Promodeler owners 🤔

[Cheez]

I know there are several of you out there. Are any of you doing the dedicated battery that John so adamantly preaches? If so could you please show me your setup.

 

[SrC]

Promodeler
If I got one, I would not be going the battery route.
Yes John does preach alot in regards. I understand why. But is more important for Air RC platforms. Their primary RC market.
For surface RC bashing. No.
My 3 cents.

 

[Matt05]

I’ve got one in my max6/stock motor X-maxx just running off the factory Traxxas receiver and it runs great. I just pulled it out to swap into my new X-Maxx build.

 

[djrahbee]

Same with Kraton, Max6 combo, Flysky RX no issues.

 

[Matt05]

Not gonna lie, every time I did bash it, I was always nervous John was gonna pop out of the bushes and punch me in the mouth.

 

[Cheez]

I have three that run off the rx and so far they seem fine. I’m wanting to try the dedicated battery to power my new DS635 servo to see if the difference in performance is noticeable.

 

[SrC]

I say there won't be any difference. Except maybe the power and speed based on your selected lipo voltage? IDK.
But give it try.
I just feel for bashing, it is overkill with all that extra discreet servo wiring, the added potential liablilty etc. including mounting that additional lipo battery etc.
In the end, its just another lipo to charge/monitor. All for just one single Steering servo? In a basher platform....?
All with no Net gain. Promodeler has always been an AIR RC servo brand. Catering to that RC Niche exclusively. And for Fail-Safe reasons, Air Rc's need to have multiple servo's powered independently of the Mains Power. So they can be landed/controlled safely without Mains power. The "Surface controls" need to always remain powered to glide down safely. With Surface RC bashers something you can avoid. John is not interested in Surface RC. Their servos are Not even tested on them. Only Air RC's. Johns logic doesn't apply to our Surface RC's, IMHO.
In theory however, I will agree that a Lipo battery source voltage/current for a servo is always "Cleaner". By How much? Who really knows.
And for Surface RC's is just splitting hairs.
Any decent Surface ESC and its BEC always has you covered. Has been for many years.

If your ESC is a lame RTR with low crappy Voltage settings and low Amps for your servo, then a voltage adjustable CC UBEC would be the better alternative. It is powered from the mains Lipo. CC makes many types.
But I never felt the need for any, on my surface Models.
Just me.

 

[ChemEng]

I use an external battery on my Xmaxx with the promodeler DS1155BLHV. Great servo, and it works wonderfully with the external battery and turns the heck out of those big tires. If the tires are blocked it will twist the crap out of the servo saver before it will stall.

BUT... honestly he bullied me into the external battery over the phone. It is a pain in the ass to remember to charge and such. With a stall current of 7A the MMX8s should handle it. Next time i go into the receiver box i am going to remove the splitter and reconnect the servo to the BEC power at 8V and see what happens.

 

[Matt05]

I use an external battery on my Xmaxx with the promodeler DS1155BLHV. Great servo, and it works wonderfully with the external battery and turns the heck out of those big tires. If the tires are blocked it will twist the crap out of the servo saver before it will stall.

BUT... honestly he bullied me into the external battery over the phone. It is a pain in the ass to remember to charge and such. With a stall current of 7A the MMX8s should handle it. Next time i go into the receiver box i am going to remove the splitter and reconnect the servo to the BEC power at 8V and see what happens.

He tried to get me over the phone like that too, but I just said I wanted to try it and acted like I was super busy and couldn’t talk long. Persuasive son of a gun.

 

[Cheez]

I use an external battery on my Xmaxx with the promodeler DS1155BLHV. Great servo, and it works wonderfully with the external battery and turns the heck out of those big tires. If the tires are blocked it will twist the crap out of the servo saver before it will stall.

BUT... honestly he bullied me into the external battery over the phone. It is a pain in the ass to remember to charge and such. With a stall current of 7A the MMX8s should handle it. Next time i go into the receiver box i am going to remove the splitter and reconnect the servo to the BEC power at 8V and see what happens.

As I mentioned I have three maybe four hooked directly to rx And they have been working fine so far. For example here’s one in my Tekno Truggy.

 

[parcou]

At @Cheez

I have all DS630BLHV in a:
Talion EXB
Fireteam
Kraton EXB (HW motor/ESC)
Infraction (only stock ESC/motor, but the ESC is a Firma 160A and not the 150A)
Talion-Kraton rig I got from RCP
Lasernut U4

Most of those have an HW ESC with a stock Firma motor.

Overkill, yes! I like John and do not mind supporting him (as if he needs me with gov contracts), and I have no kids all grown...so money in my pockets to be foolish like this, LOL

I never had an issue running the servo off the ESC. All above have on the ESC:
Polo Creations lights (f/r)
Temperature probe for motor/ESC
Radio Control 40mm 8.4v fans for motor/ESC.
John's servo

 

[SrC]

He tried to get me over the phone like that too, but I just said I wanted to try it and acted like I was super busy and couldn’t talk long. Persuasive son of a gun.

Spoke with someone there quite a while back. I actually had a Promod servo in my cart at the time. I never pulled the plug however. They are in FL. Maybe it was John I spoke with too. And I was put off by him? I did ask many tech questions about the components they use, not about their application...
But they do brag about using the best Japanese sourced Potentiometers and Motors for their servos. Have to agree, Japanese made components are the best for servos. Why Futaba also makes well regarded servos. Anything Japan made is usually of higher quality and always costs more. More to do with the Japan $$ exchange rate IMHO.

 

[ChemEng]

As I mentioned I have three maybe four hooked directly to rx And they have been working fine so far. For example here’s one in my Tekno Truggy.View attachment 307490

The 1155 series is a different animal than the 630 series. At 5A max stall current I would feel more comfortable powering a 630 from a MMX8s.

I will need to see how much power my motor fans pull before I commit 7A to the servo.

 

[Cheez]

So here’s where I’m at…not so much the wiring, but where the heck do you put the battery?
Tried this up and down the street, I can see improvement in servo response. Track tomorrow to see if Velcro holds up.

Same thing with this bad boy..

 

[Killacam]

If I'm going to direct power a servo, I'm not stopping at 2s. In my crawlers I use 4s 16v servos like the Holmes Hobbies shv-800 or agfrc 125kg. My point is, go big or go home. Not worth all the trouble of running a separate battery just for a measly 8.4v.

With that being said, I don't think you'll see much difference in performance between using a BEC vs 2s battery.