Anyone using BLS451's in their 600's?

[Taipan]

I wanna get these for mine but have read reports of them failing in helis of all brands.

Anyone have any issues with these servos??

[BruceW]

They have been working great in my L500 for over 75 flights running @ 6V.

[MrMel]

Im running it in my L600 VBar without issue (as well as my E-Stratus).

Running them on 6v.

[JKos]

FYI: http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t403687p1/

[Flybar-less]

Last year in the fall I was testing some BECs and had some sort of voltage runaway failure with a BEC and 8717s. All four went up in fire and smoke, no damage to to the rest of the airborne pack. JR replaced the servos and I decided using a BEC or regulator in high amp apllications was not such a good idea.

Now I only use battery power for the flight pack with 2 leads. In the case of the 8717s they run great on 2S. Some use the A123 RX pack for a voltage level compatible with Futaba.

I use one of three regulators for the tail servo; CC BEC, Emcotec, or Spektrum.

I have had excellent results with the 8717s, no issues whatsoever on 2S. Hundreds of flights , a few crashes, no issues.

I also use the Futaba BLS251. One of the 4 I purchased was DOA. The other 3 are great, but also a new addition.

[BruceW]

That RR post sure created some hysteria. So far I can't complain but there were two different times that I had some strange cyclic behavior when I started pitch pumping right after takeoff but nothing happened from it. Thought it was radio interference but I'll need to keep an eye on it. Never seen a glitch as described in the post so I'll keep my 451s.

[flymustangs]

Thanks Bruce. My setup is virtually identical to yours. I was just getting ready to maiden it. I believe I will hold off briefly until this settles down a little bit. I bought two of the servos off of ebay so I can't return them. The good deal I got on them from ebay may not turn out to be such a good deal afterall. Trying to stay open minded about this, but it's a little difficult.

Ken

[BruceW]

It sounds like this is a problem with the pots on the servo so it should show up on the bench. Maybe some induced pressure on the swash and constant stirring of the sticks for a while would reveal a problem if its there.

[BruceW]

Just saw this new post over on RR from the Futaba rep. and it looks like Futaba is NOT stating that the BLS451 cannot be used in a helicopter.

http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/p3317024/

I guess it pays to wait for the hysteria to die down before reacting.


We've done a lot of checking, and apparently, one of the tech sheets we received was mis-interpreted. I did a lot of checking and found that the Futaba BLS351 and BLS451 servos can be used in virtually any R/C application, as long as they have proper installation and power delivery.

If a servo glitches in a particular application, the first check should be to replace it and see if it's the servo. If a replacement, known good servo still glitches, then the application must be suspect. In helis, you need to make sure your linkages have zero play and that the power supply is sufficient. Remember, high-torque servos can consume a lot of power, especially digital brushless high-torque servos. If the power supply isn't sufficient, then erratic operation can occur.

Again, the Futaba BLS351 and BLS451 Digital Brushless servos can be used for virtually any hobby application the modeler desires.

Bill Baxter, Manager
Futaba Service Center North America
3002 N. Apollo Dr. Suite 1
Champaign IL 61822
USA

Phone: (217) 398-0007
Fax: (217) 398-7721
Email: service@futaba-rc.com
Web: http://www.futaba-rc.com/index.html

[flymustangs]

Cool! I hadn't started ripping them out yet. I was hoping cooler heads would prevail and Futaba would straighten this out. Of course, it makes you wonder why a few people have been having problems.

Bruce, you did say you were running these OK with just the BEC in the Jazz 80, correct?

Thanks.
Ken

[BruceW]

Yes, I ran them at 5V with the built in Jazz BEC for about a month before I switched over to the CC BEC. They ran just fine with the Jazz but I wanted to run at 6V.