Great T/B servo - hitec 7955 rebadged and 30 bucks less

[turboglenn]

THis is pretty much a copy&paste from a thread of mine on HBF, but i found this servo (Hobbico CS-170) when calling the LHS looking for the hitec 7955TG. My LHS is usually on par with internet prices so after reading good reviews on the 7955's power, which i needed for the integy front brakes to work good. I decided i was going to get one. When the LHS said they had it and i said i'm coming to get it, the guy asked me if i had heard of the hobbico CS-170, and proceded to inform me it's the exact servo just rebadged for great plains and was cheaper. At their shop it saved me 30 bucks, and on the internet it will still save you 20.

The counterguy assured me that the warranty should anything go wrong on it would be as easy to handle as hitec's is, so I took the chance and bought it

here's the specs on the HiTec 7955TG
http://www.davesmotors.com/s.nl/c.885035/n.1/it.A/id.2550/.f
here's the specs on the hobbico CS-170
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNRN6&P=7

Here's the Cut-n-paste of my review/thoughts on the servo from HBF

Instal Notes: For mounting i just put the holes at the rear most end of the servo (nearest the horn) perfectly centered over the baja's servo holes..., then i opened up the front facing holes in the servo until they were just groves. THis kept the throttle and brake linkage perfectly lined up with the servo horn at the same angle as it previously was.

Wow! this thing rocks, definitely worth the 94 bucks (can be had for 89 on tower hobbies) This servo is so powerfull that i was able to hook up the integy brake linkage just like it's supposed to be, splitting the one servo's power between both the front and rear brakes. And i also used a R/C plane linkage to put the brake rod under the servo to better clear the roll cage.


Although it makes that weird chattering noise some one else recently brought up which really bugs me, i am completely impressed with this servo.(guess it's becasue of running a digi servo on PPM mode from what i've read)

It's actually so quiet in it's movement when there's no load on it that you would think the thing would barely be able to work the throttle alone, but man, the moment you push that trigger backwards you know where your hard earned money went!!

I haven't touched anything except the EPA adjustment and set the sub-trim back to "0" before installing the linkage and the servo has me impressed already as it compresses fuel tubing like it's a Boc pe spring. I do think it's a tad slower than the HPI one, but that could be in my mind because its' so quiet. And If anything the 3pm has adjustments to compensate for a slower servo, and as powerful as this thing is it's a small price to pay if it is a tad slower.


I built a set of direct servo power wires from some "Y" cables and a few extra cut off ends from extensions and such so my reciever doesn't have to take the load of these two heavy duty servos.

After a few brief runs outside i have no doubt that this servo will serve me just fine for plenty of time to come. Even with my "not a good brand brakes" this thing is locking up both front and rear tires (Tarmacs) on pavement.. After dialing back the braking power so i could stop fast and still steer i was in hog heaven, i could come in WOT and stop faster than i thought possible on a baja.. make a hard 90* turn and mob out.

There's a part of me that wonders how much better things would be if I had got the on that has over 400oz/in, but this one already slides the little linkage collars to where it wants them when the brakes lock up and i've got them really farkn tight!

Here's some pics of the instal showing the horn hooked to the stock throttle linkage and the front integy linkage.. Also shown is how i ground some of the roll bar off underneath and mounted the front brake linkage on the bottom of the servo horn to further help it get a straight, unobstructed shot at the brake cables.

here's the cage clearnace the rod barely rubs with he bottom linkage on the servo horn


this is the brake linkage before pulling the brakes...when ien i hit them no matter how tight it is the purple HPI collar will slide forward about 3/16th's to 1/4 inch everytime, and i got screws in both sides


Here's the servo top and horn

Hope this helps some one either save some cash or make the decision to step up to a better T/B servo (which until getting front brakes this is something i never thought would be worth upgrading especially with a 100 dollar servo)


But it really offsets the cost to have the third channel back open for a remote kill, and now leaves me with no complaints about my integy brakes. Since the "good brand" brakes are over 200 bucks and the integy units PLUS the servo was still cheaper (75 for brakes and 94 for servo = 169 dollars -NOT BAD!) and i'm not knocking the better brakes as there;s a lot of reasons they are designed and better built right out of the box and would probably benefit even more from the servo upgrade!

Besides the mods to the brakes themselves to make them work better, up until buying this servo i had to have a 3rd channel servo dedicated to the front brakes because the stock servo couldn't operate both the front and rear. In fact the car was slower stopping than it was with just rear brakes when i had the stock servo working both sets

 

[Bigger the Better]

Nice find. Thanks for posting it. That is a reasonable servo for the power and quality.