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Servos... Avante, Bigwig and Porsche 911 gt1

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Please could someone “edjamicate”me on servos.... They seem to be categorised by reference to KGs - and presumably this means they’re stronger and can deal with heavier buggies/monster trucks etc?

I think there are metal gear vs plastic geared options, and waterproof varieties too, and some are faster than others in response (presumably internal gearing affects this....) - but I’m a man of simple tastes and needs....

I asked a while ago for some recommendations - and bought a couple of cheap futabas for my hornet and my tt-02 off of the back of that advice, and they work fine - albeit a bit tight in the TT-02 as the servo sits a whisker away from the central prop shaft.These are perfectly fine for my needs - basically back garden bashing and a couple of (little) jumps - so thanks again to those who recommended them. 
 

However.... I am lucky enough to have a few other kits which I’m planning to build. Mostly I love the aesthetics and engineering behind the models (plus 30 years of pent up longing before being able to afford them....) - and I enjoy modifying things to overcome problems. I will run the cars - albeit only occasionally, and so was hoping for some recommendations for servos - particularly as I’ve read of issues with space and steering range. I have a Bigwig, 911 Gt1 and an Avante (all re re’s) which I’m hoping to build over Christmas, and while I won’t be racing them, and so don’t need top-end servos, I do want something which will work and which will fit...

Perhaps I’m over thinking this - and bearing in mind the relatively light and occasional use they’ll get - should I just stick in a £12 futaba standard size servo and not worry about it?

Grateful for some advice - but maybe I’ve answered my own question... one way or another it would be useful to be a bit more knowledgable about them - as they’re needed for every model. 
 

 

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any servo that states 12KG + (remember @ 6V-8.4V).

out of all the servos on the market, ounce per pounce KG for KG and they're price point, and just love they're lil' tin boxes is the ever lasting Power HD's.

JX is down right pretty darn good for the coin.

I have been real partial as of late to AGF.

Solar is a good servo, but noisy as all get out,  but the best budget servo i have.

 

Servos are a thing that too many people read into even the less expensive works, it's either coreless vs brushless and comes down to components on noise, jittering, centering and holding power quality, don't forget a rounded out electrical system is very helpful on the performance of these mechanical, electrical left and right turning devoices.

Don't forget BEC's, and or external capacitors and if Savox is used a glitch buster at least (BEC is the most powerful way to supply your servo).

 

 

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17 minutes ago, ACCEL said:

any servo that states 12KG + (remember @ 6V-8.4V).

out of all the servos on the market, ounce per pounce KG for KG and they're price point, and just love they're lil' tin boxes is the ever lasting Power HD's.

JX is down right pretty darn good for the coin.

I have been real partial as of late to AGF.

Solar is a good servo, but noisy as all get but the best budget servo i have.

 

Servos are a thing that too many people read into even the less expensive works, it's either coreless vs brushless and comes down to components on noise, jittering, centering and holding power quality, don't forget a rounded out electrical system is very helpful on the performance of these mechanical, electrical left and right turning devoices.

Don't forget BEC's, and or external capacitors and if Savox is used a glitch buster at least (BEC is the most powerful way to supply your servo).

 

 

I'll second the power HD servos.  My LHS put me onto them about a year ago and i have had no issues with a single one.

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Thanks for the above - good point re centering in particular - I’ve noticed the super cheapo ones aren’t that great on this front. 

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For my onroad and light offroad (2wd buggy) builds I use the Turnigy 1250TG (7kg an 0.06sec @ 6V).
Lightning fast, pretty cheap for €32 and haven't had a single one fail on me.

Had multiple PowerHD 20KG in my crawlers, they should do 20KG and 0.16sec on 6V but they felt so slow and sluggish, and I kept destroying the "metal gears" in them while crawling, so I gave up on those.
On the worst day I destroyed 3 PowerHD 20kg servo's in a single day, had one in my Axial Bomber, failed, replaced and the new one failed on the same way.
Switched to my TRX4 which also had that servo, only to have it also fail on me the same way the 2 others did.

So now I use a 1283SG in my Traxxas TRX4 (30kg and 0.13sec @ 6V) and in my CrossRC HC6 I have a Savöx SW-0231MG (15kg and 0.17sec @ 6v), both are powered by a generic 6V 8A BEC from AliExpress.

In the Clod I am using the last PowerHD I have left, so that one will probably be upgraded to a Savöx 1283SG or comparable also somewhere in the future as it feels even slower in a big truck like the Clod.

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JX have been very good for me  BUT I have to get them from flea bay and have had 2 fake ones. can tell straight away by the sound and then the finish is not quite there. Been buying HD now from UK.

