Can someone tell me if I need a Servo Programmer for Hitec Digital Servos.
What will it do for me?
What are the advantages.

Regards

Tom Watson

Sydney Australia

Tom,
I have one and it is a real joy to have. It will let you change all programming in a hitec digital servo as well as test other brands of servos for you.

Below are the things you can change with a programmer:

Rotation direction
speed
deadband
end points
center


patrick.

I just picked one up this weekend, and was playing with it tonight. Pretty basic to use, but i can see how it will be very usefull.

For instance, you can set failsafe in the servo itself, and no longer have to program it in the trans.

You can widen the deadband of each servo used ganged to one surface, to allow a bit of "play" so they do not fight each other. No need for multiple matchboxes!

If you have two servos (for instance on elevator halves) mounted on the tail and Y'd together, with symetrical linkages, you can reverse the direction of just one servo (not possible from the trans) and do away with an in;line reverser.

Adjust the speed (slow the servos down) if your radio doesnt have that capability for flaps, or brakes, or whatever for scale speeds.

Its a great little "magic box" for sure!

But you certainly dont "need" it to use the servos. Just adds to the usefullness.

Andrew Coholic

Sounds like it would be useful. I am converting my BVM Sabre and I plan to install digital servos on the ailerons and elevator. The old servos were futaba 130's (I have had it for a long time!!).

Servo City has the programmer on special at the moment.

Thanks for your help.


Regards

Tom Watson
Sydney Australia

Just a minor point, I guess - but this idea about setting the failsafe position in the servo itself (instead of in the TX) has me a bit concerned.

Most pilots that I know of, who actually bother to set failsafe positions (rather than default to hold) just set the positions once when they first rig the aircraft, and then forget all about it.

With this Hitec approach, I forsee some possible problems with people replacing a defective servo and forgetting to program the new one, leading to the failsafe potentially doing the exact opposite of what you might want.

That isn't meant as a "dig" at Hitec in any way - just my "engineer's hat" always looking for the potential problems in anything new...

Gordon

Hi Gordon,
I have no first hand experience with the Hitec system but from a tech point of view the servo failsafe will only come into play when there is a loss of signal from the RX itself, like with RX failure, PPM RX's or some other condition. (PCM RX's will maintain signal output regardless of failsafe setting, either pre-set or last position "hold") So it may not be of such significance if not set as disaster would have been imminent anyway. To be able to do this the Hitec servo must be able to detect between good and bad signals from the RX. This is a real mayor step forward in my opineon and will minimise some installation "interference problems" due to long extension leads. (Another subject on its own) JR is my choice but they would have to seriously look at this sort of technology to keep up. After all its just a little bit of original software....
Cheers
Andre
PS. Your Bandit review rocks!

Gordon,
I also see your point, but we as "good responsible modelers" (grin) arent supposed to forget things like that!

I see it as an easy way for people without failsafe (a regular FM radio) to have that option. Or, guys like me who dont use a PCM harness and have to reprogram it every time I turn off the radio, thats a blessing.

Same arguements were out and about when computer radios came out, guys were saying "you will fly it on the wrong model memory" but we all came to terms with that and many other issues.

By the way, I picked mine up from a hobby shop that had one as a demo for $100 off. That was a steal!

Andrew Coholic