to loosen the press fit pinion and not have any other gears broken is a first ive seen, i guess when the pin broke, the motor overpowered the press fit... Bill, locktite 609 or permatex green is what you want, super thin and used as retainer compound, wicks well, or you can just solder it like a slotcar pinion, im still waiting on my nitropro 500, seems someone at usps needed a new servo worse than me, my BK-7002HV didnt have screws through the case securing the motor either, even though the motor was threaded and the case was countersunk for hardware... that thing is still going on 5 years even with a bunch of gear slop, seems like a manufacturing of scale cost benefit deal, cheap out on the screws saves that much unit cost after x amount produced

No idea what caused this failure other than something fried internally on the board, the servo doesn't even register on the servo programmer either, but here's the issue with the servo not centering:

So I had nothing to lose and decided to explore the internals of the A80BHM that I posted a video above.


As I removed the gears, I couldn't help but notice that the potentiometer was pushed down inside the main spline gear. It didn't take very much effort to push down on the pinion of the motor and the entire assembly slid right out of the bottom of the case, it was if the white silicone gel they used had deteriorated:





Then simply used CA glue to remount the potentiometer back in place and CA glued the bottom of the circuit board back into the servo:





As luck will have it, the servo is working back to normal again, this is just another design flaw where they had threaded slots to secure the potentiometer with screws but cheaped out with silicone which failed over time... definitely a manufacturing defect!

I had a similar thing happen with an XQ Power servo years ago. The servo case had holes to hole the pot in with screws but a soldering iron had been used to melt it in place and it came loose.

This is something I would be willing to accept with a $45 servo, having to make repairs and all to fix cheap short cuts in the manufacturing process, but totally unacceptable for an $80+ servo, AGFrc is way out of line!

I'm at the point where I'd just assume buy a "servo kit" and build the servo myself just to make sure it's done the right way in the first place!

As promised, I took apart one of my A86BHM servos. I have two that I won in a raffle from AGF and I have yet to use either one. I suppose if any of my A80 servos die I'll give them a try.

Because mine is not completely waterproofed (it has orings on the bottom screws and gaskets between the case sections) I was able to identify the MOSFETs on the board. They are Advanced Power AP4509AGMs in case anyone is curious. The PCB looks like it is identical to the one in Bill's A80 but there may be differences in the components used.

The potentiometer (magnetic encoder, in this case) and the motor are secured with some kind of black epoxy. Although there are some extra holes in the servo case I am not completely sure these are to hold the motor or the potentiometer. They may be used to fixture the case while it is being machined. None of them were threaded, countersunk, or counterbored, so I'm leaning towards them being used in the machining process. All of the gears appear to be well made, the fit and finish is good, and the gear with the servo spline on it is supported at the top and the bottom with ball bearings. I did not pull the gear that sits on top of the motor to get a good look at the pinion as it didn't want to come off and I don't want to damage servos I haven't even used yet.

Here you can get a clearer look at the PCB layout and see that it is identical to the one in Bill's A80.

But you paid $120 for the Nitro Pro servo that is the same exact thing with a different label?

No Sir, the servos being sold by NitroPro are supposed to have upgraded components, better pot's, fet's and everything should be properly secured so the pinion doesn't slide off the servo motor, pot doesn't flop out of place, etc... these are the problems I experienced with AGFrc servos where I couldn't get a single AGFrc servo to go more than 10 race days without a failure in my EB48 2.0.... note that I'm already 12+ race days with the NitroPro servo in the same buggy.


Simply put, AGFrc servos have the potential to be a quality servo, where I feel AGFrc branded servos are not worth the hassle for their current pricing... if you want decent quality then you need to get a rebranded servo that has the extra "upgrades" included with those servos... it's a night/day difference

Pop the case apart and show us the differences. 2 more race days then your previous experience doesn’t mean much if you just have had some better luck or less impacts. I expect that you will find that the Nitro Pro happens to be identical internally to your AGF servos

the case looks identical to the powerhobby branded agf's on ebay, gearset looks beefy, is the middle gear, the one that goes between the spline post and the gear still on the back of the case, have pins pressed between teeth where the small gear is pressed onto the bigger one?

Why can't you trust what Nitro Pro is saying?

While the 1.6 x 13.5mm pin remains the same as well as all the gears, pretty much everything else is different just as I was told it would be.. smh

I'm not going remove the protective plastic, nor am I going to pull the board to get to the pot, but you can clearly see the aluminum case has been revised to prevent the brass pinion from sliding out of position, and they've completely revised the circuit board which is marked with ASS all over it:





Looks nothing like the AGFrc branded A80BHMW board:




I will say again, the rebranded servos have been upgraded and assembled properly... the AGFrc branded servos are overpriced and lacking quality... I DO NOT recommend buying any AGFrc branded servo period, but I would recommend NitroPro branded servos... they are worlds apart even though they come from the same OEM.

This is like comparing a Toyota to a Lexus

Yes

finally, some actual evidence of revision, the a.s.s (comical) is agf's programmable designation, dunno what the acronym is... seriously, i cant with the the car brand analogy...a lexus is nothing more than a corolla with a heated leather steering wheel... id say the nitro pro is a revised corolla built on a monday, not friday, dyinnnnng to get my hands on mine already, its been stuck in the mail for near 3 weeks !!

Do yourself a favor and take a Lexus for a test drive, then you will quickly understand the differences that I'm talking about:

https://www.lexusgwinnett.com/2019-l...yota-camry.htm



Lexus is 302 / 203 = 49% more powerful among a slough of other features, no less different than the improved quality that NitroPro offers above AGFrc branded servos.

Yeah, I've been able to address some of the defects with the 40KG servos, but I've got a 36K (AGFrc) servo that still can't provide any load after resetting the pinion on the servo motor