rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

I am finishing up on a U-Can-Do by G.P. ( I know - not giant scale) This is my first time using Hitec servos. Installed Hitec HS 475's. When mixing the elevators on separate channels I noticed the slave servo was lagging. I thought I had mixed wrong so deleted everything and tried again. No joy ! Had a friend check it out and he agreed I had everything set up right. Then had another friend put both elevator servos on a servo tester. The primary was drawing 20 mah and the slave was drawing 30 mah. No load. Reversed the leads in the RX. - Same thing happened bot on the tester and when connected to the elevators. No binding in the elevators. Put a new servo in and the problem was resolved. Guess I just happened to get a bad one. It can happen with any I guess, but this was a first for me. Glad it happened early on and not in flight.

EJB

BINGO.The notion that ANYTHING is better simply because it costs more is utter nonesense.
Some examples:I'll put up my $50 Seiko watch against any $2000 Rolex. My Seiko will last just as long if not longer, & keep time probably more accuratly to boot.
A $20,000 Honda Accord or Toyota Camry WILL last longer with less repairs than anything that GM , Ford or Chrysler makes,that costs twice as much.That's not an opinion it's simply a FACT. Look a Consumer Reports & see the relability records.

AJF--2

My Feedback: (119)

Fellas-- You are missing the point. My Hitec $80 5945 IS A BETTER SERVO than my $12 Futaba S148. Gee Whizz!

RickVB

My Feedback: (24)

Huh... if you pay attention to CR, especially about cars, you're being misled bigtime...

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

I love Hitec servos...and I go with 100 grit sandpaper . In 13 years, I have never had a 605, 635, 645, 700, 705, 715, or 805 fail on me. I use them exclusively. Some will be bad at some time I imaginge...all are. Guess I have been lucky. I have had 4 Futaba 1/4 scale go dead on me tho. I fly warbirds.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Gentlemen,

I have read all the posts concerning Hitech servos and they all have valid points. However, being in a position were our company has in the past purchased in excess of fivethousand (5000) HS700BB Hitech servos I will support the reliability and dependibility of this servo. I would estimate that we experienced less than a 2% failure rate.
The only descrepancies we discovered were caused by the assembly process at the manufactures level. These problems were brought to the attention of Hitech and corrected with no questions asked.
These servos were used on aerial targets of 1/5 scale in size and performance. At no time did these servos fail use under demanding field useage. If anyone is having problems with Hitechs new servo line don't hesistate to contact Hitech. They will stand behind there product.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

I'm one of those that HAD been using Hitec servos, receivers, and other products since the day they were first handled by Hobby Shack, now Hobby People. That was a long time ago.

I was working part time over a span of years at two separate Hobby Shack locations and was able to view directly the ratio of products returned by the purchasers. Once in awhile there was an Airtronics, about even with that there was a Futaba, AeroSport, or Cirrus. There was one that seems to stand out in my mind over the others for returns that I won't name here.

Later personal experience, and loss of a $2,000 aircraft with [i]new high end [/i[i]] HiTech digital metal gear servos was enough for me to part company forever with Hitech. Especially since an apology for the loss was not even offered. Don't get me wrong, they stood behind their repair policy just fine, but the repair invoices appeared to infer that the "damage" was initiated by the purchaser.

I don't care who makes the product, if it's a P.O.S. out of the box, as many have been noted to be, the manufacturer should get off their butts and let us know there is a problem and fix it.

I have been flying radios and equipment from Kraft, Cannon, Airtronics, Futaba, JR, Cirrus, AeroSport, and HiTech for many years. Some of these are no longer in manufacture, and some are outdated. I would use them all today, except HiTech.

JBanks523

My Feedback: (17)

I have servos of all brands fail on me at one point in time... My motto is to go with the best you can afford that is safe to fly the airplane with, I fly with both 8611JRs and 5945 Hitecs, havent had a problem with either of these servos, but I have had problems with other servos by both of these brands. Electronics sometimes have problems, that is a inherent in all sorts of things like this, but I wouldnt be afraid to use one or the other, now an untested/un proven design, thats another story...

