i am quite concerned about this faulty servo as well. I bot 3 brand new 8611a's earlier this year from troy built models. What should I do. Send them in to troy or JR or what? I dont want to even test these servos for one due to unrealiability of the test. As someone new to this hobby, I may be taking this to extreme, but I may never buy JR product again if they dont exchange them, period!

JR products have a three year warrenty. Just send them back and I'm sure they will exchange them.

Personally, I appreciate the honesty of the JR guy who told me this and I believe that he is correct because I have 8611a's that have been in reliable service since long before the "bad" batch was supposedly produced and they aren't silky smooth either.

If you are in doubt about any 8611a's that you have around that *might* be from the bad batch period, I would suggest sending them back. Clearly they want their customers to have good servos and also for them to feel confident in their product. If you have a servo from the period in question that you're not sure about and you don't send it back and it fails, then what are you going to do...

Bob

I too bought 7 8611A's earlier this year from Troy Built. They were brand new when I sent them back to Horizon 2 weeks ago. Horizon exchanged them for another 7 new ones just for the "spirit of customer service".

Damn that unreliable test. I tested a few at sheldon's and sure enough one locked at full range.....[X(] with a servo tester....

Raf

I purchased 4 about 2 months ago, had them installed on my brand new Falsh , Read this thread and took the back out before using them and found 2 were bad, clicking . Sent all 4 back to JR about a week ago ,still waiting to see what they do. Jack

The thing that impressed me was that I went back and checked some of my older 8611a's which have been in service long enough for me to know that they are not from the bad batch and that have proven themselves reliable - and when I did the test on them, I might have said that they were bad too. That's why I believe the JR guy that said that the test was unreliable - i.e., your servos may have been fine. Better safe than sorry, and I'd be very surprised if you don't get 4 new ones in the mail - no questions asked...

Let us know how it turns out.

Bob

I just read this post after buying 2 brand new 8611a's for my AD F-16 which is under construction. I immediately conducted the servo "test" and found both servos to move freely without any binding or irregularities throughout the entire range of motion. I just had them shipped to my builder in Miami. Should I have him test them under load? Right away it becomes an uncomfortable situation in which instinct tells me to just send them back. Should I have him send them back to me and trade them out for 8411's which I was told would be enough or have him send the 8611a's back to horizon for replacement. What do you guys suggest? Also what are your opinions on the 8611a's for the AD F-16. I went for them because I figured since they will be the only 2 servos flying the plane I should get the best. (There's not really any redundancy in having only tailerons!)

Ha, I just put two in an AD F-16 too! If they were purchased in a time-frame such that they might be from the bad batch, I'd just send them back. I was worried about the two in the plane I built as well for the same reason - they move a large surface and there is no redundency. In my case, I took two from another plane that were purchased awhile ago and that have a few hours of operation on them and put them into the F-16. Then I sent all my "suspect" new 8611a's back and they replaced them all.

In my experience if you send them priority mail, you'll have the new ones in about a week. Not much time penalty to get piece of mind...

Bob

Hi.

Just sent Horizon tech support an e-mail.
I have 7 8611A's purchased late August from Dreamworks. They are going in a C-ARF Lightning, so I feel the safest thing to do is to have them checked up...[:-]

Anyone have any experince on returning the servos from Europe? What about the return shipping?

I sent back 10 servos and they replaced them very quickly. Great service.

I just received 5 8611a's from Horizon today. 4 out of 5 have some sort of clicking as I move the arm. 1 is completely smooth no clicking. Just curious, are the replacement servos you guys are receiving completely smooth? I would think in light of the situation that any new servos going out the door would be checked. Now I have to turn around and send 4 of them back that were just sent to me.

aaaah!! Sometimes you just gotta think... Our beautiful airplanes are at the mercy of little electric motors we call servos.

Can someone give me a definitive answer as to whether this issue would affect the European version of the 8611, the 8511??

How does the 8611A differ to the 8611?

Thanks,
Mark

Info here...

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Articles...ArticleID=1450