Servo saver

[chris68nufc]

Who is running a servo saver? Ive went through 3 gears in my cat now and wondered if anybody else had had bother with this. I suppose im crashing a bit so could be that. Still feel the car is very nervous and twitchy. Its going to take time to get mine right.

[telboy]

I don't run a servo saver ...yet.

I just did what Chris Long said and set the end points so that the servo doesn't strain.
Although ith the Lipo version you'd be doing something wrong if the servo strained, as the arm is above the servo and would stop itself if it went to far anyway.

[James]

I'm still not using a servo saver, but if youve done 3 gears then i'd try one if i were you..
Maybe turn your steering curve down by 25% and front shocks to the outside on the bottom if not already..
Come and have a word with us at Worksop if you like and will pass on any experience to help..

[chris68nufc]

Thanks for the advice.I had a bit of help from Chris Long at the last round but still felt like the car was very nervous. I like the car to feel a lot more steady than i had mine at the 1st round. I did 2 servo gears so qualified well down the list.

[super__dan]

CHris.

Servo savers are horrible things!

Firstly I'd buy one of the many £35 - £40 KO 2123 servos I see going through the for sale section on here. I've never broken a gear on any of the 3 I have and 1 is 5 years old.

I had a surprisingly large amount of steering at Worksop last time and the balance from carpet sections of the floor is quite pronounced. However trimming the inside and outside rows off the fronts settled the car right down on the carpet without taking away any steering on the floor sections.

Lastly I run -25% to -35% curve on both my 2wd and 4wd, don't be afraid of using it, Ellis uses -50%. Oh and James makes a good point about moving front shocks further out on wishbone to calm it further.

[chris68nufc]

Dan

My servos are all KO servos. This has never happened to me before. Ive recently bought a Universe transmitter and havent had time to understand its settings. I think i will try the curve. What exactly will it do? Im assuming it stops the snatchy feel of the servo and smooths it out?

[MattW]

Depends which KO servo obviously. I used to go through 2113 plastic gears all the time in my B4 (with glued up servo saver), but switched to a 2123 with metal gears, and no issues.

Have had no issues with metal geared KO servos in Cat - no servo saver.

[chris68nufc]

Im sure that i probs crash more than you lot though Ive got stuff to try to make the car more settled and that in turn may stop me hitting things.

[Chrislong]

Hi Chris,
You should be able to get replacement metal gear kits for the servo you have got mate, this would be the cheapest option. I did this to a 2113 and effectively makes it a 2123.

Are you at Worksop on 19th October? I can check out your end points, im sure they'll be right really but hey - two heads are better than one.

As for servo saver, try a kimbrough one - the smaller one is better as the phat one tends to need a hole cut under it otherwise it fouls the chassis. Id be tempted to have one ready, if a servo goes again then swap servo + fit saver.

Chris

[chris68nufc]

Chris

Im sure all of my servos are the metal geared ones. They have 1 plastic gear which i believed to be a sacrificial gear but was told last night i was wrong. Surely if they made a full metal geared servo then it would still wreck the weakest cog? Hopefully be down on the sat night again.Not staying in the Blyth Travellodge again though. Terrible.

[super__dan]

Chris, you need to understand how to set your end points. If you do that and run a metal geared servo then there is no more reason why you should break servo gears on a CAT rather than any other car.**

** Well a XX4 or X5 has enough flex in the long steering system that you shouldn't even need to run metal geared servos.

[super__dan]

Sorry forgot to answer, negative steering curve is literally making a straight line between stick position and servo positions and makes it a cuve, which if negative means you have less servo movement in the first part of the stick movement (less sensitive, more control) but equals up by becoming more movement at the end of the stick travel.

I use this as it allows more control to feed the car into a corner and then when you want the full lock on, it just quickly in the last part of the stick movement bangs on. Does that make sense? Easier to explain in person.

How servos feel varies from transmitter to transmitter and car to car. the inherant curves of hoe the steering moves across and ackerman settings will also have an effect on this. However with any one car and tranny combo, you jsut set it up to how you like it.

[Northy]

How do setting end points stop the servo breaking in a crash?

G

[Chrislong]

Originally Posted by Northy

How do setting end points stop the servo breaking in a crash?

G

Its the anti-crash setting.

[super__dan]

I imagine if you are maxing out a servo and trying to drive it way past the physical end point so the motor is straining one way, then the wheels get hit and knock it the other way, there's more chance of breaking a gear. It's not going to do it any good anyway.

To be honest though, servo breaking aside, you need to know how to set up your transmitter and it can make a world of difference. Ask Craig Collinson how much better his was after we set it up properly.

[Oliv996]

As many said, and according what I've observed, this car doesn't require a servo saver until the servo has metal gears. The servo horns delivered in the kit are flexible enough to prevent some hard crashes, nothing comparable with KO servo horns for example which are rigid (I don't even think about aluminum servo horn ) ....