun with nondigitals. I simply couldn’t understand how you could say they weren't any good except for competition if you have never used them before, i.e. it is not possible for you to have first hand knowledge unless you have used them. As for NATS, my suggestion, ditch those expensive battery hungry 3004’s and get an escapement, now that would really be something.

If I can find a "non-digital" escapement I'll be sure and give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion!

Ahh that makes sense. All the non digis I have used were cheapos and the digis all pretty high end. I just assumed it had something to do with them being digi, didn't realise it was different motor types. Thanks

I had a piper cub with a super tigre 61 on it and the wing went flying off. My fuselage hit the ground straight down at Full Bore!

Never hurt my futaba 3004 non-digital servos one bit other than breaking one servo arm. The servo still worked.

I'll bet if I were using digital servos it would have knocked the digital right out of em!

"I'll bet if I were using digital servos it would have knocked the digital right out of em!" - heh, probably. Then again, you might have been able to "swim" the model back and land it by wiggling the rudder back and forth, if you had a digital servo on the rudder that is.