Servo life span?

[Dumb Thumbs]

So is a servo something you guys just fly till it dies, or replace them after "X" number of flights. To be more specific I'm wondering how long the HiTec 65 HB's (upgraded to MG now) might be expected to last before I should start to worry about the motors quitting on me, possibly causing a crash.

[hpilotrc]

It depends on the environment it is used in...and how well your helicopter or model is "tuned".

I would think they should be much more reliable in an electric machine then a nitro due to the fact that the nitro probably has a lot more high frequency vibration from the engine. The electrics motors are balanced and don't have this if everything is set up correctly.

I once had a 60 size Fury with a Futaba S9254 on the tail and at one point in time I was lucky to get two flights before the brand new servo went. Sure there was a vibration problem somewhere but I ended up selling it becuase the cause was too hard to locate.

Currently I have a TRex 450 that is at least 6 years old and all but one (the tail) of the Hitec HS-56HB's are still on it and working fine.

Of course other problems with the heli can cause the machine to vibrate also.

Michael

[RocketSled]

It also depends on how much work you ask the servo to do. The gear train and motor's brushes will wear faster as function of how much load you make them move and how often and how quickly you ask them to move it. There's also a feedback Potentiometer that's subject to wear as a function of how much and how often the servo is asked to move.

There is no one answer, since results are depending on a lot of variables. But without a doubt some servos wear out faster than others. I don't know of any good "database" of reliability data, but a troll through forums like this one will reveal that some absolutely seem to be worse than others. For example, the servos e-Flite uses in the B400 seem to have a bad rep.