Hitec HS65 Reliable?

[acwman]

Had two of the Align 410m Servos fail on me very early on in their life, so generally stuck with the Hitec HS65 Range of servos since flying 450 helis.

Well, I seemed to have good luck with them, until I went flybarless.

This past week, all three of my Hitec 5065 cyclic servos in my 450 sport have gone one by one! No sooner as I bought a replacement for the elevator servo which went first, and as soon as I fitted the new one in, the Aileron servo went! Went out and bought a new aileron servo.. replaced it, and then first flight in... the Pitch servo goes!

I also had this problem when I went fbl on the beam with mini v and using the standard hs65mg servos, where the elevator servo seemed to go fairly often.

Some of the servos power up, but stop when it is being flown..

Are there better servos around the same price which maybe better?

Seemed to have built up a collection of faulty Hitecs which I have kept for gears and spares.. but I never thought I would build up this much of a collection!

[jamiem]

I had all 3 of mine wear out the output shaft gear teeth last week. Elevator failed first then 3 flights later the other 2 were screwed. Should hopefully have 2 gearsets tomorrow so I can get it back in the air.

[jiberjaber]

5065 got to one of the worst servos Hitec have made, I have been through loads - easily 8 or so. I have them in a glider and if I get the slightest bind they burn themselves out.

In the 450pro and the beam they have been OK, but not as robust as a normal 65MG. I dont think the gears in the 5065's from new are as good as the replacements and when ever I have replaced the gears its been a lottery of if the servo will burn itself out when I power it up - and its not as though I dont know how to fit a gear set!

I wont be replacing mine with 5065's in the future, Im going back to 65MG's!

[p4ddy]

Original HS65hb's absolutely brilliant

[acwman]

5065 got to one of the worst servos Hitec have made, I have been through loads - easily 8 or so. I have them in a glider and if I get the slightest bind they burn themselves out.

Unfortunately I have to stick with digital, as the 3g Unit requires digital servos.. otherwise I would have stuck with the HS65mg.

Have had one burn out on me so far.... others have just died

[tourerjim]

Blimey!!! In resent weeks I've brought 6 of them 3 on my MT 3 on my pro all seem fine at the moment, got me abit concerned now as both heli's have got the beastx" is there any signs of them going wrong when in flight or is it the inedible!!!

[acwman]

The servos have failed in different ways.

One has burnt out on me mid flight.. The case has melted at the base. Another just failed to work when I plugged the lipo in. Another has just failed mid flight.. when I inspected the servo afterwards, it just seemed as though the servo was not powered up as you could move the servo arm up and down...completely dead...

TBH.. If I could, I would probably go back to the HS65MG servos, but as the 3g only supports digital, it looks like I am stuck with using them.

[cupracing]

ive been running the 5065 on the pro for over a year with one crash, never replaced any gears and have been as good as gold (touch wood)

[Dedcalm]

This has to be related to the FBL working the servos hard in comparison to a FB heli. My 5065's have not missed a beat in the 7 months I have had them in my FB 450Pro. Very pleased with them in fact as I am driving them from a Futaba receiver in HS mode.

[jiberjaber]

Nope - not related to flybarless Rob, I have had issues in my gliders and heli's. If they stall they burn themselves out very quickly, thats the main issue for me.

So if there is some issue in replacing servo gears which stalls it, then it pops the magic smoke.

If the control surface on a glider gets stuck on its wiper (can happen if the wiper has been damaged) then it is stalled and releases the magic smoke.

I have never had one fail in flight. But I have had to replace the gears when it has crashed, something I never had to do with the normal 65MGs.

The glider runs 6 of these servos, the heli's obviously run 3 each. I currently have the 450Pro still in bits as it needs 2 new servos, which have doubled the crash cost so I havent bothered to fix it...

They are great when they work, just dont stall them!

Just my observations of course

[pgkevet]

How about some of these? Never used them but the feedback looks good and the price certainly is...
https://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/...idProduct=6607

[jiberjaber]

One thing I will say for the 5065, their quiescent current is very low, in a glider with six of them the battery lasts longer than another glider with 2 Emax similar servos (which I think are about 120mA). So you might want to review the current draw of the Turnigy ones, if they are really 180mA, then these are more than the Emax ones!

[acwman]

This has to be related to the FBL working the servos hard in comparison to a FB heli. My 5065's have not missed a beat in the 7 months I have had them in my FB 450Pro. Very pleased with them in fact as I am driving them from a Futaba receiver in HS mode.

Have to think that going FBL, may tend to work the servos harder than a fly barred heli? Just wondering if these sized servos are really up to the job of working on a 450 flybarless sized heli reliably and for how long?

I have now got 3 new 5065 servos on the cyclics, and have to say, it is almost a night and day comparison compared with the old servos when they were working. Controls feel alot more accurate, and also it does seem to hold/sit better in the wind. Whether the old servos were wearing or on there way out, I think they probably were.

Will see how long these servos last me.

[jiberjaber]

So I decided to splash out on a new set of 3 5065's for the 450pro.... I also picked up a HPP21+ programmer and have set the overload protection on them. Time will tell, but I have set the overload on all of the 5065's I own now.

I managed to get the programmer for 16.99 from inwoods... might be of use to some

Inwood Models : HPP 21 PLUS PC & FIELD PROGRAMMER FOR HI TEC DIGITAL SERVOS (US [RAS6USBSP] - £16.99

[cjcj1949]

Vibration is bad for servos. Cheap cure.

I've had problems with servos since going to helis. There is a lot of vibration and servos are mounted direct on the frame. I had one HS65HB go suddenly and when I examined it I found it hadn't been made properly. I sent it back to the supplier and had it replaced but hitec were not interested in doing anything about the fault. The problem was lack of support for the wires from the pot where they go into the board. There's alway a point where the flexible copper ends and the solder begins. If there is a blob of silicone supporting the wire then there is no problem. The best thing to do is to check each servo and add a blob where needed. It's very quick and cheap and sensible when so much money and safety is involved. And no, I haven't done it yet.

Chris