TOWER PRO SERVOS

[Geo.]

These appear a lot on the net as high torque at budget prices. Anyone used them and are they any good.

[Jim Kemble]

I haven't any experience with Tower Hobbies Servos, but I believe that they use or did use an obsolete transmitter case of Futaba's in their System 3000, 4 channel package. Certainly their 6 channel package uses the same transmitter case as the Futaba 6EX radio. I think that the same goes for the Rxs, that the cases at least were/are the same. Whether this holds good for their servos I don't know, but I suspect it does. Here in the USA I haven't heard any bad things about Tower products and would think that their radio stuff is OK (But not for 200mph jets) Perhaps someone can confirm.

[Aslan]

I think geo is talking about towerpro servos that I have come across on the Peakmodel site.I did some research into these servos because they seemed too cheap to be true....and they were.Nearly all of the people who purchased these regreted their purchase.Don't think there is any relation to Tower Hobbies servos.

[Andy Green]

I purchase 4 Tower Pro MG995's from a reputable UK source (not eBay via Hong Kong) each one was noisy and consumed a lot of power, not sure how much but with a fully charged Rx Nicad, my onboard battery monitor always fell into the red if all four moved at once. I have never used them in flight. I bought 4 JR Digitals (DS811's) and although the voltage dropped one or to led's it was nowhere near the red.

That said I have used the 5g & 9g mini servos and have never had a problem.

A

[Chris Dickens]

Depends on what you want from them, I have only used the micro ones they are cheap and cheerful servos, I've found that the 9g ones are better than a lot of oter budget servos but the 5g ones are not as good, still perfectly adequate for small electric models, I use them in depron shokie type models all the while but accept that they are disposable (the cases are glued together) and that the grar trains are weak.
They are half the price (10 for £45 the last lot I bought) of HS55's but probably only 70% as good. You 'pays your money and takes your choice!'
Saying that I wouldn't dream of using full size budget servos, even plain bearing ones from the reputable manufacturers in any model bigger than 1m wingspan, my budget servo for IC models are JR811 digitals!!!!

[Paul C]

I agree with Chris, depends what your expecting - I have one of MG995's as the aileron servo on a Tutor 40 and, yes it makes a bit noise but its tough as old boots (metal gears) and quite fast considering it cost me £9.

If 4 of them killed your battery I would be concerned about the capacity of the battery for that model or be looking at one of the units binding or hitting an end stop causing it to growl and use power - both issues are more about the installation than the quality of the servo !

You gets what you pay for... I'm sure my MG995 is at least as good as a S148 !

Paul

[Andy Green]

I would tend to agree about checking servo installation, but the problem ocurred by just rolling the sticks, not crashing them into the corners, and the problem disappeared with new servos.

As to capacity my cells are 2100mh NiMh (4 cell - 4.8V), I'm aware they have a high internal resistance compared to NiCd, but like I said the problem went with new servos.

Maybe I should revisit and give them another chance or as you suggest maybe I have a tight one, binding somewhere.

To be fair to the servos I only relied on my battery monitor, I've not done any in line current readings, and voltage checks.

A

[Brian Cooper]

At first glance, the budget servos might seem to be cheap and cheerful, but, sadly, they usually end up being just cheap and nasty.

Yes, the cheaper servos might be OK in something no more demanding than a shockie, but for anything heavier it might be wise to spend a few more pounds on good quality merchandise.

As has been pointed out, you get what you pay for.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

B.C.

[Engine Doctor]

I have to agree with Brian cooper That you get what you pay for . I used two of these cheap "High torque Metal geared" servos for aileron on a Eurobat .They were very noisy and very powerful but when used on a y lead one would allways work OK and the other would always flap around like a bird when trying to centre.Lesson learn't they were thrown into spares/bits box.
Phil

[Martin McIntosh]

I have quite a few of these in Depron models with only one failing from new due to a bad solder joint,also a couple of their ESC`s, which seem OK. You pay your money------- not too bad for the price. Just saw the"Y-lead" thread. Remember that most of these micro servos draw a huge ammount of current in order to give the stated power and usually have thin leads so trying to run them on a Y lead is just asking for trouble.I diconnected a GWS 9g servo motor and ran it free to find that it drew 1/4amp!

[mfin]

I've used MG995s myself and two of my flying mates have also....
Plus points... cheap, a lot of torque, strong metal gears and very fast for the money.
Down points... mainly that they appear to lack resolution when you watch a surface responding to them (seem to be aware of little jumps at some points in the movement) and when a stick is let go and the servo re-centres it seems to go a fraction past centre and back again v. quickly, bit like a car shocker if you bounce it - so you're left niggling in the back of your mind as to whether they are really that good.
Of course you get what you pay for but if you need the torque, speed and strength and are on a budget then they have their place, and I'm not put off by them for sure.

[Wobbly Warmington]

Hi Geo, I have only used the 9g servos and have used about 20 of these in the past. To date only one of them has gone wrong and that was after a crash and the gears stripped. I have had more knackered Supertec and Futaba servos and I have used less of them so thumbs up from me. They centre well and the oldest ones are over 2 years old and regularly used.... .Thats my 2 pence