servo life

[wiseman]

My aglin tail servo has failed today, its a DS420 on my GL 450,purchased in april had no crashes or heavy landings, been in the air about a dozen times. i contacted the supplier and asked them if they would consider a replacement ?. Do you think im being reasonable or is 5 monthes use about right for a align servo bare in mind its only had light use

[Planehazza]

12 flights is extremely little use. I would be far from happy with that!

[ghost2212]

+1 on that being appalling, On my 550 I have almost 300 flights with one crash on DS610's and a 620. I expect them to last a lot longer and it be the gears that need replacing if anything

[milly0812]

IMO the 420 is not man enough for a 450 size machine much better with a 520 ;-)

[cjcj1949]

You don't ask them. They are good for at least 12 months unless crashed. The retailer must repair it. It helps if you can tell them why it's failed. The only possibility is you've used it on the wrong voltage or you've used an analogue servo on a digital setting. Most people don't bother. You should. If you have a problem or they say they can't just tell us what they say. You don't need to argue with them, there are plenty of experienced qualified people who will.

[cjcj1949]

I needed Google to tell me what an aglin servo was. I use a DS520 on a 450 tail. It's still going after many years and many arrivals. A lot of our equipment does work, but often close to the bone. If you can fit something bigger it's usually worth while. Unless you are going for out and out performance.

[wiseman]

oooops, sorry about the typo, i,ve had this servo working fine since i put it on the heli, cjcj1949.im not quite understanding your reply, i have the gyro GY401 set on DS, which i believe is correct, the voltage i assume is right but have no idea how to check so you might have to explain....

[helijohn]

I'd have expected a longer life. It is not good enough.

[aparkin]

i have a old jr servo on my tail of my 450 over 2 years old replaced the gears once and still runs second to none p.s. loads of crashes

id complain see what they say send it them I'm sure they can tell if your truthfull are not and work out what needs to be done

erm backpeddle( not that im saying your not im sure you no what i mean

[cjcj1949]

oooops, sorry about the typo, i,ve had this servo working fine since i put it on the heli, cjcj1949.im not quite understanding your reply, i have the gyro GY401 set on DS, which i believe is correct, the voltage i assume is right but have no idea how to check so you might have to explain....

I'm not saying that you've done anything wrong. It's not a comment on the DS420 as it will work on 6V and it's a digital servo. It's that some servos will only work on 5V not 6V and some are analogue and will fail on a digital setting. My comment is really that there isn't anything I can think of that you could do to break the servo.

[wiseman]

not had a reply from the supplier yet (is ok to name them) even though their automated email said they will contact me within 24 hours, just phoned them and left a message.

[wiseman]

ok, thats a big thumbs down for RCbargains from me, wont be buying from them in the future, after sending two emails and receiving two automated replies back saying they will contact me within 24hrs and leaving two messages on thier answer machine they,ve not replied, i know its just a servo but the after sale service stinks.what a shower of,***t

[trillian]

I'm not saying that you've done anything wrong. It's not a comment on the DS420 as it will work on 6V and it's a digital servo. It's that some servos will only work on 5V not 6V and some are analogue and will fail on a digital setting. My comment is really that there isn't anything I can think of that you could do to break the servo.

The only thing would be binding at some point in the servo travel.

I have had some of the really cheap tower pro servos fail after a short bit of use (not even on the tail) and one other brand cheap servo DOA. But in general servos should last for years if treated properly.

[scallybert]

The only thing would be binding at some point in the servo travel.

Which is easy to have happen (aside from anything else, we've seen threads about 450 tails seizing under load); and is rather hard for the vendor or user to prove whether it's happened or not.

We might say that according to the law, the vendor has to demonstrate misuse within the 1st 6 months (ie demonstrate the product wasn't faulty); but it seems a bit of a tall order on a ~£20 bit of RC gear. I don't think they could stay in business at the prices we'd pay.

[align_sucks]

I've always had good service from them. OK the phone always goes to the machine, but they always call me back or answer my emails.
I've had servos die on me for no apparent reason as well, but I figured there wasn't much I could do about it since it wasn't faulty when I bought it. I think scallybert is correct, they won't be making much on a £20 servo so they'd be out £20 with no option to send it back to the suppliers because of the 5 month time frame,
I also think it'd be quite hard for either the seller or the buyer to prove it was faulty, when so much can go wrong with them either from a manufacturing point of view or from the user doing something wrong. I had a stylus for my 3ds that broke so I bought a new one for 99p off ebay. That too broke within 6 months ( the end kept falling off ) should I have told the seller it was faulty and asked for a free replacement?