And about the matchbox/programmed Hitec thing, there is nothing else to fail in the Hitec because you are just reprogramming the chip with the new information, it is not an additional part, where as the Matchbox overrides the program of the servos because you can overwrite the current program. Both work great, and I havent had, nor heard of a matchbox failing, but it does add up when you need 3 or 4 of them... [X(]

Mokken

My Feedback: (63)

Well so far I've seen JR, Futaba and Hitec servos fail, either in the air or on the ground before a maiden. Perfect example, a friend has his 40% Lanier Sukhoi ready to go, all brand new JR 8411's, matchboxes to hell and back.. Just this past Friday he's sitting in the basement going over the plane before its maiden Sat morning. He decides to work all the control surfaces good, 2 servos on each elevator, 3 on each aileron he just wants to make sure there is no binding. After about 5 min of working the control surfaces he notices the left aileron is not moving to center like it should, he pulls out one of the servos and it's hot, almost too hot to touch, he inspects another servo on the same aileron only to find the same problem. I guess the point is, it really does not matter who makes them, for all we know they come out of the same factory and are just stamped different... (Why not, all our ARF's do..) [:-] It can happen to any servo, any piece of electronic equipment, it's the chance we all take, for some it's just piece of mind knowing they have one manufacturers components in there plane over someone else’s.

cap10b

My bone was with the Digital servos not the analogs servos. I like and do use Hitech Analog servos but I am giving up on the digitals.
Its also strange that Airtronics most hi-end servo is NOT a digital servo. A little less torgue than an 8611 but way faster.

Thats my story and I'm stick'n to it.

jds

There is no problem so great that it cannot be
solved by a suitable application of engineering, horsepower,
or light explosives.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Cap 10, I share your sentiments. I am another one that will never again use another HiTech digital servo. They have cost me much, much more than the purchase price.

sorry about all the italics in my previous post.

deputydog

Very interesting..... by the way, thank you Mike for jumping in! Few Manufacturers have the nads to jump in a negative post. I just witnessed a JR servo failure. Luckily it was on someone else's plane and even better it was a throttle servo that died in the idle position so I got it back on the ground!
ALL MFG have failures! Look upon yourselves and critique your methods before bashing. My Futaba Radio caused my 31% crash but did Futaba replace anything? NO "it had to be something else although we found loose connections in your new transmitter". I've owned at least 100 Hitec servo's and 2 have failed! 2% or less. Pretty impressive. No, I'm not sponsored by Hitec, I've bought them all....
Working at Hobby Crack says it all!

Smokin Cap

My Feedback: (49)

I have 8 - 5645's through out my 31% Extra. and a 225MG on throttle. Believe me....I beat the !#@%$#%@# out of my plane in the air doing 3D and the servos are holding up great after 30 flights. Im even using 1.5" arms on the elevator halves. Hey Deputydog......where were you last weekend? Me and Mike had our 31%'s out.

stomper

My Feedback: (20)

Been there

deputydog

qm1usn;
Went and flew with a friend at his field! I dont know if I can fly with you guys that have smaller planes....... I'll be out in force this weekend for sure. Hope to see you there!

Smokin Cap

My Feedback: (49)

I have my Extra dialed in now. Too much damn fun. I will be out on Sat.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Deputy Dog,

My part time employment at Hobby Shack was intended for easy access to discounts on hobby products. It also provided me with free access to quite a few flying fields and glider sites at the time. It also permitted me to stay abreast of current and new R/C products that the normal modeling public did not have access to until much later. The position served me well as long as I desired it.

But that was more than 18 years ago, and my full time occupation later required my complete attention, especially after I went into business for myself. Being as uncultured as you allude me to be, I think I have done pretty well. By the way, if you were involved with the hobby then, you would know that Hobby Shack was one of the better hobby establishments during that time period.

Compared to some others though, I have learned to get as far away as possible from radio manufacturers that try to sell me their product at a cut rate price while promising me that the product is as good as can be. Even more so when I lose an $1,800 plane to a new Hitech 5945 servo operated at 6 volts, with a total of 18" of servo lead (22ga), in a single servo application, with no binding, at low speeds and low flight surface travels prior to the servo going nuts, independant of the rest of the radio gear. By the way, numerous witnesses. Even more so when the next plane I built had another new 5945 servo fail during the engine running range test prior to the first flight. Numerous witnesses again, by the way.

Oh, the two servos that failed were two of a group of six that I purchased. That's a lot more than 2% by anybodys' count. More than just myself reconsidered their future servo purchases when the second servo failed that day. A friend at another field had three 5945 servos fail him. Two out of the box, and one in the plane.

Now I never complained when one of the two Hitech 615MG servos failed last year on one of my planes. But that's because I was able to get it back on the ground. Nor have I ever made issue over several other servos that either failed, or required repair immediately after purchase.

Giving credit where it's due, Hitech has always had superb customer service in the area of repair, but that doesn't offset any loss you may incur. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but spending $80.00 in the attempt to save $10.00 or $20.00 and losing $1,800.00 because of that decision is not very good mathmatics from my perspective. But you're smarter than I am, right?

