HiTower Servo (AKA Frankenservo)

[SeanD]

I've been cheaping out on the servos by buying TowerPro 945s and Hitec 5645s. As to be expected the TP casings wore out and stopped working properly and I just stripped the gears of two 5645 in two days.

Even after coming up with a solution to the weakness of the TP case, they are still giving me grief.

I took the gears out of the TP and dropped them into the Hitec and they work perfectly. Go figure!!

So hopefully the case of the Hitec will hold up and so will the TP gears!! (I've yet to strip the gears on a TP)

And yes, when all else fails I will move on up to a 5995 or equivalent. But for now I am taking on the challenge of keeping these servos moving.

Just thought I'd pass this along in case someone finds it useful.

[666]

Good to know, thanks for being creative!!

[dezfan]

Originally Posted by 666

Good to know, thanks for being creative!!

That's interesting, I have a few TPs that are lying around w/ worn out cases and replacement cases from Hitec are very reasonable. I might just order a few and see if I can get a little more life out of them.

Nice find.

[SeanD]

When you do the swap the first thing you will notice is that the servo has the louder TP gear sound. I am guessing that the mesh is a little less refined than the Hitec but this is probably where the strength of the TP gears is coming from.

You may need to shave a teensy weensy little bit off the top case where the pins go in - I simply took a large drill bit and spun it in the pin hole. It seems that without doing this, the gears might bind when you tighten the bolts. Perhaps the pins are a little longer.

Now- I'm curious to try a "full case" swap by putting the "guts" of TP into a Hitec case!!! Hmmmmm!

[SeanD]

UPDATE;

Yes, the "guts" of TP will fit in the Hitec case with NO issues.

Looks like more life will be breathed into the ol' TPs after all..

[run2jeepn]

Thats nice to know. I swore someone tried this and said it didn't work. So I never looked into it. Go figure.

[SeanD]

Another Update:

The Frankenservo is holding up great. I did have some problems with heat buildup which I thought was beacuse of binding in the gears but it turned out to be that I needed EPAs. I popped in some EPA pots and everything is working out great - no binding, no heat, no glitching etc etc.

I'm curious to see how long the combo will last