theading leads though wings

[Phil Claridge]

i bought a plane on saturday, that had the servo leads pulled out of the wings. the holes had been roughly chewed out of the foam and no tubes put in and i was trying to find a way to get a lead though, the only thing i could get through was fuel tubing, so i pushed that in from the center hole then put some heatshrink tubing on to the end and shrunk it, and fed that through, it got halfway and pulled off. plan two, i put a sevo screw in the fuel pipe to give the heatshrink something to bite on and tried again, hey presto,  i then pushed the servo plug in to the heatshrink and shrunk it over the plug. making sure it covered the whole plug so that it had a smooth tapering end to feed back through and then pulled it back to the center, it worked a treat. i was just going to do the second servo when i thought i will just check that the first one was working ok as it had a join in the middle of the lead that one was ok but i checked the second one before i pulled it through and the brand new sd200 was dead, i would have been mad if a had fitted it then found out.so check your set up before fitting if its going somewhere awkward or permanent

[Richard Wood]

Hi Phil,

Sod's law could have been invented just for modellers.

If something can go wrong it most likely will sooner or later.

Who'd have thought a new 15 odd quid servo would be duff?

 

[Phil Claridge]

hi richard, i bought 8 sd200 very cheap from our club auction a year ago so i am not to bothered about it, omnly trouble is that was the last 2 left so i had to rob 1 out of another plane that wont be flying for some time. just glad i found it before fitting it

ps are they 15 odd quid i paid £20 for 8 still in their boxes

[Richard Wood]

Hi Phil,

Just checked the price - £16.75 a piece!!

SD200 

You're not the only one that robs bits from models for another!

It's usually wheel collets - never the right ones spare

 

[Phil Claridge]

wow, i think i got a bargain then. i had fitted 5 of them on a little 24in span biplane i paid a £1 for at a carboot sale 5 years ago, i think i will whip them out and ditch the bipe and save them for something better.  i have 2 futaba servoes here that dont appear on their website, they are midi size s3501, i got them from a carboot sale  they were on the tail end of a broken fusalage from a cougar i think cost me £3 but i cant find any reference or details about them

[Richard Wood]

Never seen 3501's before but they should be ok if they're Futaba.

I'm still using some 24 year old S128's which although a tad slow by modern

standards are otherwise perfectly reliable.

 

Edited By Richard Wood on 20/04/2010 15:20:49

[Phil Claridge]

only reference i can find is that they were used on a kyoso motorbike cant find out what torque or anything, i am going to use them for rudder and elevator on an e flite beaver

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I don't know if it's just bad luck but I've had more SD200s fail (including one straight from the box) than any other type - although they've usually enjoyed an "interesting" life in combat models. Have any others of you out there experienced problems with what are not budget priced servos?

[Phil Claridge]

just found another sd200 dead as a doornail, thats two out of eight

[Phil Claridge]

now using two futaba s143, another little tip use a cable tie on the servo leads as they come out the center of the wings this prevents them dropping back if you have a big tube or rib for them to pass through

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Phil Claridge]

thats fine for built up wings Eric, but mine had foam wings and a tight slot to get into(sic) any thing stiff wont go it just dug into the foam. for closed loop cables i use snake inners and thead the cables through them. going back to the fuel tube method using heat shrink on the sevo plug rounds off the two square edges and lets it slide through easier