My bomber keeps killing steering servos!

[Bombernoob]

As the title states I have now went through 4 servos on my bomber...

The factory one just stripped the gears and bent the pin, my second one was a Savox (can't remember which one) but that one got so hot it melted the chips off of the computer board...

My third one was a Reefs 444, that one lasted the longest. I got a few months of use on that one except I kept stripping servo horns but the servo always works great until this past weekend...

That leads me to my forth one. This past weekend I was at Key City Hobby in MD crawling on their course and my Reefs died on me and I stepped up to Holmes Hobbies direct power SHV500LP, worked great for roughly 15 minutes and it completely died on me. I picked up the blue tooth module for the spectrum dx3 so I was able to fine tune the end points correctly.

I am starting to think 1/10 scale servos might not be enough for the bombers and might see if I can fit a 1/8 scale servo on the axle...

[soze]

There are plenty of people that have been running 1/10 servos with the Bomber. Something is definitely wrong, or maybe something wrong with the way you drive.

[Bombernoob]

It's very possible it's my driving... not that I am bashing the HH servo I was just confused on what happened and oddly enough the servo was cold to the touch when it died...I am lost at this point

[SCX10 JK]

Yeah something isn't right there I ran the stock gen 1 tactic servo that's known garbage for about a year no issue. Currently both my bombers are running the savox wp0231mg servos which aren't all that powerful at all for quite some time. They have probably 80 to 100 hrs on them. That reefs should have been way more than needed by far. I run the reefs 422hd in my 1/8 yeti xl and have had zero issues. Sounds like either you have some serious binding or you have some electrical issues.

What are the other specs you have like esc and other electrical items lights and such that you are running. What batteries are you using? May be too low of a c rating and your just browning it out. The higher voltage more powerful servos seemed to go faster so my thought is your batteries are not up to the power demands.

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[HumboldtEF]

It sounds like you may have another issues thats leading to this possibly. Disconnect the steering links and turn the knuckles by hand to see if theres some resistance, it should rotate freely without resistance. Incorrectly set end point can lead to a dead servo so you may want to double check those.

I killed a few servos with my Wraith but it was entirely my fault, its a fast rig and I hit things lol

You can usually buy a rebuild kits for most nice servos, they include new gears and pins.

HH has 4 different sets of rebuild kits, not sure which one you may need. You should email them to ask. its possible the servo is too new and they dont have a rebuild kit yet. https://holmeshobbies.com/catalogsea...ult/?q=gearset

[Bombernoob]

I am currently running a Hobbywing axe 2800kv system and at the time I was a Venom 35c battery. I went through all the steering components and everything moves freely and double checked my end points.

What's really confusing is at time it died I was trying to climb a loose dirt hill obstacle so I wasn't even pushing the steering to hard...

[SCX10 JK]

Yeah I'm really thinking that the battery is more the issue. Not know what your Mah rating is makes it a little more challenging to calculate but a 35c battery at 5000 Mah only has the max discharge rating of 175 amps. Your esc based on specs pulls 80 amps continuous and burst of 480 amps. So basically your bomber under heavy throttle is trying to pull way more amps than the battery can handle leaving no power at all for the servo to draw. Essentially you would need at least 5000 Mah 100c battery to not brown out the electrical system. Not saying this is the problem but it definitely could be considering that you have no binding in the steering.



Need an electrical genius to weigh in now lol.

edit power amp calculations for battery max amp discharge is Mah x c rating / 1000 = max amp discharge
Also I may not be correct in this theory either.......

[Steve g]

Originally Posted by SCX10 JK

Yeah I'm really thinking that the battery is more the issue. Not know what your Mah rating is makes it a little more challenging to calculate but a 35c battery at 5000 Mah only has the max discharge rating of 175 amps. Your esc based on specs pulls 80 amps continuous and burst of 480 amps. So basically your bomber under heavy throttle is trying to pull way more amps than the battery can handle leaving no power at all for the servo to draw. Essentially you would need at least 5000 Mah 100c battery to not brown out the electrical system. Not saying this is the problem but it definitely could be considering that you have no binding in the steering.



