Expensive servos???
 

Why are servos for RC cars so overpriced? Or rather, certain ones. What advantage does a $50-100 servo offer over a $10 Turnigy or Towerpro 10-15 kg servo in a car?

Quality, components, packaging, and warranty are some of the things that will make up price differences. Rebranding with a "famous" brand sticker/etching will also raise the price. This day and age, there are lots, and lots of OEM manufacturers making servos for many different brands. Take Turnigy, for example, they have multiple manufacturers making servos with their name on them. That was last time I looked at servos from Turnigy. I can't stand to navigate HK's website and don't shop there anymore;).

The components, mainly the motor and gears, will determine price. Brushed, brushless, and coreless motors...how fast and how much torque do you want? Plastic, composite, copper, brass, aluminum, steel, and titanium gears...what's your needs? All plastic case is fine for some. Some servos have middle section made out of aluminum for improved cooling, and other manufacturers will "bling" out to the extreme with fancy all metal cases.

Simply put, you will get what you pay for... within reason, I have found some $50 servos to be of equal quality/performance to some $200 servos!

Key features from a $50 servo that you just can't find in a $10 servo:

• solid aluminum case - no risk of breaking servo tabs from over tightening a screw
• replacement metal gear sets
• fast response in the 0.08-0.12sec/60° range is considered a fast servo
• high torque in the 250+ oz-in range
• super smooth response
• perfect centering

These features may not be important for a basher, but if you will be doing any club racing, then it is extremely important to invest in a decent quality servo:

• Which servo is right for me?

bill_delong beat me to it....replacement gear sets. I know what I want in a digital servo as far as torque, and speed goes. That part is easy. It's the lower priced servos that don't have a replacement gear set available for them that makes searching for the right servo sometimes difficult.

Big gap between prices given. Everybody has different wants and needs. How they prioritize them is up to each individual. I know, for me, I will usually shop in the $35~$60 range for servos. Within that price range you can find great servos with replacement gear sets for if/when that day comes that they need replacing. Most of my servos that I currently have/use were, at one time (thirteen years ago :D), a very popular "go to" servo, and sold for a tad over a hundred dollars. I started buying them, at half price, because I knew of their great reputation, and they were being discontinued shortly. Nowadays, a servo with 14.5 kg/cm (201.4 oz/in) of torque @ 6V, and with a transit time of 0.108 sec/60° @ 6V is nothing.

Oh man- I just can't justify spending so much when one wrong landing can ruin the whole thing, especially with people like me who have yet to learn about the finer points of driving:rolleyes:. What are the effects of using an analog servo instead of a digital one, especially in racing, and is it fair to think that most steering systems have enough play in them that the increased accuracy isn't as useful?

I think your ideology is opposite of mine... I would rather have a higher quality servo with strong metal gears that will be less likely to strip, but more important is to select a brand of servo with replacement gear sets so it's not that big of deal when you strip a gear set. I find that all servo gears wear over time, and as the teeth wear they will become more susceptible to stripping. On average I go through a set of servo gears maybe once every 1-2 years per servo that I race with. I always keep a spare set of servo gears in my pit box at all times :)
Normally you can tell when servo teeth are starting to show signs of wear as the servo horn will generate slop if you can rock it back and forth with your finger, a brand new servo with fresh grease will not have any slop, if you periodically clean the servo gears and apply fresh grease every 6 months or so, that will remove any slop and significantly increase the lifespan of your gears.

Not sure if analog servos are still being manufactured, digital servos have become industry standard with coreless being the standard for many years but recently brushless is becoming the new standard!

accuracy probably hasn't changed much, but what has improved significantly is the "smoothness" of newer generation servos, that makes a car feel easier to drive as you feel more connected with the response rates. It's hard to describe, you just have to feel the difference for yourself... best way to know what I'm talking about is to buy a low quality servo now, drive it for 6 months, then buy a high quality servo later and then you'll feel like you wasted the last 6 months driving with a lower quality servo, ha!