Extreme performance level eliminates need for dual servo setups
Overview
No servo on the market has been able to fully live up to the expectations of today’s 1/5-scale community or the performance demands of vehicles like the Losi® 5IVE-T. Servo fade, weak holding power and the crowbar effect are just a few of the issues found with even the most expensive large scale surface servos, until today!
Paul Beard, the person who brought 2.4GHz to the world of RC has done it again. The new Spektrum™ S9010 servo represents a new era in large scale servos and completely changes how 1/5-scale vehicles perform.
The S9010 incorporates features not found in any servo on the market today. Starting with patent-pending Back EMF technology, drivers no longer have to be concerned with servo fade after just a few minutes of run time and inferior holding power. The S9010 HV servo maintains optimum performance levels throughout the entire run while providing speed and torque ratings that put it in the ranks of servos that cost twice as much.
Dynamic breaking technology assures the vehicle maintains the heading demanded thanks to the servos brute level of holding power. An improved integrator design virtually eliminates the crowbar effect while keeping the servo temps low through even the most grueling of runs. Using Back EMF technology, position lock exponentially improves the servos ability to keep its position while greatly increasing holding power. In addition, the S9010 offers virtually zero servo fade, no matter how much is thrown at them. Forget about doubling up on expensive and heavy dual servo mounts. The S9010 won’t fade under any condition.
Digital and analog servos have very similar construction and components. They both use the same type of motors, gears, cases, and have a potentiometer. A digital servo is different in the way it processes the incoming signal and converts that signal into servo movement.
An analog servo when it receives a command to move, takes that signal and sends pulses to the servo motor at about 50 cycles per second, which in turn moves the motor to its required position determined by the potentiometer.
A digital servo has a micro-processor that receives the signal and then adjusts the pulse length and amount of power to the servo motor to achieve optimum servo performance and precision. A digital servo sends these pulses to the motor at a much higher frequency which is around 300 cycles per second. This helps eliminate deadband, provides a faster response to the servo motor, smoother motor movement, and has higher resolution and holding power than an analog servo.
There are some disadvantages to digital servos, but the disadvantages are not in any way close to out weighing the advantages. A digital servo will have a higher power consumption (Around 10 to 15 mAh per servo at idle) than an analog servo due to its higher pulse frequency, so larger capacity battery packs are recommended. Digital servos also are more expensive than analog servos which can get very costly in applications that require many servos.