My tail servo called it quits-Upgrade time

[Troy003]

About 50+ flights in and my tail servo said goodbye to me. I think I was very lucky in the sense that I had just did a rebuild resulting from a failed cylic servo and had just put on a new fusano canopy with CF blades After my second pack of the day towards the end of my flight I got a blowout on a collective pump followed by very bad wags. I decided to land to see what was going on. Thankfully I did. After taking a closer look and replugging the battery in, my tail servo was non responsive and was humming. After a few more times letting the beastx initialize, my servo was dead....I thank the heli gods I landed when I did. It was like those last couple tail wags was my heli saying get me down, save me

That being said...I don't think I will purchasing another stock servo. I know if I called HH they would most likely have one out in a few day free of charge, but I dont think I will be taking my chances anymore with all the issues people are having with them. What do you guys recommend as a good alternative. I am willing to spend a little bit more for a more reliable tail servo. I have seen some putting the align, hyperion, and spektrums tail servos on as an alternative. What your advise guys? Thanks!!!!

[petedee]

There has been a couple of good threads in this forum about replacement servos.

[kachur779]

you should get the free servo from HH ,never know you might need it down the road

[petedee]

My thought is that it just not worth the time and effort to get it replaced and then not use it, for little money you can replace it with a much better servo that is not likely to fail in flight like the original, same goes for the collective servos as well.

And the free servo thing does not work in the rest of the world either so just best to replace with a decent servo.

[t_austin]

I replaced my tail servo with the Align DS425M tail servo and it works great. The heli feels soild! Now I need to get a better motor.

[gwong]

My stock tail servo died after less than 15 flights, lucky for me it died on the ground.

Sent in a warranty claim to Horizon.....so frustrating.....spent my hard earned money of blade stuff and it breaks but this is not the first time with E-Flite / Blade products.

Here is a list of items that died on me.

1. E-Flite CP Pro, esc died.
2. MCPX Main Board / Aileron Servo died.
3. Blade 130X tail case gears slipped from the torque tube causing a crash which broke the aileron servo and canopy.
4. Blade 300x tail servo died.

Having said that Horizon did replace everything but just so frustrating !!!

Gord.



Gord.

[65L88]

In my opinion it isn't worth the trouble even thinking about replacing it with a stock servo. Mine died in the middle of a flip and cost a new set of gaui blades, tail boom, tail box, tail blade grips, tail rotor shaft, main shaft, feathering shaft, main gear, and stripped two cyclic servos. Seriously, I wouldn't want that to happen to any of you guys.... In fact, I heartily recommend deep sixing the stock servo before it quits in favor of something more reliable.......

[JustPlaneChris]

Just a question for my own curiosity:

Did you guys who've had tail servos fail go through the BeastX setup and verify that the tail slider limits were set properly (eg: no binding)?

[stevebaker]

I did. No binding on mine and it quit after about 30 or so flights.

My Hyperion is still going strong.

Blade should have upgraded the servo by now on the later batches - they are really slow at fixing problems. Take the 130X as a prime example. Shame on them...

[GJacksonF3N]

Which tail servos would be a direct replacement? Will they all need Beastx adjustments?

[65L88]

Originally Posted by JustPlaneChris

Just a question for my own curiosity:

Did you guys who've had tail servos fail go through the BeastX setup and verify that the tail slider limits were set properly (eg: no binding)?

Yep. And double checked. If you don't, there's a chance of overcentering the pitch slider links at the slider's max travel and locking the whole tail assembly up at extreme negative (clockwise thrust) pitch, which will burn the tail servo up in short order, not to mention putting the heli into an unrecoverable piro if it happens to be in the air at the time. I learned this the hard way, by cooking a ds11-gcb servo by inadvertently pushing the slider against the tail box manually, then powering the heli up. By the time I realized what was going on and powered the heli down, it was too late.

BTW, I was aware of this issue when I still had the stock servo on my 300X, I just didn't manage to enlighten myself until I had a chance to torch a good $33 servo as opposed to a crappy (IMO) $17 one.

[Drev]

Replaced the tail servo with the Align DS425M when I first heard of the stock servo problems.
After a light crash the ail. servo stripped the gears so I replaced all 3 with Align DS415 M's.
Did go thru the Bx setup before it flew just to make sure.
Flies great.

[TomC]

Originally Posted by JustPlaneChris

Just a question for my own curiosity:

Did you guys who've had tail servos fail go through the BeastX setup and verify that the tail slider limits were set properly (eg: no binding)?

+1 to that!

Failure to check/adjust servo endpoints together with ensuring all links are smooth/free, and running your tail gain too high (just enough to hold tail solid) are the biggest stock tail servo killers imho.

I sitll use a stock ds75t on my 300x and one of my 450x's and it works perfectly. Had a few crashes and have never managed to strip my tail servo gears (cyclics, yes though, lol!).

Anytime you do some repairs (and/or change servos) you need to go though the bx setup again btw.