Need an electrical genius to weigh in now lol.

edit power amp calculations for battery max amp discharge is Mah x c rating / 1000 = max amp discharge
Also I may not be correct in this theory either.......

With stock gearing (pr there abouts) there's no way that esc is pulling its max amps. Speed run guys with super high gearing can max out their electronics, and need to let them cool between runs.
Now with the HH being directly powered, makes it seem even less likely it's a lack of amps to the servo. I'm not sure what that specific esc puts out for amps on its bec, or what the previous servos could draw for amps, so not sure with the current info at my disposal what fried the first servos.
Check and make sure everything is moving freely. Disconnect the servo horn and there should be no resistance. Personally I have a couple wraiths I bash with no servo savers and only broke cheaper servos, and it was always the gears. You seem to be frying them electronically, so could be a faulty bec. Yet the HH fried to right? Which is direct wired right?
Anyways, contact the folks at Holmes hobbies, they'll take care of their servo for you and maybe let you know what happened to it.

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[SCX10 JK]

Good to know. My background with low voltage and or low amp is more from the computer realm and it can have nasty effects on stuff and blow things but for the most part its not likely. I would assume that RC related electronics are not nearly so sensitive.

One other thought would a bad battery connection (or battery) cause arcing and possibly cause it to short out?

Originally Posted by Steve g

With stock gearing (pr there abouts) there's no way that esc is pulling its max amps. Speed run guys with super high gearing can max out their electronics, and need to let them cool between runs.
Now with the HH being directly powered, makes it seem even less likely it's a lack of amps to the servo. I'm not sure what that specific esc puts out for amps on its bec, or what the previous servos could draw for amps, so not sure with the current info at my disposal what fried the first servos.
Check and make sure everything is moving freely. Disconnect the servo horn and there should be no resistance. Personally I have a couple wraiths I bash with no servo savers and only broke cheaper servos, and it was always the gears. You seem to be frying them electronically, so could be a faulty bec. Yet the HH fried to right? Which is direct wired right?
Anyways, contact the folks at Holmes hobbies, they'll take care of their servo for you and maybe let you know what happened to it.

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[Steve g]

Yes a bad connection would cause issues. A loose connection creates heat and more resistance, thus pulling more amps

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[Bombernoob]

Thank you everybody for the replies...I have my servo shipped off to Holmes Hobbies so I will see what happens with that.

[Steve g]

Originally Posted by Bombernoob

Thank you everybody for the replies...I have my servo shipped off to Holmes Hobbies so I will see what happens with that.

Keep us posted on their verdict

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[Bombernoob]

I think I have watched every video I can find on new servos to make sure I had everything setup correctly. I have the HH sent off already but if I find my receipt for the reefs 444 I might send that off to see what they say...

I forgot to add that I have been running my reefs for months with no issues but last weekend was my first time out running my new 3 gear transmission with dig and with that servo it is a cheap amazon special for less then 20 bucks and also I moved the receiver to the fuel tank and used some cheap off brand jst extensions to run the servo and power the fan on top on top of the esc. I almost wonder if the jst extensions where not connected tightly and possibly caused glitches?

And for my driving...yes the savox was most likely my fault. I used to bash the car pretty hard but I have been more conservative with the rig and my driving, I don't spend hardly anytime with the steering in a bind while I am navigating in the rocks...I have way too much money wrapped up in this rig to just trash the vehicle. I have a traxxas hoss I use as my basher rig and surprisingly after all the trips to the skate parks I haven't really broke anything on it...

[Bombernoob]

Well good news!

HH got back to me, apparently one of the phase connections to the motor either broke off or it was a weak solder joint. Lol my servo was the first one they had to warranty!

[SCX10 JK]

Awesome man that's great. Hopefully that fixes everything. I would check over all those electrical connections and make sure they are all tight and making good contact. Sounds like your all fixed now though.

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