Technical Information
Before Buying


 
1.   Consumer Requirements
2.   Transmitters
3.   Transmitter Antenna
4.   Receiver Antenna
5.   Transmission Range
6.   Receiver Output
7.   Frame Rate
8.   Resolution and Latency
9.   Servos
10. Waterproof and Water Resistance Ranking
11. Analog v Digital
12. Exact Servo Rotation/Travel
13. Captive Drum Technology
14. BEC — Voltage Regulators

15. Choosing a Servo
16. Worldwide Ranking by real Torque values
17. Product Specification
18. Motor Speed Bands
19. Speed v Load
20. Travel reduction due to load
21. Travel dependant on Tx/Rx

22. Why SailServo
23. Servo Testing
24. Quality Control

  Analog v Digital control

5 September 2013


1. Consumer requirements

As consumers, what do we actually want from our r/c equipment?
Move a joystick to control a servo to rotate a drum for the sails, arm for the rudder or an ESC for a motor with a degree of accuracy and life.
 
We are not interested in all the electronic waffle only that it works. When we move the joystick a certain distance we want the servo to pull a certain load, over a certain distance, in a certain time, repeated a certain number of operations without failing. Is this too much to ask?
 
To do this successfully we need to match the transmitter, receiver and servo as one integral unit but unfortunately there is insufficient information to do this.
All the manufacturers do their own thing and there are no standards.
 
A consumer upgrading their transmitter/receiver to 2.4Ghz will find their servos will not work correctly. In my research I have found a Tx/Rx set which turns my rudder servo only 40 degrees instead of the existing 70 deg. The consumer has no way of finding this out.
 
When designing and building our boats we spend a lot of time getting rid of the slop in sail mechanisms and rudder linkage. Have you ever thought about the slop in your transmitter – receiver – servo system.
It's called Latency, the time between moving the stick and the servo turning. A customer tells me he can notice the quicker respones with a Spektrum Dx8 over his old Dx7. This is the demonstrable effect of Latency
 
This article has been written so I can sell my servos with confidence and help my customer in their choice of equipment. In my research I tested 13 out of the 26 drum servos on the Uk market, 4 transmitters and 5 receivers. The Interweb and Forums disgorged hidden gems and my customers tested their receivers and passed on good tips.
 
Thanks all



 

2. Transmitters

Transmitter visual design has not altered for 20 years but user perception and ergonomic design has changed since the introduction of games consoles.
 
Transmitters