I do have an Align DS425m (mainly because I wanted to run 6v on this heli) on one of my 450x's and 3x ds425m on cyclics. These work great but really do not perform significantly better than stock imho. More robust because they have metal gears and have not managed to strip any yet.

Xmas Cheers,
TomC

[gwong]

My stock tail servo died after less than 15 flights, lucky for me it died on the ground.

Sent in a warranty claim to Horizon.....so frustrating.....spent my hard earned money of blade stuff and it breaks but this is not the first time with E-Flite / Blade products.

Here is a list of items that died on me.

1. E-Flite CP Pro, esc died.
2. MCPX Main Board / Aileron Servo died.
3. Blade 130X tail case gears slipped from the torque tube causing a crash which broke the aileron servo and canopy.
4. Blade 300x tail servo died.

Having said that Horizon did replace everything but just so frustrating !!!

Just had a closer look at the tail case and the plastic is warped from the heat of the motor. Cracked open the case and the motor smells burnt.

I am no 3D pilot and was doing lazy figure eights, landed, waited a few minutes put another freshly charged pack and that's when the tail servo quit.

All settings were according to the factory on my DX8 and there was no binding.

Probably won't use another stock tail servo as I won't trust it.

Horizon needs to have better QA

[mixfisto]

Tom, this is slightly off topic...but I wanted to let you know that I've flown a few times now with the YEP 45a and the stock tail with no problem...no need for a voltage stepper

While I'm talking about the YEP45... I got it working (with the Wicked motor), but I'm not understanding how to get the YEP to understand the top speed for the governor. I set the low and high throttle, but I've been told I have to also start up the heli and let it find the top speed and tail will kick for a second, then the governor will know where to set itself. I tried doing this with the program card hooked up (esc to card to Bx), but wouldn't spool up. I then spooled up with the Bx hooked up normally, but not sure it the YEP "learned" the top speed.

I set the TC to 95% flat today and worked pretty good...I tried 80% earlier, but it was pretty weak (weaker/slower than stock).

Any helpful thoughts?

[TomC]

Originally Posted by mixfisto

Tom, this is slightly off topic...but I wanted to let you know that I've flown a few times now with the YEP 45a and the stock tail with no problem...no need for a voltage stepper

While I'm talking about the YEP45... I got it working (with the Wicked motor), but I'm not understanding how to get the YEP to understand the top speed for the governor. I set the low and high throttle, but I've been told I have to also start up the heli and let it find the top speed and tail will kick for a second, then the governor will know where to set itself. I tried doing this with the program card hooked up (esc to card to Bx), but wouldn't spool up. I then spooled up with the Bx hooked up normally, but not sure it the YEP "learned" the top speed.

I set the TC to 95% flat today and worked pretty good...I tried 80% earlier, but it was pretty weak (weaker/slower than stock).

Any helpful thoughts?

To properly 'store' the full speed setting; select the store gov function last, before you unhook the prog card. Take the blades (main and tail) and using a 100-100-100 throttle curve start up the heli with your throttle at 100%. Let it find it's max speed,a fterwards it will slow/stutter a bit. Shutdown the heli, the max speed has been stored.

Now select a flat gov curve. Try to be between 75-85% since this seems best and gives lots of headroom, First time you run it up you might see a bit of a tail kick when the gov finds/stablises the hs.

Cheers,
TomC

[mixfisto]

Originally Posted by TomC

To properly 'store' the full speed setting; select the store gov function last, before you unhook the prog card. Take the blades (main and tail) and using a 100-100-100 throttle curve start up the heli with your throttle at 100%. Let it find it's max speed,a fterwards it will slow/stutter a bit. Shutdown the heli, the max speed has been stored.

Now select a flat gov curve. Try to be between 75-85% since this seems best and gives lots of headroom, First time you run it up you might see a bit of a tail kick when the gov finds/stablises the hs.

Cheers,
TomC

Thanks Tom, appreciate it!

One more ? - Once the the esc finds the max speed, when you say 'shut down' the heli, do you mean put on TH and unplug the battery (as usual)?

[TomC]

Originally Posted by mixfisto

Thanks Tom, appreciate it!

One more ? - Once the the esc finds the max speed, when you say 'shut down' the heli, do you mean put on TH and unplug the battery (as usual)?

Yup!

Cheers,
TomC

[CamDLux]

+1 I followed these steps and it worked for me. I noticed the "tail kick" that people mention was more like a "car gear shift at redline". There is a video from Mr. Mel in the YGE section that is excellent.

Originally Posted by TomC

To properly 'store' the full speed setting; select the store gov function last, before you unhook the prog card. Take the blades (main and tail) and using a 100-100-100 throttle curve start up the heli with your throttle at 100%. Let it find it's max speed,a fterwards it will slow/stutter a bit. Shutdown the heli, the max speed has been stored.

Now select a flat gov curve. Try to be between 75-85% since this seems best and gives lots of headroom, First time you run it up you might see a bit of a tail kick when the gov finds/stablises the hs.

Cheers,
TomC