RunRyder - Life span of a Futaba 9253

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Radio - Servo - Gyro - Gov - Batt > Life span of a Futaba 9253

jmiceli11
Senior Heliman
Location: Girard, PA 15 min west of Erie, PA, USA

What is the life span of a Futaba 9253 servo? I've had two crap out on me in the last month and both resulted in crashes? Both were about 10 months old with pretty regular use over the ten months. Both gave me signs I ignored (tail twitched for no reason).
I think I set them up right, travel limit set up for no binding, used with 401. No heavy 3D just basic flying and hovering.
Any thoughts what else I should check for the next ones? Oh yeah one is on a Sceadu and one is on a Shuttle mounted under the canopy.
Thanks

07-21-2002 Over year old.

fitenfyr
rrProfessor
Location: Port Orchard, Washington

Gain...

Todd B and Jason K told me at the Hirobo cup a lot of times the 9253 and 9251 (601 servo) fail because the gain on the gyro is set too high making them work twice as hard.
Try backing your gain down a bit and see how that works.
Of course I also think that particular servo, although a great servo and fine performer, has a short life span.

Jason Stiffey
Fly Fast....Live Slow...

07-22-2002 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Wild Turkey
Senior Heliman
Location: Stewartsville, NJ

Make sure you have the 401 set to use a DIGITAL servo (DS on the little console).

That would make the servo crap out and twitch.

Also, you should be using the following Gyro Rates (if using JR radio)

NORMAL mode: 65%
IDLE mode: 55%
Thort Hold: 55%

JR radios / 401 Gyro - kicks into HH mode at 52% or more...

Wild Turkey

07-27-2002 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

heliman41
Key Veteran
Location: Valparaiso IN. USA

Im running 2 of these servos, what do you mean by crapped out? Was it an electronics failure or gears?

07-27-2002 Over year old.

Dr.Ben
Elite Veteran
Location: Richmond, VA, USA

I swapped two out last season when both had about 25 gallons of fuel through them. They were still doing fine. I think the advice about running only as much gain as you need is really sound. Remember that if your motor doesn't drone and is thus kicking the tail, your servo is working overtime trying to correct for those vibration pulses.

In my own case and in that of many others, these servos warn you once or twice before they quit. If you EVER get ANY twitch in flight, start looking really hard at the servo. If you EVER find the amount of gain you are able to carry is decreased, look again at the servo. One of mine warned me with two twitches in hover in dead calm. That's all I needed to see. $100 servo, 2.5K model. Guess how long that servo stayed in there?!

BTW, running the 9253 on a 401 in NON-DS mode is perfectly safe. All that will happen is the gyro performance won't be as great. High frame rate capable digital servos, with the exception of the 9251 and the JR servo that comes with the G6000 are all applicable to lower frame rate gyros like the GY240 or the 401 in NON-DS mode.

Ben Minor

07-27-2002 Over year old.

jmiceli11
Senior Heliman
Location: Girard, PA 15 min west of Erie, PA, USA

Heliman41
By crapped out I mean the damn helo wouldn't turn right! Then It slammed into the ground. The gears were okay.

Like Dr Ben said about twitching, mine did that but I was to stubborn/dumb to realize what was happening. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the suggestions!

07-29-2002 Over year old.

heliman41
Key Veteran
Location: Valparaiso IN. USA

Yikes!
Thank you for this info I WILL keep a keen eye on the servo now.I think I will lower my gain too I can live W slower I dont do contests.

07-29-2002 Over year old.

Inspector Fuzz
Veteran
Location: Austin, TX. Where fat chicks succeed.

Repairability of 9253??

Howdy!!!
I have a 9253 that crapped out a few months ago.. Luckily I was able to see the signs and got it out just as it completely died.. What I want to know is... Has anyone sent their servo in for repair, i.e. new pot and motor, and how much was it.. I am thinking about sending mine in and then using it in an older machine without a driven tail, to see how the repaired servo holds up.. If it fails, no big deal, I pull hold and auto in.. Unless of course I am low and inverted!!!

I would like to find out what they charged for those of you that had them fixed. It's gotta be less than $100.00.. Maybe half??

JEFF

07-29-2002 Over year old.

Chris.C
Senior Heliman
Location: Hong Kong

Yesterday I was forced to do a push over when I was doing a rolling stall turn. The rudder was not turning when I put full right rudder at the top of the stall. Another experience is that the servo hesitated also at the top of a stall turn with full right rudder. I checked the tail linkage and found it smooth.

Did anyone experience this? Is it a problem of the servo or the noise filter or anything else? This 9253 flew less than ten flights.

Cheers.

Chris

07-29-2002 Over year old.

helimodels
Senior Heliman
Location: Dublin, Ireland

hearing stories like this one makes me uncomfortable. I want performance without compromising reliability.
taking motor racing as am obvious example, they push stuff so hard it's make or break. unless your'e sponsored and don't worry about accidents involving personal injury, I think I would sacrifice some performance to get good reliability.
opinions?

07-31-2002 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

jmiceli11
Senior Heliman
Location: Girard, PA 15 min west of Erie, PA, USA

Update

Well Ladies and Gentlemen it wasn't the servo that crapped out IT WAS THE GYRO. Seems it failed the dreaded drift test. So now in the course of 11 months I have had a 9253 and a GY 401 fail. Oh well it's only money

Thanks

08-09-2002 Over year old.

RappyTappy
Elite Veteran
Location: Las Vegas, NV

The tail linkage has to be very smooth so the servo doesn't have to work as hard. I run enough gain so that the tail can track well in fast backwards flight and hard inverted backward pull outs and thats it. I've been running my 9253 safely now for almost 9 months of hard 3D. 7 months of it were on a Fury expert and the last month or so has been on a Raptor 50. The servo was in a crash with the Fury in which all gears got stripped. I replaced the gears and the servo is still working flawlessly. So all flights added up comes to about 130+ flights and its still holding great. I spend a lot of time on tail linkage set-up and I find that a smooth non-binding assembly is absolutely essential with the 9253.

Chris
Xero G

Forever Brothers
Mickey Tylo

08-09-2002 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

ncarbon
Senior Heliman
Location: Kalispell Montana

I lost one toooooooo

Hey there....my 9253 yawed big time in climb out and just acted weird, it got loud too. I put a S9202 and downed the gain and it is working fine, so it was for sure the servo and not the gyro, I bought the Combo on 6/13/02.......it was in my Sceadu which I have 15 gallons through since April......seems like a short life...

Ned

08-13-2002 Over year old.

Dr.Ben
Elite Veteran
Location: Richmond, VA, USA

Repairability of 9253??

The motors for the digital servos are closer to $100 than $50 and are a component of the amplifier board (see the pic in the new Futaba catalog).

I'm afraid you won't come out financially trying to have one fixed versus what you can purchase a new servo for.

Ben Minor

08-13-2002 Over year old.

Inspector Fuzz
Veteran
Location: Austin, TX. Where fat chicks succeed.

Thanks Dr. Ben..

Howdy!!
Thanks for the info on the repairability of the 9253.. I figured it was'nt worth it, but wanted confirmation..

JEFF

08-13-2002 Over year old.

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Radio - Servo - Gyro - Gov - Batt > Life span of a Futaba 9253

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