QQTim

My Feedback: (16)

I have herd everyone is going away from the 8611A due to slop in the drive train anyone had this problem?

stomper

My Feedback: (20)

I have three planes with them and no problems as of yet. There all just over a year old though.

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

I know I'm going to get flamed here a little, but I've been using 8611's for the past year and a half or so. I experienced quite a bit of slop after about 50 flights. I also had three lock up within the first 100 flights. Luckily, they were all aileron servos and not elevator servos!

Now, I've got a dozen 8611a's on my new airplane. I was just in the setting up stage where I finally got all the throws dialed in. I did the old servo test method.. you know, throwing the sticks up, down and all around manually. Did this for about 10 minutes when one of the ailerons stopped working. I found one 8611a locked. Disconnected that one and found the other two were free wheeling but not doing anything. So, all went back to Horizon. Apparently, one servo froze (motor) and that in turn, caused the amplifiers on the other two to go out. Brand new, out of the box. Go figure.

I'm going to give these a shot but I think in the future, I'm really going to look at the Hitec 5955's. I've read a lot through all kinds of different forums and really haven't seen or read about one failure. That's simply amazing.

DENNIS C

My Feedback: (99)

Im not going to flame you ;0) but did you have all your end points correct before you tested them. and the heights were also correct on the control horns.

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

Dennis.. Yep.. I used the meter and it showed less than .02 amps on any servo at neutral and at end points. So, it was damned close. Got different servos, put them in and did the old manual servo test again. Then, I re-tested the current draw. One was .04 amps at end point but the other two stayed around .01-.02. Now that's awfully close, don't you think?

DENNIS C

My Feedback: (99)

Yep.... seems like you cant get no closer then that

BF330

My Feedback: (5)

just sold all my 8611a and switched to hs-5955tg

GoeKeli

My Feedback: (18)

I love my 8611s, I have many and will buy more when I need them. IMO the best servo in it's size out there. I owned others too. Lots of great choices out there.

Joe

Josey Wales

My Feedback: (61)

me 2! I have over 150 flights on mine so far and they show no signs of "slop"..just got 5 new ones for my Yak as well..

Kevgofly

My Feedback: (2)

I only use 8611 and 8611a's and have had zero failures. At the end of the season, they need to go in for slop, but it's not terrible, I just don't like it. I fly A LOT during the season. Not sure why some wear more than others, I'm pretty strict about prop and spinner balance and such, but that's about it. I hate the idea of pulling all the servos out at the end of the season, sending them in, WAITING, then having to re-intall and set up everything, but I definitely don't see a better option. I have Hi-tech experience and will not go there again. I see guys throughout the season strugling with setup and on many occasions, you can trace it back to cheap servos. JR gear train could be better (I assume) but I still believe it's the best option out there.

Kev

pattnut

You ought to get flamed you low life,bottom feeding, bad mouthing, know-nothing. What do YOU know about RC???
JUST FUNNIN' YA...
Welcome back to the land of the living!!!

Old Dawg

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

I've decided to switch to 5955s in my second 35%. I'm keeping the 8611As in my other so I can compare side by side. My 8611As have developed some slop.

Here's an idea I'm using on my next plane to keep the aileron from binding up...

... I will be using 2 5955s per wing (simply to prevent gear slop!!!). I will be cutting the aileron in half before hinging... it is foam so I can just cap the end and re-cover the end and be good. I will install the ailerons, then mix two channels in the radio so the two ailerons travel exactly alike. When everything is set and tracking right, and after a test flight or two, I will be adding a strip of covering over the gap between the inboard and outboard aileron so you can't even tell it's split. The best part... if a servo locks up, then the thin strip of covering tears off and I keep control of part of the aileron. If an outboard section locks full up, the remaining inboard section and the full opposite aileron should give me just enough roll control to land the plane (if an inboard locks up it's no biggie). Plus I don't fry another $100 servo or drain my battery. 2 RXs, 9 ch ea., plus a self adjusting rudder tray, gives me enough channels to plug all 10 servos (including choke) into their own RX port, plus 3 power leads to each RX (no Ys or Matchboxes or anything fancy... I can use 10 servos with 9 ch RXs because Ch4 on ea. RX gets a rudder servo... no mixing required with the self adjusting tray).

Sweet, huh?

