VIDEO - Are my servos borked?

[woodsta888]

Borked Align 615 servos - YouTube

The link to my youtube vid for my servos. These have been drawing alot of current and could be the cause of my sat brown outs through my FBL unit (BD3SX).

I run these direct from a LiFe and thought this may have gone bad. Got a new one today and a servo tester and they all judder violently and draw alot of power when doing it. Especially when connected and fighting against eachother through the swash. These have had 90 flights so about 14-15 hrs and still look new.

Are my servos knackered? Bit surprised all of them have gone. Even the tail servo shows the same signs. Only 3-4 months old.

What servos do you recommend that I can run from LiFe for an 800? I need them to be relaible but I'm no 3D pilot so don't need top of the range super fast super powerful.

Can I run HV servos from LiFe?

Thanks in advance

[Bavers777]

Hi Mate, I think there are very mixed opinions running the 615 servos directly from a 2s battery as they are only rated at 6v. Some people have had no problem and some have had issues. I think the general consensus is that the align 610 (previous versions are fine on a 2s setup) but the newer ones not so much.....

[Ice-Man]

hmmmm strange that they all are showing the same you could understand one but not all 3 pos 4 might be worth taking all servos of the heli and trying all, it could be one servo thats gone faulty when all drawing power do they get hot or norm

[woodsta888]

Only running 6.6V not not much over the 6v spec. Or is that enough to ruin them?

[1chris]

I run all my align servo's direct on LiFe batteries, 3 helicopters, between them they have had over a 1000 flights, never had a problem

[woodsta888]

hmmmm strange that they all are showing the same you could understand one but not all 3 pos 4 might be worth taking all servos of the heli and trying all, it could be one servo thats gone faulty when all drawing power do they get hot or norm

I have run these servos seperately through the servo tester and on the heli through the BD3sx and they all will judder on their own when tested singulary.

They do this through the BD3sx on another Life battery in this vid Crunchy servos - YouTube ON the heli. The voltmeter shows how much power they were drawing. When they were new or upto flight 45 that voltmeter wouldnt move until the 4th flight and then only flicker into the 2nd light. In this vid hard elevator where all three servos are working the light flickers into the lowest red. I've suffered shutdowns in flight, only momentarily and I think the sats brown out as the FBL loses power and sats through a BD3SX need a min of 5.5v otherwise they brownout.

When they were new or upto flight 45 that voltmeter wouldnt move until the 4th flight even with full throws and then only flicker into the 2nd light.

I may discharge a LiFe to 6v exactly and see if they are better.

[Guest]

This isn't uncommon with this unit on the bench. Others have had the same and been told in flight it doesn't happen.

MJ

[woodsta888]

When I built the heli and installed the FBL I could see eveything was smooth and without the judder. I've only looked into this due to the shutdowns which are momentary and stink of brown out (quite literally when it happens). When these servos judder together they obviously fight against eachother across the swash drawing lots of power. I think this is causing the brown out, especially with pilot input and correction (FBL doing its thing) via the FBL at the same time.

Thankyou for all your thoughts and comments. To me, there is no other option than to get new servos. So what do you recommend. Reliability being the key, then price.

Been looking at these as I can run the LiFe packs still. What would you get?

[NiceBlades]

Depends on your budget I guess, I've seen the mini Bk servos work very well and are so fast compared to Aligns even at 6v. I would be inclined to get the full size set but at £79.99 for the cyclics and £74.95 for the tail their a bit more than the Aligns. The Rjx servos are also getting good press even on here they are about £10 ish pounds cheaper than the BK's per servo. These are the 2 which I'm considering for my 570 when funds allow, which is also running the 615's at the moment.

[woodsta888]

Budget is fine though I feel I bit peeved on my align purchase as I thought with todays technology (I was in helis 10 yrs ago) that servos would last.


Maj - you change your helis more often than your under kecks, you use the same servos in all of them (same decent set) or just hoard servos?

[woodsta888]

Update

After thinking about the fact that all servos display exactly the same behaviour I discharged my LiFe down to 6.0v and they run fine - smooth no jitter. Tail servo still seems to get stuck with the servo tester.

SO would you say the servos are ruined coz I ran them at 6.6v or would you intsall a voltage regulator between the LiFe and the FBL? (is that where I install it?) Which voltage regulator will I need with regard to amperage and which manufacturer is reliable.

Thanks in advance

[Martind]

Hi Steve you can use one of these Gryphon QUASAR Hyper 75V 20A HV Switching BEC GSR-7075 LMT
Either on the neg side of your flight packs so 22v or a small 3s lipo.
Or a castle bec prohttp://www.fast-lad.co.uk/store/product_info.php?cPath=27_245&products_id=8345

[woodsta888]

Hi Martin,

I'd rather keep the power to the electronics from the now 2 x LiFe packs I have. Cheers anyway