N55340

My Feedback: (2)

Mike,
I know this topic has been beat to death on the forums, but I need to come up with some resolution to the problem. A recent experience has made me scared to death of your digital products.

Here are the details: New airplane with (4) 5625s in the wing, (2) 5625s for rudder and elevator, (1) Futaba 3003 on throttle, JR 1400mah battery pack, OS 4-stroke glow engine, all servo extensions are heavy duty, receiver was Hitec 3200 and the transmitter is a Futaba 9C. ATV is at 100 or less on all surfaces.

First flight the plane looked like it was getting hit or a servo was glitching. As soon as I got it on the ground the rudder locked hard left. Like the servo had lost it's center point. I concluded a bad servo. I replaced it with a 5645.

Next day the rudder with the new servo locks hard left in flight. Plane survives. The odds of 2 bad servos of different models seemed remote. So I replaced the receiver with a Futaba I was using in another plane I knew worked. I also reset all the servos with my programmer whos software version is 1.03. I did not reset them through the extension wires.

Next day as I taxied to the runway, my left flap goes nuts With nothing else left to try, I replaced all the Hitecs with Futaba and yesterday the plane had 4 flawless flights.

The original 5625 servo that was on the rudder, I truly believe is bad and it is either on the way or in your shop by now. When hooked to the programmer on auto servo test, it would freak out after about 5 or 10 minutes. All these servos I've talked about are marked Mar 02.

By the way these servos have behaved, I have to believe that they are sensitive to some sort of interference or vibration. I never saw any strange behavior bench testing or range checking the plane engine off.

I really want to use these servos, but I need some reasonable assurance it isn't going to happen again. It isn't the cost of servos that is troublesome. I can throw them all in the trash and not be that upset. Having one of these servos freak out and down an airplane that I have countless hours in, or heaven forbid it go out of control and hit someone, isn't acceptable.

Please advise,

Barry Thaxton
[email protected]
(304) 744-7911

MikeMayberry

My Feedback: (1)

The first thing to do would be to send the servos in for us to check out to determain if they are defective. I agree that is it very unlikely that two servos on the same control surface would fail in the same manner leading me to beleive there is something else that may be the cause. When you send them in please list your entire set up including the type of extentions, battery, regulator (if used) radio, etc so we can try to duplicate the problem. While there have been some reports of servo failures, just as there are with all manufactures, other than the occational motor or amp failure, Hitec has not been able to determain any compatibility issues with all the extensive testing we have done here in the US and at the factory in Korea.

Mike.

N55340

My Feedback: (2)

Mike,
Should I send them to your attention?

Thanks

MikeMayberry

My Feedback: (1)

No, I am not a repair technition. Just send them Attn: Service.

Mr T.

Wouldn't it benefit to Hitec's credibility to inspect the whole installations of people who had this problem and finally fix it. I'm reading about the same story of servos locking hard left for months now. It seems that it also happens on latest software revision servos, and all you are saying is that there is no problem. From my point of view there still is a problem but you are not looking hard enough.

I have 4 5925's and 2 5945's already installed in an 80" cap that has not flown yet. They were bought last year in Austria, labels say June 2001 and May 2001. I don't want to send them in because it would involve sending them to foreign country and I would have to deal with customs office... The programmer just showed up in the hobby store and I'm not ready to shell 150$ for a unit that is on version 1.03 and can't be upgraded.

Right now I'm affraid to fly the model. Enough to bite the bullet and buy JR's 8411's.

What I and I'm sure other people would like to see is that you go to the bottom of this problem and come out with the explanation and a fix that would bring back confidence in your products, something like JR did with DS 8411 problem in helicopters.

MikeMayberry

My Feedback: (1)

Mr. T- Most of the failures we have seen are with the motors or the AMP's. There is nothing to indicate there is still a software issue. Since the servos you have are V1.02 with a known issue with the end points over 125% travel you should reset them with a V1.03 programmer and you should have no problems. Be aware that all the servos and programmer can be updated to the latest software if and when it becomes available.

I can appreciate your concern but be aware that we are selling thousand of digital servo and the return rate is no greater than that of any other servo. Do what you feel you must or join the thousands of pilots that have realized that the Hitec digital are the best performaing most versital servos on the market today!

Mike.

Mr T.

That's why I bought them in the first place almost a year ago. And months after that these stories started. I tested one of 5945's in a 46 sized sukhoi and it works without problems. I hope it will be the same with the rest.

Ticmic-RCU

Hi all,

I have found in my life, that what ever you will buy you have to check for correct function ... and thats not only for the RC industries ...
And it doesn't depends on what you will spend for the things.