The NEW King of Standard Size Servos - HSR-M9382TH

[Xpress]

Those 9380's sound pretty sweet, but may break the bank for me. Piggy bank has already been interrogated, threatened, beaten, and eventually thrown against the wall for extra funds... with no avail. Although titanium gears are strong and smooth, Titanium is prone to galling easier if the lubrication fails. I'm still leaning on the 2290's based on word of mouth and price point.

The more budget friendly option is the D950TW. Several ex-Savox users I';ve talked to have switched from 2290's and 1270's to this servo and have reported a much crisper flying airframe with no odd tendencies. The few 2290 equipped airplanes I've flown all had odd elevator sync issues which caused roll out in moderate push/pull (yes, we checked the balance on the ground to ensure they were matched, this is more of a blow back issue most likely).

 

[AKNick]

The D950TW are coreless. Also, why doesn't Hitec post 8.4v specs like the other companies? A lot of folks are running 2 cell direct LiPo's and those numbers would be nice for comparison... is there a reason? I remember you saying most of all the Hitec servos can handle 8v no prob.
You're basically saying every other servo mfgr is inferior to Hitec and their mighty 9380.
Doesn't make my servo purchasing decisions any easier LOL. I hope one frustrated servo manufacture employee at mks having a bad day, expressing themselves irrationally shouldn't deter people all at once.

 

[acerc]

@acerc, that is not a measure of torque. Torque is a rotational movement, not a linear movement that a servo arm subjects a control surface to. You cannot test a servos output torque by hooking a servo arm to it and seeing how much force it can pull.

Rotational torque is exactly what I do, thought that was pretty clear with stating the arm lifts and lowers the weight. But it is all ok, I'll do my thing as it works for me and so does Savox.

 

[Jetpainter]

I wanted to buy some PM servos for my 107" Super Decathlon but heard there was an issue running them with Spektrum PowerSafe receivers. I emailed PM and got a very long explanation about how my Spektrum stuff was junk and I should change brands.
Sorry, not giving up stuff that's been working awesome for 8 years. At the very end he said the problem had been fixed and they would work fine, but by then I was out. I went back to Hitec's.

 

[AKNick]

I wanted to buy some PM servos for my 107" Super Decathlon but heard there was an issue running them with Spektrum PowerSafe receivers. I emailed PM and got a very long explanation about how my Spektrum stuff was junk and I should change brands.
Sorry, not giving up stuff that's been working awesome for 8 years. At the very end he said the problem had been fixed and they would work fine, but by then I was out. I went back to Hitec's.

John can definitely be long winded lol. If I remember correctly people HAD issues with specifically the 9380s with powersafe receivers as well. All of this has been corrected and is a non issue for PM, Hitec, and Powersafe Rxs. There was a bumpy road for sure. Being a 95% futaba user, I haven’t had to deal with it.
With all these strength tests, it seems like the large loads are probably momentary in flight and don’t really encase how the servo can perform. Dunno, I should just shut up ha ha

 

[Jetpainter]

John can definitely be long winded lol. If I remember correctly people HAD issues with specifically the 9380s with powersafe receivers as well. All of this has been corrected and is a non issue for PM, Hitec, and Powersafe Rxs. There was a bumpy road for sure. Being a 95% futaba user, I haven’t had to deal with it.
With all these strength tests, it seems like the large loads are probably momentary in flight and don’t really encase how the servo can perform. Dunno, I should just shut up ha ha

Most people have there favorite brand. I can say I was a Futaba Junkie for my first 15 years, and I wouldn't use anything else. Back around 2000 when I was building and repairing turbine jets for people I had a guy that was a JR user and I got to where I really started to like there stuff. I quit flying for about 10 years after that, and when I started again a buddy lent me a new JR 9503 and I fell in love with it. I bought an 11x after that and still use it with Spektrum receivers. There really isn't a best brand as far as I'm concerned. They all have there ups and downs. I would say 90% of the guys at my field fly Spektrum radios, the rest are either Futaba or JR. Servo's you see just about everything.

It is nice to have lots of choices.

 

[Xpress]

The D950TW are coreless. Also, why doesn't Hitec post 8.4v specs like the other companies? A lot of folks are running 2 cell direct LiPo's and those numbers would be nice for comparison... is there a reason? I remember you saying most of all the Hitec servos can handle 8v no prob.

When I was with the company, I repeatedly asked over and over to have 7.4v rated servos tested to 8.4v and post those specs, but for some reason that was never explained to me, they never were interested in it. What I always told people who were interested in the 8.4v spec was to multiply the 7.4v spec by %20. That gets them roughly in the ball park. So 486oz/in on the D950 means somewhere around 580oz/in at 8.4v. But again, this number will fade as load increases as is characteristic with almost all servos.

You're basically saying every other servo mfgr is inferior to Hitec and their mighty 9380.

Yes, actually. Nobody makes a servo that is as capable or powerful as it with the same performance specs. Hitec tested every high performance servo out there they could get their hands on and none of the available servos matched the 9380 (disclaimer, none of the new JR/Dee Force servos were fully tested while I was there but they were in the process of doing so- initial reports showed less than impressive performance).

Doesn't make my servo purchasing decisions any easier LOL. I hope one frustrated servo manufacture employee at mks having a bad day, expressing themselves irrationally shouldn't deter people all at once.

He's a pretty well known fella here in the US, but I'll refrain from using names.

 

[Pistolera]

Was the new Futaba A700 servo tested? Just curious.

 

[Xpress]

Was the new Futaba A700 servo tested? Just curious.

Yes, actually even the 1000 was tested and they both fell rather short of the claims. I know it sounds like I'm just bagging on everyone here but I'm tired of the overstated torque values by every manufacturer- they constantly lie through their teeth at everyone to sell product because (no offense to anyone) modelers are stupid and buy into flashy specs and don't bother to do the research, because of supposed 'trusted' manufacturers wouldn't lie to them, would they?

When it comes to bottom dollar, a manufacturer will absolutely lie through their teeth if it means more units sold and better looking profit margins regardless of how the product actually performs. Every single manufacturer is guilty of this in one way or another, and yes this includes a number of Hitec servos.

What has to be understood is geartrain and case strength values just do not exist to support these ridiculous torque output claims by some manufacturers, at least when it comes to standard sized servos. The 472oz/in the 9380 makes is a constant, no fade torque value, and it is as much torque as servo gears and case pieces can handle without breaking. Any higher of a value, lets say 500oz/in, and the amount of stress the gears and case halves are under would cause them to fail, usually in the worst place possible too.

Now one way manufacturers can help with material strength is just to increase the size of the gears and the case pieces. For example the Hitec D980TW is an enlarged D950TW, by about 1.25x. It has a larger geartrain with a larger gear reduction to produce some serious torque, but the trade off is it's a slow servo without any less current consumption than the D950TW. So yes it will make a peak of around 600oz/in of torque, but it's moving a full 120 degrees in about half a second. Futaba had a servo constructed like this and I'm pretty sure one or two of the MKS servos are like this but neither of those really reduced the gear values to increase the torque. They're similar to their standard size equivalents with roughly the same torque values as them.

 

[Pistolera]

So...how far short?