Darrinc

My Feedback: (5)

I have been to many fly-in's and contests and have seen people running around replacing servo's from every manufacture. Also I am the the type that experiments a lot and have had failures from all brands.

I will admit that now I have used all Hitec for about 2 yrs, but only because manufacture X, Y and Z wants $50 for gear replacements.

I believe the problem is that us modelers are still a low number/ low profit sell. There is a very high tech market for fullscale and UAV servo's that rarely have problems. (but they still do on occation) But the individual cost is around the price of our planes. Technology and reliability will trickle down eventually, but we are not the bread and butter of theses companies. I'm surprized that they put up with us.

deputydog

Silversurfer;
Please dont take the Jab at Hobby Crack seriously! I know how it is when someone is wronged by a product. I have been fortunate and my Hitec servo's have worked as advertised. It's just like those who hate YS and those of us that love them or Ford vs Dodge. I feel you came on a little heavy in your initial posts. In these forums you can state good or bad, let others state theirs and then let the originator make their final decision. But when you attack(not meant literally and I've done it to!) you must expect a counterattack! Have a great day!

PS. like you, I used to love Hobby Crack but since the son took over it has gone to hell for the plane guys. Great TOY Store....

rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

Guys I have followed this thread from the beginning ,and I have to ask this question. Would appreciate some feedback . Needless to say that I'm a little concerned after reading these comments. I realize the concern some of you are having is with the digitals.

My question is not related to digitals so hope you don't mind me asking. My first experience with Hitec was with the 475's in a UCD 60. One of the servos was bad out of the box and I replaced and all has been fine since. I just installed five new 635's in a Gene Soucy 1/4 scale extra with a 6 volt pack. This is my first time using a 6 volt pack. Not using a regulator. When I turn on the switch with my Tx antenna down, as you would when doing a range check I get a bit of chatter/flutter out of the servos as though I am getting interference. I have checked everything and my installation is as I have always done. The only exception is that I'm using a 6 volt Rx pack. When i put a 4.8 v Rx pack the chatter stops. It is not a constant chatter with the 6 volt pack, but it's getting my attention.

This is happening in my hanger upstairs in my house. I have my other planes with Futaba servos in the same location. These are all using 4.8 volt Rx packs and not getting any chatter or similar flutter or interference in these planes. This is a first for me and I'm a bit baffled as to what could possibly be causing this.

If I walk away from the plane with the Tx behind me at about 15 feet I get this noise in the servos. It's not constant and only happens as I turn different directions with the Tx. Any thoughts?

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

Roger,
You may want to try something. Turn on your TX and Rx and let it run down for about 10 minutes or so and then try your range check. I've had several of my 6V planes without regulators jitter and get an erroneous range check when I first turn it on and with a fully/newly charged battery. It seemed if I got rid of that first initial power spike, everything just settled down and would function normally without chatter.

Darrinc

My Feedback: (5)

I've had the same experiance as 232Cap-tain with servo's from all brands. I haven't had to wait ten minutes, usually I turn on the system and fuel up, by the time the engine is running everything has settled down. The extra speed and torque offered by 6V is well worth the turn on chatter from a fresh pack.

rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks guys. This is what I was hoping the answer was. The model has not been completed with a bit more to do before I take to the field and do a good range check. I will double check everything to be sure. if anyone else has any other thoughts or concerns as to what this could be please advise.

I think one more test I will do is to put the 6 volt pack in to one of my other planes with different servos to see if I get the same chatter. From what I get from this I should get the same chatter activity as long as the 6v. battery is at it's peak.

Thanks.

Darrinc

My Feedback: (5)

BTW, I ran HS 225's in my UCD and a HS 55 on throttle. After some lightening I got it down to 5lbs with a Satio 91.

Wow, what a hoot!!! The first flight was on ski's, I took off and stopped about 20ft up, it practically torqued rolled by itself for a couple of mins.

What plane!!!

rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

I just completed the test and sure enough, the Futaba servos chirped like a bunch of birds. I guess I have a pretty hot charge on the new 6 v. pack. Learned something new.


Darrinc - I know this is a short trip off the topic, but how in the world did you get your UCD down to 5 lbs? Man that is light. Mine weighs 7 lbs Plus with a 91 Surpass. Yep. the plane is a hoot and one of the easiest planes to fly in my hanger. It will make you look better than your are and very forgiving.

just a neat fun plane all the way around.