I am checking into the Plantranco and Cirrus micro stuff. Anybody out there with any suggestions or comments?

the plantraco equipment has a good track record. cirrus does as well.

what were you looking to get?

nick

If by Cirrus, you mean the Micro Joule system, yes, it does work well. There were some serious teething problems with it since they were the smallest conventional servos made at the time, and the first batches were handmade and some were not all that well assembled. They worked like mad to get it right, but the market had moved and the bad rep of the early systems hurt their sales. Although the dealers (Hobby People) had the best return policy ('It doesn't work right? Here, take this one instead') people didn't trust it.

I have about 4 of their systems, maybe more, and I had to return a few pieces early on, but once it was working, it works great. Problem is, that they seem to be discontinuing the system. If you want to go that way, get extra parts while it is still available. It works very well in mid-sized micros. The main problem area with the gear was the servos. They have a rather complex drive train that ends in a bevel gear with a matching bevel gear on the motor. Alignment has to be accurate for them to function properly.

Since then Falcon (in the UK - http://www.falconmodels.uk.com/ ) has developed a much better system that is about half the weight of the MJ gear. Their line includes the 'Breeze' block which is a receiver and two integrated servos (4.8 grams with crystal and antenna), a descrete RX (1.8 grams) and incredibly simple and light 1.6 gram servos, a selection of 1 gram 1.5 amp ESC, brushless ESCs (<2 grams), and batteries that all have their 'IDC' connectors (about 1/3 the size of a mini-JST); all of their gear simply plug together.

Here is their photo of the 'Breeze', which measures 1" wide:



The servo is 1/2" x 1/2" x 5/8" long:



Here are two of my own poor photos, one showing the servo on a dime, the other shows two gliders that are 9/16" wide through the pod; the gliders use the descrete components. If you would like more info on these, just ask...

I neglected to mention that the AUW of the Cirrus flight pack (RX, 2 servos & ESC) is under their advertised weight at 9.5 grams rather than the 10 grams they state.

As Micro Builder, probably knows, I am not a fan of the other gear you asked about. I feel it is too delicate for most people, the thin PCB is easily breakable, soldering often shoddy, leads are single-strand Litz wire rather then the twisted multiple strands other actuator mfgs use and very delicate (breakable), assembly of smaller moving parts is often poorly accomplished, the magnetic battery connection causes problems, and their return policy is not free... When you happen to get a good set, it does perform as advertised. It is suited to peanut sized models.

well lets be honest, Mike, you probably miss-handled it before you even got it out of the packaging

sorry, couldnt resist

i probably shouldnt have been so vague in my response about plantraco. like Mike mentioned, when you get equipment from them that works right, it does work fine, but their customer service can be lacking. to me customer service is just as important as the equipment itself. makes me wonder how many people got semi-faulty equipment right out of the box that was claimed to be damamged by improper handleing. personally, i'd rather stick with Nick Leichtys equipment, its lighter and cheaper, and he's got the best customer service i've ever experienced.

just my .02

nick

I agree with you 1000 percent micro_builder... plantraco's customer service is horrid. We had the same issue with a "faulty" receiver out of the box. Fortunately shipping back and forth to canada is cheap and fast [/sarcasm]

Wow. Amazing, even! The only 3 dissatified customers Bud has ever had, and here we all are! Oh, wait, there's Steve, and Chuck and...

I wrote a long message. Forum ate it and would not let me paste it in. MY experience with plantraco was such that I doubt I would buy radio gear from them. Tim