Hitec Servo Voltage Ratings.......the answers from Hitec

[roktoy]

I had in the past emailed Hitec and was told that the new titanium servos and the 645/5645 servos would all operate fine at 7.2 volts. Since I had seen someone post a Hitec servo spec listing a max operating voltage of 8.4 volts, I again emailed Hitec asking the max operating voltage for these servos. The response I got this time was that the max on all their servos is 6 volts.

So….I decided to call them and find out what it really was. I was told that basically all their servo motors are designed to cover the same operating voltage range. However, their website claims the robot servos can be used up to 7.4 volts. The tech I spoke to said they spec’ed the robot one as such and not the others because if a robot servo fails if probably wouldn’t be as catastrophic a situation as say a plane falling out of the sky.

So after some discussion he said they basically only recommend 6 volts max, but 7.2 volts would be work. Shorter servo life (maybe 20% or more) would result from using the higher voltage.

Hard getting a consistent answer from them…..

Jay

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Thanks for doing the research Jay. 8)
Even though they are kinda wish-washy about it, at least it gives us something to go off of.

 

[chafey]

hahaha now all my servos shall be punished!!!!! i say we hook a lightning rod to them

 

[sam__kent]

So, could I plug a 7.2V receiver pack into my recevier and still not over-woltage the servos? Or does the 7.2V pack have to go to the ESC to get stepped-down to 6V?

I am currently running a nitro truck, but may be buying an electric one. It would be nice to be able to use the same packs for each truck...

 

[rcracer]

I have ran to hitec 645's from a 7.2v pack for 6 months now and all is good. I tried it both ways, inline with the servo's and straight to the receiver. both ways worked great

 

[hcfr34]

Man, good thing you can go to the source and get some straight answers :roll: Good try anyway

 

[newth]

i got the same reply from them.

if u run at more than 6volts, u greatly reduce the life span of the unit.

 

[JasonInAugusta]

Fishmaxx PM'd me a while back about the 7.2 1/4 scale servo thread, this was my reply:

If it's working for Ace, that's cool.

But saying that a difference of "only 1.2V" is funny.

We have circuit cards that we're told to operate at 15V. At 15V they self-destruct.

So...we now run them at 12V and they have worked like that for at least 20 years now.

It's "only" 3V.

A difference of 1.2V may not seem like much, and it probably won't hurt things, but it may shorten the lifespan of the components. Ya gotta think, engineers design stuff (usually) to last a good, long time. If they spec the component to run at 6V, that's more than likely below it's max.

As a matter of fact, check this link out at Tower on a servo I'm using in the Scorpion....

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDTB5&P=ML

Here's what's in the comments:

Use of 6.0V not recommended as this will shorten servo life.

 

[toy4crawlin]

Good info here

I'd like to add that the BEC is done through the ESC, for example
a Tekin Rebel 2 speed control has a BEC at 5amp 6volts

My Question to you guys : why add a Regulator ?
What do you gain?

 

[HndsWthtShdws]

A regulator in this case would give you more voltage to use. Usually regulator is used to give you more amps when your servos require more amps than the bec can provide.

 

[Ma77]

QUOTE: "I have ran to hitec 645's from a 7.2v pack for 6 months now and all is good. I tried it both ways, inline with the servo's and straight to the receiver. both ways worked great "

running 7.2v to the receiver ( i assume you mean through the "bat" slot) will be regulated to 5v as recievers have a regulator built in, so it should make no difference between running a seperate reciever pack or using the ESC regulator. the only way is by removing the servos + wire from the receiver and powering it from a 7.2v battery (and commoning - )

 

[oberon crawler]

I'm running my 5645's and RX straight off a 2s lipo (nom. 7.4v max off charge 8.4v). i'll see how long they last, if they die it's no big deal nothing is critical in crawlers unlike a plane or heli that i'm used to where if something fails you loose the whole thing into a thousand pieces.

 

[Chris_The_Battery_Man]

I've had bad luck with the HiTec 5955TG and more than 6v. Although alot more people have had good luck, mine was getting un-bareably hot at 6v and when I cranket it up to 7.2v it nuked...