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My Avante and Bigwig are getting Power HD servo's; S15 and B5 respectively.  These aren't cheap servos though by any stretch of the imagination, from reading around I gather that for 4WD 1:10 scale off road buggies, anything with over 10kg of torque and under 0.1s/60deg speed @6V, is really good.  I'd err on the side of more torque for the Bigwig because it's beefy and has the rack+pinion and rubber booties. 

Also: A low profile servo looks nice in the sleek chassis of the Avante, but the Bigwig needs a standard sized servo.  Low profile servos don't fit the Bigwig because the spindle is slightly offset from the standard position and shifts the whole servo into contact with the chassis.  Same with the Novafox. :(  (I bought 2 low profile servos only to find they didn't fit.)

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Thanks for this. Very helpful. I thought there might be an issue with low profile servos being required for the Avante. They don’t look cheap though, as you warned!

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The old standard has been Futaba S3003.  The way I see it, if you do better than Futaba, you're good.  Futaba's Torque: 3.2 Kilograms/centimeter (or 44 ounces/inch)  Speed: 0.19 second/60 degrees.  Almost everything these days do better. 

JX 4409 (low profile servo recommended by @Jonathon Gillham) has 9kg torque at 0.11 second. JX 6208 has 8kg torque, and 0.07 second.  Both are about $15 USD.  JX are digital servos, so they take slightly more electricity.  If you buy from Hobbyking, they sell Turnigy AN13 servo that has 13kg of torque at 0.13 second, for $9.5 USD.  

Unless you have a heavy crawler, you don't even need 8 or 9kg of torque. But it's nice to have more torque than less.  

 

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I just use Futaba S148 or S3001 servos in pretty much all our buggies and trucks other than the heavy DIY crawler which has a massive high torque metal geared servo. Never had a problem, rarely get failures even after being run in very wet conditions and they seem to last years. They are cheap too. I'm not a PRO racer and my kids and I don't really notice any difference between the S3001 and servos 5x as expensive so I'll stick with what works, are reliable and cheap. I'm no snob.:)

 

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I have been using hobbykings 15138 servos for probably 8 years(?), A futaba 3003 copy. Just ordered another 10 @£30 inc shipping, approx £2.50 each.

never had a dud one, they have a metal hi torque version for a little more cash.

for the agrios and cc-02 I have absima hi torque servos from modelsport, always been reliable too

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Thanks for all the responses. I might well start cheap and work my way up if an issue! 

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I have Savox 1258TG s my favourite for the race buggies. I will continue with these in my race buggies as they have proven bulletproof over many seasons and they are really fast with loads of torque.

Otherwise I have tried a few different ones including the Savox 1251MG (US50) Trackstar D99X (US25), JX 4409MG (US13) and SPT 4412LV (US15) and I can't tell the difference between them. I think I have settled on the SPT for other cars as for some reason i just think it looks better.

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9 hours ago, mud4fun said:

I just use Futaba S148 or S3001 servos in pretty much all our buggies and trucks

 

9 hours ago, taffer said:

I have been using hobbykings 15138 servos for probably 8 years(?), A futaba 3003 copy.

I got both S148, S3003, and Hobbyking 15138 ($4 USD). One S3001 came with some old chassis too, but I have never used it. S148--the oldest--is a bit slower at 0.22 second, but essentially, they all are about the same.  For light buggies like Grasshopper, DT02, even 30 year old S148 servos that have 3-4 kg torque are still perfectly fine. 

I've noticed that they were sluggish on Wild Willy2. It may look cute, but Willy2 weighs as much as two Hornets.  Installing a high torque servo seemed to result in crispier steering on heavier chassis (might have been a servo saver too).  

But, it's Avante. I would feel like I'm not doing right by it if I installed S148, unless I was thinking about period-correctness. And I would feel bad about a 30 year old servo on a brand new chassis.  So I'd want something newer, stronger and faster.  As Jonathon said, there wouldn't be a vast difference between a $50 servo and a $15 servo.  

 

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It's want you get used to, the cheapo servos don't feel slow because I use them all the time and have adapted to how they behave...same with everything! 😄

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All of my servos have been swapped out for metal gear models with way more torque than needed from multiple companies, but when I first built my Konghead I used a Futaba S148 for the rear steering with no issues. My konghead has a lot of metal decoration on the body so it is much heavier than stock. I just swapped them out because it was an excuse to upgrade. "Ooh, I've got metal gears and monster torque!" A Futaba S3003/3004 and a Kimbrough servo saver will work fine with the majority of Tamiya models.

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