Help! Sticking Servo

[Aviador]

I just built the Scout and maidened it the other day. It flew great for awhile and I was fairly low and it suddenly just headed straight into the snow. Didn’t do terribly much damage but I made a new fuse anyway. I blamed it on the wind and operator error then. This morning i flew it again and it flew for a couple seconds and then the elevator locked up and straight into the snow it went. After some repairs I went out this evening. It did the same thing once but did no damage so I decided to go for it again. It flew fine the whole time and I landed it ok. Is this just an issue of a cheap servo or is there something else?

 

[Merv]

I suspect it’s the servo. In my experience all servos will go bad, regardless of the cost.

 

[Aviador]

Ic they’re basically brand new...

 

[sprzout]

Ic they’re basically brand new...

That means nothing, unfortunately. I have some brand new, cheap servos I bought from Amazon. I plug them in to a receiver and they jitter when connected to an ESC. Doesn’t matter what ESC, they jitter. Plug them in to a servo tester, they stop.

Just a reason why I try to buy name brand servos now...they don’t need to be Hitec or Savox servos, but in this case you get what you pay for. The Emax servos have always been good for me for the price, and I’d recommend you try those. Only time I’ve had one fail on me was after I landed; I was belly landing my P-51 Master Series and the wing caught just right on the servo. It broke a tooth on the plastic gear and caused the servo to lock at a certain location.

 

[Aviador]

Ok I have a few extra’s that I can switch it out with. Hopefully find one that works🤞🏼 Thanks

 

[TheFlyingBrit]

I usually do a bench test I plug my servos into a servo tested connect a 4.8v battery set it to auto and leave them going back and forth for at least an hour, if they are still going after that period I can trust them in a plane. Even then its not certain they wont fail, they behave different when under load. The best method is a test bench consisting of some push rods leading to control horns and dummy control surfaces. Then use the same set up as above with the servo testing tool, but with the servos under load.