GMM

I have 3 HS5625 and 1 HS5925 in a new pattern plane I am finishing up. The two aileron servos (5625's) quit working on the bench (thank goodness). They did the full travel lock up thing. They are marked as being upgraded, and my transmitter was not set over 120% ATV. I have contacted Hitec, and am waiting for an answer.

Question is, how do I know if the two remaining servos (elevator 5625 and rudder 5925) are going to crap out too? The two aileron servo's quit after a few minutes of operation. They will work a few minutes after being turned on then they fail. It seems as though they get warmed up and quit.

I have tested the other two servos by turning the radio system on for two hours and operating them every once in a while. So far so good, but I'm worried they will fail in flight. I do not want four months of work to go out the window due to a faulty servo. I would rather crash on my own. Anybody out there have a similar experience?

Greg

JohnW

My Feedback: (6)

I had one of five Hitec 5645's fail on the ground check before its third flight. Same thing you described... It will travel to full deflection and hold. Power cycle the servo and everything is fine for awhile then bam, full deflection.

WreckRman2

My Feedback: (5)

I have 4-5625's and this past weekend, on the 5th flight of my DP Extra one of my aileron servos did the EXACT thing you are describing... I lost the plane and Hitec says there are no known problems. Yours is the 3rd such case I have heard doing the same thing. I'd say theres a problem!!!

BTW, the first 4 flights were great and the only thing I did different was reset the servos using the programmer per Hitec's recommendations. On the 5th flight I lost the plane... Also I am not using more than 120% ATV because my radio will only go to 120. I decided to reset them only because Hitec said I should.

Mike Mayberry says send them back and he will repair or replace it but what about my $500 airplane? They won't replace that will they!


Other noticable differences are:

I have 4 servos, 2 have a black spline and 2 have a silver spline. The silver ones clearly move faster. Mike says there is no difference but I am looking at it. Also 3 are marked AUG 2001 while the other says MODIFIED PROGRAM. Mike says the newer ones have the black spline however I have a friend with 15 servos marked MAR 2002 that have the silver spline. There are clearly some problems here but Hitec won't admit it. Instead they say send them to us and we will fix the problem. While that may fix the servo it won't bring back my plane and I will probably not use them again...

Snaggs

Glad to see I'm not the only one that was experiencing problems with the Hitec 5625 servos. I bought 2 5625's for a diamond dust (180 MPH airplane). I had both of them installed and the one servo did the full deflection thing too. They were straight out of the box. Of course it didn't start doing it until it was installed in the airplane.

I thought my new RX might have a bad channel on it. So I moved the servo to another output on the RX, but it did the same thing. I changed batteries, did the same thing. Changed RX's and it did the same thing.

The servo would move from center point to 30 degrees of center and then stay there for 20 secs or so, then it would move 3 or 4 times and settle in somewhere else. It's like it had a mind of its own.

I took the servo back to the hobby shop and they exchanged it for a new one. The old ones had a 2001 sticker on them. The new one had a 2002 sticker on it. The old 2001 servos had a black output shaft on them. The new 2002 ones had a silver color shaft on them.

I got the new servo installed and was looking down the elevons and I noticed that one servo was moving faster than the other. Also the slow servo took longer to settle in around the center point. I had another fellow flier look at it without telling him what the problem appeared to be and he came to the same conclusion. Needless to say, it didn't fly that day. I also did a torque test on it and it appeared that one servo was stronger than the other. This was just done by grabbing the control surface close to the horn and exercising the servo.

I took the 2001 servo out of it, went back to the hobby shop to get another new 2002 servo. They were out of stock, so it took them about a week to get them in. Funny thing about the new servo is that the wires were braided on the new servo where the 3 others I had were all flat.

Usually wires are braided together to reduce noise in the system. This is all speculation, but it appears that there is a difference between the 2001 and 2002 servos. The things I noticed were torque and speed. The 2001 servo seemed to have a mind of its own where the 2002 servo seemed to be ok.

So my question is this.... "why would the manufacture start "braiding" the wires on their servos if they didn't think there was a problem with them?"

I've had good luck with the 2002 servos, but use them at your own discretion.