Leardriver

My Feedback: (12)

OH God!...he said the "H" word......[:@]

Leardriver

SEG

If You get the new H9 or swb arms for the 8611a's and subtrim them so that there is a little bit of a whine it should get rid of most of the slop

TeamFutaba02

My Feedback: (1)

Should you have to bind your servos to get slop out of them though? I dont think you need to with Futaba 9152's or the Hitecs.

John,
Get those back soon so you can get some practice on that beauty!

SEG

yeah your right you shoulnt have to bind them

Dean Bird

My Feedback: (39)

Every system used to run a surface has several parts that can allow the surface to move even though the servo isn't. A little slop in the hinge, a little slop in the ball links, a little twist of the servo arm, and a little slop in the drive train of the servo. NO servo has zero slop. The servo couldn't operate if it had zero play. It would be so bound up it couldn't move.

You add up all those little bits of slop and the surface moves even though the servo isn't. I've always been told to adjust the aileron servos in opposite directions until all the slop from all the parts in the system is removed. The "little whine" Eric mentions is where I know the slop in the two linkages has been removed and now the servos are working against each other. Back off slightly and all the little bits of play in the system are being dealt with by the servos. It's always been very effective for eliminating the play in the ailerons, regardless of brand. I did this with Futaba and Hitec in 2003, and JR since 2004.

I really think it is the right thing to do, but that's just what's worked for me.


Later,

Dean

(Click here to see the Flying Cirkus forum on how to be more competitive in scale aerobatics.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_426/tt.htm )

mvigod

You might want to check the torque on the 5955 for your particular application. We (RCU) just ran a giant scale servo shootout and the 5955 came in well under its rated spec of 330 oz/in with maximum real torque of 221 oz/in at 6V. That was 109 oz/in below its rated spec.

The JR servo came in above its 280 oz/in rating at 300 oz/in.

The full article with graphs and videos of the tests will be online hopefully this week or next. Essentially the JR exceeded spec and the Hitec fell well short of it. The JR has a higher max torque by about 80 oz/in over the 5955 based on the tests conducted.

The tests did show however that the Hitec and Futaba generated MORE torque at SMALLER error signals (less stick movement from current servo position) but at the larger error signals the JR had the highest torque.

So if you fly precision mostly without extreme and rapid stick movements the Futaba/Hitec would yield more torque based on these tests. IF you were doing 3D or extreme aerobatics which require high torque and extreme stick movements than the JR would likely be the better choice. The full results will give all the data so you can get a better idea of how these all performed and how they will respond in actual flying environments and applications. We hope you find the article useful when we publish it in the next week or so.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I did the test Marc is referring to. Unfortunately I included the figures for 4.8V under the 6V heading. The 5995 maxed out at 221 oz-in on 6V instead of 180. My error -sorry. Its still quite a bit under the 330 they claim.
Richard H. Kelly

mvigod

Ooops..we'll have that fixed in our article and I'll edit my post above in case somebody doesn't read down here.

Dean Bird

My Feedback: (39)

"5995" or "5955"?

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I am told they are the same servo. The 5995 is supplied for Robotics with a screw mount in the bottom. The 5955 is supplied the conventional mounts and several plastic arms.

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

Was a current meter hooked up for the experiment?

From what I've been told, the 5955s draw more current than the 8611A. This SHOULD equate to more power given an equal gear ratio (the Amp shouldn't be consuming much power). Also, the 8611A is supposed to have about the same motor as the Hitec (same company anyway).

The gear ratios should be roughly equal... the Hitec is listed as .19s on 4.8V and the JR is listed at .18s on 4.8V.

It seems odd to me that this should be discovered now... the servo has been out for a long time. There have been several independant tests of the 8611... why not the 5955?

I wonder if you got a bad servo?

QQTim

My Feedback: (16)

Well there are alot of different opinions.The reson I asked I have 8611A all arond in my Yak and all of them have slop after about 10 hours of flight?

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

Yes, a current meter was hooked up for the experiment.
The 5955 consumes more current than the 8611A. About 1/2 amp more at full load. I have no idea what its doing with it.
I tested three 5955's and one 5995, and three 8611A's.
Two of the 8611A's seized (the motor)after about 45 sec at full load.
The 59XX's were not bothered by sitting at full load. So if the motor is the same the 8611A puts a lot more current through the motor