How do i know a servo is bad?

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2Fast

2Fast

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I tried to use the search option but with no luck so im posting a new one regarding servos and how to determine if my servo is junk.


I have a throttle/brake servo that is unresponsive when power is on. With the power on, i can manually move the servo back and forth as if the servo is not receiving power. The steering servo is hard to turn manual with the power on.

Is my throttle/brake servo bad?


Thanks,

2Fast
 
You shouldn't try to manually move the servo arm with the power on, it's not good for them. That said does the servo move at all via the transmitter? If not might want to make sure your batteries are fully charged, also try plugging the servo in another channel - say the steering channel and try again. Just to make sure it's not the receiver.
 
I tried with a 20 year old servo and responded beautifully. The other servo had no response whatsoever and the steering servo worked great.
 
Could be a break in the servo wires I'd start by extracting the pins in the plug make sure they look good, then move to opening the servo casing and make sure the 3 wires are still soldered to the little circuit board and if all that'd good continuity check between the wire ends. If there was no sign of damage (burnt, melted, stripped gears...) it should be alright unless you applied just slightly to much voltage to it causing it to subtly burn out. More info on the symptoms like last time it worked and now would help. Little motor wires inside the servo have come loose on me before as well. Oh and before all that, if it's under any kind of warranty obviously send that sucker in and don't mess with it ;D
 
It worked great last year (october before my diff went out) then never used it until today It worked intermittently, at first I thought it was interference with other surroundings but took it to a park with no surrounding interference and still nothing (that was today). This is on a full charge (battery); it worked for a few minutes (like 5 minutes) then would work intermittently, then not at all.

I looked at the wires and nothing was obvious... no burnt wires, all connections were in tacked so far, haven't taken the servo apart yet to see what the inside looks. Like I said before, found a different servo that was old but it worked none the less.

Is this enough information?
 
Yea thanks, the cutting in and out leads me to believe it is a loose connection somewhere within the servo itself that went from being loose to touching here and there to finally completely apart. But that's just my theory. Could be some other random fun sucking electronic gnome magic haha
 
Temporarily plug the steering servo in the throttle spot and work the trigger, just to make sure its the servo, and not the receiver.

Nevermind* Looks like you already tried that.
 
Sounds like you covered your troubleshooting. Junk it and get a new one. It sucks when your throttle servo dies wide open and you curb your ride but it keeps on rolling somehow but then it runs into a brush pile burying itself while smoking the slipper, clutch, clutch bell and a few other things. :'( Poor Maxx
 
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