-Snaggs

GMM

I guess I should have followed up on this thread. HiTech replaced the two defective servos, and the remaining two that were working at the time of purchase are still going strong after about 25 flights. The two new servos HiTech sent me have braided wires as described above. HiTech did not admit any problems, but I think they are aware of an issuse with early versions of their digital servos. I have heard of similar problems with the JR digital servos, so HiTech is not the only company having teething problems with digital servos. The good news is HiTech will stand behind their products. I dealt with the manager (Tony Ohm) of the service department instead of Mike Mayberry. Mike was not as responsive as I liked. The bad news is if the problems happened in flight, and you lost an airplane you are out of luck. I will continue to use HiTech equipment, but I will bench test it extensively before going airborne.

Greg

Aerosplat

My Feedback: (12)

Here is a link to two post I made about the 5925 lockout problem . http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...threadid=92369

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...41&forumid=149
Hitec did finally replace the servo, and it has worked flawlessly. The new servo has braided leads on it..

WreckRman2

My Feedback: (5)

I still feel there is a KNOWN problem yet Hitec is refusing to admit there is. In just 2 days I have found or read of 5 people having the same related problems. I am glad to hear though that of those 5 not all was a total loss like mine. It's funny you mention the braided leads because Mike asked me if mine had braided leads and once I said no he went right into saying send them in and we will take care of you. He voice tone gave me the feeling that he knows there is a problem but I'm sorry fixing them after losing a plane won't make me happy. If there is a known problem then they should recall them but we all know that won't happen. Sorry Hitec but your running your own name into the ground.

As for me I'm done with Hitec's! I'm gonna send mine back for "repair" then sell them. The next time someone asks me about Hitec servos I will do my best to talk them out of it. Take the $400 I spent on 5 junk servos plus the $500 I lost on my plane and I could have bought a new JR 8103 with 5-8411's. Something with alot more reputation and odds are I'd still be flying my plane...

MikeMayberry

My Feedback: (1)

The braided wire used now is heavy duty and will carry more current. Braided wire is known to be more resistant against rf noise. It was not used to fix a problem.

Yes there is a known problem with the earlier digital servos that Hitec has stated. http://www.hitecrcd.com/Support/servostatement.htm
However, if the servos are reset with the HFP-10 programmer V1.03 or later they will have the same software as the latest version. Be aware you should not reset the servos through an extension... this may have been the cause of WreckRman2's problem since the servo he has in question was reset through an extension. The longer leads may cause a problem when programming. Thus, you should always connect directly to the servo when resetting or programming it.

Hitec stands behind our products 110% and will do anything and everything in our power to solve a problem and take care of our customers. There is no "known" issue other than the one I posted a link to. To my knowledge none of the components have changed in those servos except for the wire, anodizing on the output shaft and labels.

Mike Mayberry
Hitec RCD USA Inc.

Snaggs

Mike,

The sticker says Modified 2001. What was "Modified"?

-Snaggs

MikeMayberry

My Feedback: (1)

The software. Anything prior to OCT 2001 should be reset to the latest software to elliminate any posible problems as stated.

Mike.

Crashem

WreckRman2

Sorry to here about your crash. But thanks for the heads up. I was just about to buy a new Hitec radio. Think I'll spend the extra bucks and go with JR

Giant Scale

WreckRman2
So I guess no one has had a JR 8411 fail?? Do a search on this forum on these servo's. Bottom line is all brands can fail. The only thing you can do is check the servos out before you fly. You never know when something is going to fail. Anything electronic is prone to failure. As far as Hitec goes, they stand behind their products. In my experience Mike at hitec has always been helpful, honest and straightforward. Would you have felt any better if the 8411's had failed and your plane was destroyed?

Aerosplat

My Feedback: (12)

Giant Scale and others,
I think you are missing the real issue here. Concern is not that brand "x" servo failed and my plane crashed. That happens somewhere every day and will continue to happen.

The real issue is how Brand "x" has or has not responded to the situation.
I don't mean to bash Hitec here. Hitec servos is all I have in my planes, and will continue to be. Dollar for value I still think they are the best buy.

