Servo question

[planeboy95]

Saw some decently priced Align DS510's and was wondering if these would work alright in a FBL Atom for sport flying and mild 3d. Any thoughts??

[213dennisp]

The ds510 would be ok for sports flying. I don't think using them for 3d would be a good idea. They lack the precision feel of better quality servos for 3D imo. I would highly suggest that if you are going to go with the ds510 at least spending some more money on a good tail servo at a minimum.

[planeboy95]

Faster tail servo for sure, I meant strictly for cyclic

[quinn]

I run the ds 515's. I smack it around pretty good and they take it fine, but a little lacking in precision.

[Eric T]

I have them on my Atom, it came with DS510's. I would not get them if I were shopping for servos. They are rebaged Savox. Not very smooth, and power hungry. I have had excellent experience with Futaba servos, although the 9650's do not have metal gears there is a set available that fits.

[skunkworx]

The MKS 9660As I believe are 100% the same as a Futaba 9650, except it has metal gears pre-installed. They won't be as precise as the nylon geared 9560s, but close enough and fairly durable.

I would kind of edge more towards getting a more modern servo all the way around, but for regular sport flying and easy 3D stuff then the servos really don't matter. Hyperion made some really good budget servos a couple years back that I really liked, but the field has changed so much that it's hard to say what would be a good suggrestion.

I just got a couple sets of OMG servos for my 250 and 450s and they're every bit as top-quality as can be found and their prices seem really good, so maybe do some research on the M2s? I think if I were to take my Z3650s out of my Atom then the OMGs are what would replace them.

[JWeber]

If you're looking for more budget servos, then check out the RJX or KST brands. Good specs for a good price. Not as good as getting some of the more name brands, but for your needs, should be perfectly adequate.

I had some Align DS510's on a Protos that I sold last year and if you do get them, make sure to get the metal gears. They would strip if you looked at them cross eyed. Besides that, they worked just fine for what I was capable of flying then which was more sport than 3D.

[SamCassidy]

Man, a lot of hate on the ds510's here. This is my experience. I stated out on a t-rex 500, smashed it to pieces many times with the ds510's on it, ended up upgrading them all the metal gears at some point. That was 3.5 years ago. They have been through two atoms, been crashed 25+ times, been through one rekit. I have changed the gears MAYBE 4 times, if that.
I still fly them today on my atom. My buddy was a team pilot and I used to let him put some serious beatings on my atom just to "make sure its okay". He never had a problem with the ds510's, actually likes them. I probably don't do enough to really notice though. But they sure as hell have lasted and held up well. Knock on wood.

[skunkworx]

I don't think hate is a good way to describe it, but everyone has different experiences. I've found that Align gears are mostly durable in the mini to full size range but they start to develop slop quickly depending on the stresses and pressures they are subjected to (Align 610, 510, 650, 520, 410M, 430M, etc...). The micro servos have been pretty much throw-aways when you put metal gears in them. Mainly because of the cost of the gears, but it also destroys the potentiometers and they start to lose their centering ability (usually less than 70 flights in my case).

As to the KST, I agree that mostly they are good servos. I burnt a couple of them out pretty fast and they are really power hungry, but beyond that and for the price their performance is hard to beat for what they are.