Whittington

I want to upgrade the servos in my Blade 400 but am not sure what to get. I don't want to spend a boatload but understand that I will get what I pay for. Any advice would be appreciated. I will probably need metal gears but don't know too much more. Thanks for the help!!

Jeff

evdreamer

The popular MG servos for the B400 are the Hitec 65MG and the JR DS285MG. The Hitec's are a lot cheaper, but they are analog. The JR's cost more, but are digital. Personally I haven't used the Hitec's, buy I use the DS285's with nylon gears in my T-Rex and love them. People that use these on their B400's can tell you more about the flight characteristics with each servo.

Nick

Wolfpackin

Welcome to the fun.

I highly recommend the HS65HB's with karbonite gears.
Mainly because they are very good servos and can be found for $20 each.

The gears are not as strong as metal but should survive most of the lessor type crashes.
I have heard of them stripping in full throttle, auger into the ground, types.

If and when you strip the karbonite you can switch to metal gear sets for about $15.

Usually a small amount of sanding is required to get them to fit into the mounting areas.

Other than that a very easy upgrade that you will notice improvement, over the stock setup, immediately regardless of flying skills.

rotarydoc

Hey Jeff,

Well, evdreamer and wolfpackin put it very well, I ditto everything they said...

I bit the bullet, and went with the JR DS285 metal gears, and I love them! They are a "drop in" installation, no sanding/dremeling/grinding involved. They are very nice servos, although pricey.

Since I installed them, I have not given the servos a second thought...

Good luck with whichever you decide to go with...

Glenn

Crusader23

My Feedback: (1)

Jeff,

I too have the HS-65MG on all four servos. They were pretty much "drop in" for me as well. Just keep in mind if you go digital, you might want to consider upgrading that 25 Amp ESC to a bigger one. Digital servos just drain a little more than analogs. Anyway you go, it'll be well worth the investment. Good luck and we'll see you around.

Kenn

JPEE

Hey Jeff,

I agree with your idea to upgrade the servos it willsave you heartach, pain, and $$ in the end. As Wolfpacken and Rotarydoc said, you have a few ways to go and I'll add one more. I chose the HITEC 65 with metal gears, about $150 for all four. I have "plowed the field several times" with my 400's and never had an issue. Like Rotarydoc said, his Jr's just popped in. However, my Hitec's required just a bit of Dremel work on both of my 400 air frames to get them in......but they are bullit proof. Had I known ahead of time there was some Dremel work I probably would have paid a buck or two more and gone JRs.
Good luck..........JPEE

gene465

My Feedback: (10)

Jeff,
I use the Hitec 55's in two of my T-Rexs and have never had a problem with them very inexpensive and found them to be easy to set the helos up with. If you can splurge a bit get the HS 65MG and not worry about stripping them. I have them in my 450SE and love them. A bit quicker and smoother. Servo arms are a bit bigger and stiffer as well. The JR DS 285MG are servos I would like to try one of these days but they are a bit more than the HS 65MG. Gene

Bijan999

My Feedback: (2)

Few quick questions, in same boat here:

Are the HB65's much heavier than the stock Eflight servo's? If so, is the added weight negligable?

Where is the cheapest place to get the 65MG's or 65 HB's?

Do they make a metal gear set for the stock servos, good idea?

How "big" a difference is there in the digital servos vs analog? Keep in mind I'm a beginner, only 5 flights on the Blade and forsee many more crashes. I've read the Futaba 9257 is a popular choice but will need a step down regulator and a BEC to adjust the voltage since it's digital?

Love the Blade 400, my CX2 is officially retired now

evdreamer

The weight of new servos won't make a difference. On small helicopters like the CX it might.

I don't think there are metal gears for the stock servos.

Digital centers better than analog. You don't need a step down regulator because I believe the stock BEC supplies 5V. The reason you probably heard that is because the expert fliers run their cyclic servos at 6V so they are faster and the 9257 can only handle 5V.

Nick

Whittington

Well thanks everyone for the valuable advice. I ended up buying a full set of JR DS285MG's and will be putting them in my bird in a couple days when they get here. I also got the impulsive bug and bought 3 new sets of blades, (carbon fiber). So much for not spending too much money. That cost me about $200.00. : )

Any advice for putting these in? just unplug the others and drop these in then center everything?

Thanks again for the help!!

-Jeff