However, I do think Hitec has failed to make their customers fully aware of the potential problem with their digital servo's.
Read their awareness bulletin as posted by Mike above. It alludes to a "compatibility " problem with other manufactures equipment, and the servos being setup at greater than 125% travel. It does NOT in any way describe how the servo may act if the problem shows up.

In the case of my servo, the end point was set at 100%, I NEVER set more than 100%. And both times it failed I was on low rates which was set at 60%. So, reading their bulletin should I have imagined that I might have a problem ?

As to standing behind their product... When My servo failed I sent it in to Hitech Service. I explained that the problem was intermittent, and I would prefer to have the servo REPLACED rather than repaired. Hitec chose to "repair", and sent the same servo back to me. Both Mike and Service Manager Tony Ohm at Hitec assured me the problem had been positively identified and repaired, and I should have no further problem using the servo. Well, 5 minutes into the second flight after reinstalling the servo it failed exactly the same - Full travel and lockout.
It's easy to "stand behind your product" when you have very little skin in the game. If they had said, "If it fails again we will replace your plane" ... That would be "STANDING BEHIND THE PRODUCT"

Finally let me say.... I would not expect any better reaction from any of the other manufactures. In today's time of law suits and liability issues, manufactures of ANYTHING are reluctant to accept responsibility for defects. I just think it is a sad state of affairs that us consumers have to accept that as status quo. But after all, we did get ourselves here, didn't we?

Until I find a better value I will continue to purchase Hitec servos.

Vince

My Feedback: (1)

I may be incorrect in stating this, but I am not aware of any radio manufacturer that will replace an aircraft because of a suspected servo failure. I have been flying a mix of Futaba and Hitec equipment for years. In my experience Futab, JR, Airtronics, and yes, Hitec all have very reliable equipment. One will eventually experience some failure in all brands of equipment, regardless of cost.

Just my 2
Vince

WreckRman2

My Feedback: (5)

No one is asking for replacement of an aircraft however if we can prevent the loss of aircraft by determining there is a problem and what that problem is then one would think let's do it to prevent future loss...

Vince

My Feedback: (1)

My response about no manufacturer replacing an aircraft due to servo failure was based on a previous comment by yourself, see the quote below.

Vince

Taildrager-inactive

My Feedback: (11)

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edge_fanatic

My Feedback: (4)

(decided my comments weren't productive.....)

bpryor

My Feedback: (45)

I just discovered this thread and I think Aerosplat's problem is the most likely reason for the demise of my Cap on Sunday. You can read the discussion in this thread starting at post #24: http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...581&forumid=37

I lost control in a very strange manner where the plane started to oscillate in pitch, which eventually decade into a terminal oscillating dive to the ground(total loss). Upon inspection of the remains, I was surprised to see the tail totally intact and all surfaces working perfectly, but I found that the two outboard ailerons on each wing were locked in their extreme throw positions. I have a Futaba 9ZAP WC2 transmitter and was using dual 309 receivers "Y"ed from each receiver to their respective sides. The software on the servos has not been updated, and I was aware of that. I had my ATV's set at 124% and at the time of the lockup I was in low rates the same as Aerosplat. I just sent my programmer in to have the software updated so I could update the software in the servos. It looks like I should have waited for it to come back....assuming the software update will also fix this problem.

Mike, it does appear there is a problem. I would look into revising your tech bulletin to advise people against any further flight(if they have servos with the old software) until the software in the servos is updated.

I forgot to say that my servos were 5945s..

AJF 2

My Feedback: (1)

Not the 1/3 H9 Cap. That was almost a new bird was it not? That breaks my heart I better look real close at my 5945s on the Pitts------

bpryor

My Feedback: (45)

Yes Andrew, it was my new Cap. It was the second day I had flown it and its fourth flight. BTW, I really like(d) this plane.

I meant to say in my last post that I'm totally on board with wreckRman's statement and that's what I'd like to see happen. I read the bulletin and figured I was safe setting my ATV's under 125%, but this obviously isn't the case. If something was said in the bulletin to the affect to not fly until you update the software, it appears I would still have my plane. Maybe enough body of evidence is getting gathered here so Hitec will take notice and change what their bulletin says.

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

I am closing this thread for now as questions have been asked and Mike I feel has answered them.