Carbon servo arm plates and MKS servo arms?

[6cuda6]

Did anyone go through the task of leveling the MKS servo arms in order to add the carbon arm plates provided in the kit?

Or is the general opinion that they are not required with the MKS servo arms?

[Jeff_Barrett]

Originally Posted by 6cuda6

Did anyone go through the task of leveling the MKS servo arms in order to add the carbon arm plates provided in the kit?

Or is the general opinion that they are not required with the MKS servo arms?

Yes ... I did. I snipped off what I could with side cutters and filed it flat.

I preferred to use them for proper geometry.

[6cuda6]

OK...thanks

[cbmd]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Barrett

I preferred to use them for proper geometry.

Geometry wise, it only makes a difference at the elevator servo. The balls on the aileron and pitch servo arms are mounted facing to back, i.e. the opposite side of the stiffener CF plate.

I did not use them on my DS95s. However, that promptly lead to the alignment problem with the swash guide on the elevator described for step 59 in the manual. I then mounted the CF spacer as described in step 29, resulting in perfect alignment of the swash guide. While according to the manual those spaces are not needed with MKS DS92A+/95 they are needed when the stiffener is not used. That 1mm thickness must come from somewhere …

[Chris Nifty]

Bracing myself to be shot down here, but I wasn't happy with the elevator servo arrangement
because of binding at extremes of travel, so I moved the servo outwards and have only 2 of the 1mm carbon shims between the servo and the left frame. The ball is now mounted on the outside of the arm instead of the inside. Alignment is good. I could improve further on this next time by using just one shim between the servo and the frame, and using a flat servo arm + carbon stiffener.

[Jeff_Barrett]

Not sure why you'd get shot down for adjusting the position of your ball link for best performance for your gear?

[Rob43]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Barrett

Yes ... I did. I snipped off what I could with side cutters and filed it flat.

I preferred to use them for proper geometry.

I didn't exactly understand what you did, Jeff. When I examined the fitment of the carbon arms to the opposing side of the MKS horns for aileron and pitch servos, it appeared to me that using washers to shim the plate to the arm out where the ball is attached would compensate for the shape of the MKS horn. What did you snip off and file flat?

[Jeff_Barrett]

Originally Posted by Rob43

I didn't exactly understand what you did, Jeff. When I examined the fitment of the carbon arms to the opposing side of the MKS horns for aileron and pitch servos, it appeared to me that using washers to shim the plate to the arm out where the ball is attached would compensate for the shape of the MKS horn. What did you snip off and file flat?

I'll take a photo tonight for you.

[ScotY]

If you want to use the carbon reinforcements, you could get some of the old style MKS arms that are totally flat on the top surface.

[6cuda6]

I'm liking Rob's idea of shiming the gap....then again i'm quite capable of removing the extra material....we'll see how lazy i feel in the morning......lol.....

[frito169]

I personally don't recommend those plates because in the instance of a crash there's more chance you will wreck your gears on your servos. Now if you're using those $50 plus MKS servos I would think you'd be concerned with that.

[itsmillertime0]

I used them, had a crash and broke all 3 servos. I planned on filing a deep groove in the plastic arm and scoring the carbon arm hoping that the arm will break first if I have another crash. But the carbon stiffeners are $7 and MKS output shafts are $10. So I might make my own out of 1mm carbon instead.

[Rob43]

That was my concern. I don't plan to being very careful flying this model. I plan to explore beyond my capabilities to find that of the model.

[itsmillertime0]

I pretty much cut my plastic servo horns in half after gluing the carbon stiffeners to them. I only need them for the splined portion and will be relying and experimenting with the carbon stiffener to find that happy medium where they'll snap in a crash saving the servo gears but not break/ flex in flight.

[kachur779]

I thought about using them ,then figured its a 450 ,it's going to crash ,and when it does those plates will destroy your servos

[Stevemech]

Mks makes metal servo arms, I'm going to use one on my elevator servo so it stays aligned better.

[weelee]

I couldn't use the carbon arms even if i wanted to. The ball link screws in the kit weren't long enough to fit through. They were only 6mm long.