Micro T 5-wire steering servo

[oddrodtodd]

Hello!
I am new to this forum and was wondering if anyone with a Micro T has found a suitable replacement steering servo for the discontinued, stock, 5 wire servo. I am not interested in upgrading to digital/brushless at this time. It "jitters" and I just want to get it working! Maybe there is a way to repair it? I'm a pretty experienced gearhead and would be willing to give that a try...
Thanks,
Todd

 

[WickedFog]

Welcome to the forum. There is a way to convert a 3-wire to a 5-wire, but I have not looked into it.

 

[olds97_lss]

After some quick googling, it seems the 5 wire servo lacks the controller board inside. 2 wires go to the motor and 3 wires go to the potentiometer. So you could effectively take a 3 wire servo, gut it and solder in the 5 leads like a 5 wire servo. Then it relies on whatever the "controller" is in the receiver to do the work.

For my micro-t, I accidentally fried the stupid main board when a brushed motor back into it. I had the 2.4ghz brushed/brushless, 5-lead/3-lead servo board. I pinched 2 of the 3 motor wires and shorted them on each other and smoked it when I turned it on. Of course, this was after they stopped making them and buying a replacement was $100+ on ebay... This was when I was re-installing the brushed motor back in it because the brushless was too low on torque and too high on speed to be useful in my house. So my micro-t was effectively dead.

I had a spare knock off micro spektrum receiver and found a cheap brushed esc that after mangling it a bit, removing the case off the receiver, making a few holes in the DT chassis, I was able to fit both the esc and receiver in the battery bay area along with the 3-wire servo lead I was already using. I just velcro the 2S battery to the top of the chassis where the original board used to go.

ESC I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086LDK6LD
Similar receiver to use with my DX5C radio: https://www.amazon.com/HOBBYMATE-Receiver-Channels-Compatible-Transmitter/dp/B06XZGNK5X


It's not as smooth to accelerate as the original 2.4ghz board was, but it's not bad.

Receiver and esc in the battery area:

I used a jst connector instead of whatever it was on the motor:

Also had the high roller body which is partly why I have room for the battery pack to sit on the upper deck as I had converted my micro-t to a micro-high roller a few years prior when stuff was still available:

I used the original high roller front body mount and made something out of a bit of plastic for the rear body mount.

 

[oddrodtodd]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I may take olds97_lss's advice and modify a 3-wire servo but before that I will try cleaning the carbon track and wiper inside the servo if I can get it apart. Was watching a video...

Todd

 

[oddrodtodd]

I made the assumption that the main board was alright and decided to take the servo apart. I sprayed some Deoxit D5 electronics cleaner in the brush end of the motor. It worked. No jitters and I'm back in business. Too bad there aren't many parts available. I'd like to add a more powerful brushed motor and some hydraulic shocks...

 

[2wdMod]

converting from 3 wire to 5 wire is super simple.. if you follow how the old 5 wire is wired up then the worst you can do is have to swap the end wires going to the potentiometer ..