Hitec servos

[rocketman]

I am getting back into helis after some thirty years, so it's like being new to helis. Anyhow, I putting together a Raptor 60 and was wondering if anyone had used the HS 6635 servo, It is a good priced servo and has fair torque and speed. 69 oz. and .18 sec. I was going to use them on my cyclic and collective. I can't see myself doing any 3D anytime soon, so I thought they would be fine for a beginner. ??

[tdswan]

69 ounches of torques should be more than ample even for a 60 size machine. I'm not a big fan of Hitec, I'm partial to Futabas for servos. I'm running futS3050's on my cyclic/collective (raptor 50). They have a whopping 80-something ounces of torque(@4.8v, 90 @ 6.0v), metal gear and are relatively fast as well. You can usually find them for under $50 at Heli Proz. I'm not a 3-D gru either. I'm more of an aggressive sport pilot who doesn't want to change out servos once I get into the 3-D realms.

The specs on that servo are more than a guy will need, though. They should suit you well.
Welcome back to the hobby!

[rocketman]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check out Heli Proz. They're the people I bought my Raptor from. All my other radio gear is futaba. I've had some hitec servos in aircraft and they have worked well but I'm not sure about helis. I like the metel gear idea, so if I can get futaba servos for close to the same price as hitec I would just as soon use futaba. Comparable hitec with metal gears is about $50 at Servo City.
Thanks again

[tdswan]

No problem.

Another servo a lot of people use at my field is the futS9202's. I don't know the specs on them, butI do know they have nylon gears. It's just one guy's opinion, I'm sure there will probably be others who have a different "favorite" servo.

[Motions]

tdswan and I run about the same setup. I also use the S3050's and I really like them. They have great torque and good speed. For the price, it's the best you can get in my opinion.

[Fasrc]

I ran the non digital HS635 on my Raptor 50 until I sold the heli. The guy I sold it to still flys them in his. They worked great and I never had an issue with them. The gears are carbonite which will not produce play like metal and plastic gears. I wouldn't recommend them for collective though. I used HS5925 for collective. I do some heavy 3D stuff and never had an issue. Hitec service is awsome too if you have any issues. I am the type of person that does not favor any brand just because of the name. I favor them more towards customer support. If I get good service then I tend to buy more of their products. Not to say the the othet 3 major servo brands do not have good support. :D

[freak45]

i get them discounted from hobby pp cuz i work there :D :p

[ErichF]

I have been running Hitecs in both helis and 35% Scale Aerobatics birds for awhile now with good results. Currently, I use the HS5975s in one of my contest X-Specs, and they are doing great. The Karbonite gears are holding up very well and have developed no freeplay. I also have a Hitec Servo Programmer, mostly for use in planks where ganged servos are common on the big birds. It comes in handy with a CCPM bird, however. You can match each servo precisely, eliminating most of the interaction before you even install the servos in the frame. In the case of the Raptor and other mCCPM birds, this isn't as much an issue, but it does come in handy for initial setup and troubleshooting.

Just a note, metal gear servos in helis are not considered by many to be ideal. They will develop freeplay and backlash, resulting in sloppy control and require replacement. Metal gear trains are very expensive to replace. Also, in the event of a crash, you want the energy to go somewhere besides the swashplate, bellcranks, and links....if the gears strip out, it will inherently cause less damage elsewhere. Nylon gears are cheap, $5-10 a set.

One popular Hitec servo series not recommended for helis is the older 600 series analogs. Their feedback pots and gear trains could not take the pulse loads and vibration from heli operations and failed often. Hitec even came out with a product note discouraging their use in helis.

Overall, Hitecs are not bad at all for use in helis, provided you select according to loads. On that note, you may desire more than 70oz of torque for the collective servo. Choose something in the 90-120 oz range, that still has less than .21 speed. You'll appreciate it in the long run.

Cheers,

Erich

[midi0101]

Just to give my $.02 to the subject....

I fly hitech 5645's all around (except TR), and I am quite happy with those( well priced, good on torque and speed if you are running on 6v). the only drawback is that they have metal gears (see the post before mine).

Cheers,
Michael