Servo Current Drain!!!

[Guest]

Just been playing with my Bantam CheckMaster II

Used the servo tester to test a few servos

The Align 610, 620 & 650 servos are pulling silly current
1.3 /1.4A NO LOAD
1.5 / 1.6A CENTER LOADING
2.0 / 4.0A LOADING ROUND HORN
So full stick banging with four Align servos could pull up to 16A!

Comparing Futaba 9252 servos
0.1 /0.2A NO LOAD
0.2 / 0.3A CENTER LOADING
0.3 / 0.5A LOADING ROUND HORN

The Hi-tec HS5645MG Loaded the same as Futaba 9252
The Futaba 3152 were slightly less... Full load was 0.3A
The Futaba 3001... Full load was 0.2A(Stalled)

Of course these were NOT scientific / laboratory conducted tests

[waveydavey]

I actually done a very rough test on my setup, 3x9255's 1xS3001 and 1 9254. 720 gyro and at the time carbsmart and if I really banged the sticks I could register 18amps. Normal flying I registered it at around 6.

[DarkTherapy]

I have the same Bantam servo tester, i used it a couple of weeks ago on a dodgy servo, when it tested the servo at its full speed it seemed to work fine, but when i slowed it down it would stop at one point and not reach its full throw, like the sensor in the servo was failing. So i discovered that i need to test servo's in future moving in there full range, quick and slowly. If i didnt notice this i could have used the servo and it could have stopped working in the air!

[moyesboy]

I might try my wattsup meter on my 600 with 3 x 610 and one 5254 tonight. I've given it a lot of stick and even some crack and its been OK in the air.

[barney]

I wouldn't be overly concerned as average consumption is more appropriate in the real world. A 50 pulls around 350-400 milliamps during a flight for me. I'm sure you could hit micro hits up to 20 amps but the duration is tiny.

It does seem strange to be pulling 2 amp at idle though but i still get 4-5 flights from 610's and ds8915's on a 2200 Rx battery

[Guest]

On my 600LE which has standard 3x610 + 650 & a 3152
I can get 2 x 15min flights in warm weather which takes 1200/1400 from 2200mAh lipo
It will be just on the last green LED and would flicker down to the red with any movement

On my Knight which has 3x9252 + 9254 & 3152
I can get 3 x 15min flights in warm weather which takes 1200/1300 from 2200mAh lipo
The last green LED will hold for a 4th flight

On the tester the Align servos would pull constant 4A
When applying light to medium finger and thumb pressure on servo wheel
A hard pressure would induce spikes over 5A

Even hard pressure on the Futaba 9252 servos would only draw 0.5A
Yes the Align servos are strong and faster but the current draw seems rather high and erratic

[lex7919]

I have to say i tend to agree with the "rough findings" here the Align servos certainly pull some juice, when setting up my Ely Q Comp for the first time working the head and rods i could easily drain a 2200mah rx pack in an alarmingly short amount of time, and flying with the DTS layout id get 3 flights.
Swapping out to the push pull system has seen that go up to 5 flights untill im on the orange lights.

I think i will find alternative servos for my env

[ChrisB]

I am not at all surprised by these findings,i have read several posts on the Align 6 series servos pulling silly amps.

Having said that i assume seeing Align supply the combos with the 6A reg that its up to the job.

[rapidgaz]

Just done some static test on my 700 running of a bench power supply at 8.2 volts, this supply also tells you the amps you are pulling, my kit is as follow
3xds610s
1xds650
1x9253
750 gyro
align reg
speky 7600 rx
and at static rest i see about 0.3 amps being pulled constant with no movement
and cycling all servo's and trying to apply a little load i could not pull more that 4.5amps and then only for breif peaks.

[rapidgaz]

just done another test to check calibration of the bench power supply, for the amps being pulled, and found testing on my fluke meter it was bang on all but 0.01 amps, so all servos on and centered bla bla bla still only pulling 0.3 amps