S3001 operates at half speed

[David Hayward.]

I have an S3001 servo which has operated normally for about 3 months but has now decided to operate at approximately half speed. Full movement range, no jittering, just half speed.

Plugged a spare servo in the the same channel (2) and that worked fine. The faulty servo operates at half speed no matter what channel it is plugged into. Using an R2008SB rx.

Any ideas what the problem may be?

[John Lee]

Firstly are you sure it's a genuine Futaba servo? There are numerous Futaba fake servos & gyros in circulation for starters see this thread. If it's a fake consider the viability of your other servos.

But fake or real if I get a standard servo that develops a fault I just bin it, for me it's not worth risking a model for a tenner. You could consider just using it on the throttle but what if it's got a high current draw & takes down the rest of the system?

[David Hayward.]

Thank you John. As confident as I can be its not fake, bought from RC World. Checked voltage and current in operation, this too is ok. I agree with you about not taking a chance but if there is a known fix that may be helpful.

[Paul Marsh]

I've had one do that. Was on the elevator in my Limbo Dancer. Was going to fly it at the "Ring O' Fire" at Weston Park, but it did that, lucky that the trader next door was doing a "free servo to the next 10 customers" so I replaced it with that.

The 3001 in question is odd, as you said, just works very slow. was working normally, then no. Probably the amplifier has gone wrong, not sending enough voltage to the motor, even though it centers ok, so not the feedback pot.

[cymaz]

Tell RC World. I’m sure they will sort it out for you. I’ve had no problems in getting email enquiries dealt with.

[Cuban8]

If you've only had the item three months from purchase, then it's a matter for the vendor to sort out for you.
Worth a phone call anyway, If you fancy investigating the cause yourself, strip the gears out and inspect for something perhaps causing the gears to bind. It's an easy job to dismantle them so worth a look.
If it's the driver IC or motor that's gone, then unless you have a spare handy and can solder small components, keep the other bits for spares and buy a new servo. Odd fault, never come across it before, they usually fail totally, just run rough or the centring and holding power goes haywire in my experience.

Edited By Cuban8 on 24/03/2018 20:45:05