Anyone else busting up Promodeler 630's?

[meatmonkey]

So over the last few years I spent a small fortune on Promodeler servos. I must have nearly 20 combined of 420s, 470s, 555, 630, 930, and more. Overall I've been very happy with them. They've, for the most part, provided strong precise steering under strenuous conditions for years. However, the last couple batches of 630s have been letdowns. One randomly died, John did replace it under warranty. Now I've got another that twitches when warmed up, another that randomly died,and another I busted the aluminum inner housing off where the output shaft bearing resides, rendering it non rebuidable. So that's 4 unusable 630s in under a year.

Granted I am extremely hard on my trucks, but my older 470s have been through far more use and abuse and are still working just fine.

Anyone else experience anything like this? Am I really just exceeding the limits of these supposedly stronger 630s?

I see John has come out with another line of servos with a larger output shaft and a different geartrain setup. Should one of those be my next try?

I've been a Promodeler fan boy for years, but I'm now willing to try another brand if you guys can convince me it's stronger than these Promodelers.

 

[DirtMerchant]

I’m curious to hear more about the Promodeler experience from others as well. I’ve considered their servos many times, I just didn’t feel like running a secondary 2S battery to power one. Are you running yours with a separate pack, or did you do the BEC route? Promodeler seems to hammer the point home in their descriptions that a BEC just isn’t good enough.

 

[meatmonkey]

Some of my fleet is exclusively 2s powered, in which case the servo power wires are soldered to the esc's power in wires. No bec, and no servo current going thru the receiver. The rest of the 3s compatible fleet is using castles waterproof bec2.0. I will agree with John than many budget becs don't hold stable voltage and can limit servo performance. I don't run the cheap castle becs because I've had too many die, and John isn't a fan of them either.

I've been super happy with all my other Promodelers, and even the first couple 630 have been good. It's all the 630s purchased in the last year I've had issues with.

 

[chilly]

I’m curious to hear more about the Promodeler experience from others as well. I’ve considered their servos many times, I just didn’t feel like running a secondary 2S battery to power one. Are you running yours with a separate pack, or did you do the BEC route? Promodeler seems to hammer the point home in their descriptions that a BEC just isn’t good enough.

Any idea why they say that? I mean and Amp is an amp and a volt is a volt.... so either the BEC manufacturer or the servo manufacturer is in error in their specs if it doesn't work. I went the through the trouble and expense ($25) of wiring in the standard 10A Castle BEC and so far so good (SCX6)... is there now yet a further upgrade? "Are you not entertained!"