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Servo Recomendations

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I know virtually nothing about servos.  It looks like if I want to use my buggies I will need to update my radios,  and with that the servos also

What would you recommend for a good budget steering servo for a Hornet and a Frog?

These will be driven by my kids (4-7 years old).  I am not going to spend big $$ for top of the line,  but I don't want bottom of the barrel junk either.  I am thinking lower-middle-road,  if you know what I mean. 

Also help educate me here.  By that I mean don't just tell me what to get,  tell me WHY to get it.    Thanks guys!

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I suggest a Futaba as well. A Futaba S3003 is fine for a budget from my experience, just stay away from the numerous fakes.

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I think this too...good price, not junk, fast enough, strong enough for a buggy and if it breaks it's cheap enough not to care.

You spend more you get metal gears, digital, faster speeds, more torque, stronger construction, waterproof.  But it's a Hornet and Frog, not a sooper sweet drift car or a monster truck.

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I've got quite a few futaba in my rc's. Got one in each of my hornets and one thats been in a clod for over 25 years. They aren't metal geared, hi torque or waterproof but they've been fantastic. I'm most impressed with the clod one turning those 4 huge wheels. I'd definitely go with the durrent futaba line up if I bought some more.

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Thanks guys!  I have been thinking about this at work today and realized the ones that are in these buggies are the original ones put in about 25 years ago.  They went through many years of hard use and were fine.  They are just plastic geared analog standard servos.

I was looking at the Futaba 3003 as suggested.  I think they are $12 a piece.  That's not bad IMO.

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Just checked the one I've got in my clod. It's the futaba FP-S148. I can't believe its still available to buy! That's the one installed in my clod Christmas 1990! :o

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXH318

Here's the futaba S3003. Just read the description for this. It mentions it's the replacement for the S148 that I've got. It also produces more torque than mine and is cheaper. It's win, win. I might have to get one too.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?I=LXH288&P=8

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Assuming they still work, why not just keep them then? All you need to plug them into a modern receiver is an adapter like this:

100450_150_th.JPG

(Female Futaba G to male Futaba J adapter)

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34 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

Assuming they still work, why not just keep them then? All you need to plug them into a modern receiver is an adapter like this:

100450_150_th.JPG

(Female Futaba G to male Futaba J adapter)

Did not know there was such a thing!  Thanks for pointing that out.  Are these readily available most places?

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Ha!  I just found that site.  They are actually harder to find than I thought they would be.  Or my interweb skills are diminishing.  :huh:

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Assuming you are capable of using a soldering iron, perhaps a neater solution would be to get some of these:

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/etronix-22awg-futaba-twisted-servo-wire-15cm/rc-car-products/39306

 

Then you could simply unsolder the old leads from your servos and replace them with new ones.

 

If you feel uncomfortable soldering directly to the servo PCB, you could cut the old plugs off and solder to the remaining wire. Perhaps not quite as neat as replacing the whole lead, but if you pop some heat shrink tubing over the joins, it won't look bad either.

 

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Went to my LHS yesterday.  Figured they would have some 3003 or 3004 servos in stock.  Nope!  They did have a nice Arrma servo they wanted to sell me... for $35!  No thanks...

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wow, 35 bucks is pretty overkill for your buggies.

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On 19/01/2017 at 11:53 AM, GregM said:

I suggest a Futaba as well. A Futaba S3003 is fine for a budget from my experience, just stay away from the numerous fakes.

Awesome - this verifies my two Futaba S3003's are fakes by the white output shafts instead of black and the open mount holes not enclosed! Atleastcitvrxplsins ehy they performed rubbish on the bench and will remain in my spares box till I can bear to throw them out!

Pity I bought them many months ago for spares so no recourse back to the seller.

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Just checked mine even though they came from LHS with a set of radio gear, so no reason to suspect fakes. Hopefully the 2 I have just ordered from rcmart are real though

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On 20/01/2017 at 1:11 AM, MAD RACER said:

I have used H/K standard servo's with no problems at $3.50 I order 5 at a time

Spend a little more and get ball raced version too at

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-hk15138-standard-analog-servo-4-3kg-0-17sec-38g.html 

I use the higher torque metal gear version which is c£5 in my bashers. They work well in a clod too.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-hk15288a-analog-servo-bb-mg-9kg-0-20sec-51g.html

Not broken one yet and I take the view at £5, I can buy 4 for the price of the competitor and still be better off. 

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Yep great value servo's.

A lot of Boondal guys are using them too. That track is really rough at times and we all run fast motors too.

So they are tough enough.

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Hi, has anyone used a Savox SC-1251MG Low-Profile Digital-Servo? Is this is a good servo for the likes of Hotshot, Monster Beetle, Egress, etc.? It's (quite a bit) more expensive than the Futaba s3003 mentioned above.

Thanks.

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I run the low profile savox 1251 in my T.O.P. Photon touring car it's a great bit of kit for race cars where space is at a premium. It'd be great in a hotshot or egress but I'd say it's total overkill for a monster beetle you'd be much better off with a savox 0252 and a kimbrough heavy duty servo saver which is the same setup I run in my MB and it works brilliantly. 

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just keep in mind, savox servo's can be power hungry little blighters, so it may cause a brown out on your esc if the bec amp's are to low, admittedly it is a more common occurrence in dual servo setups, than single ones, but has happened often enough in single servo setups to be note worthy.

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1 hour ago, Darat76 said:

just keep in mind, savox servo's can be power hungry little blighters, so it may cause a brown out on your esc if the bec amp's are to low, admittedly it is a more common occurrence in dual servo setups, than single ones, but has happened often enough in single servo setups to be note worthy.

In my experience this tends to happen more with spektrum receivers than any other brand. It's easily fixed by adding in a capacitor like the one I've linked below to a spare channel on the receiver. 

https://www.rccarshop.co.uk/radio-servo/ebr0002-futaba-rx-capacitor-1800uf-p

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