THURSDAY TESTIMONIALS: Highest RC BLP650 low-profile servo

0 May 2, 2018, 1:23 p.m.

By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

Whether it's wheel nuts, wings, tools, tracks, trinkets and/or anything in between, the LiveRC staff gives their testimonial and review of each every Thursday morning!

This week's Thursday Testimonials Product Review features the Highest RC BLP650 low-profile high-voltage brushless servo, and has been provided by our friend and guest contributor Andrea Leo from Italy (RC LEO Andrea on Facebook). Leo is an experienced racer and was signed on in December, 2017 to play a lead part in tech support at the Italian Highest RC distributor IconRC. The BLP650 is an upgraded brushless version of the popular DLP650 digital servo. Leo shares a thorough inside and out introduction of the servo, and his personal review of it below.

Highest RC BLP650 Servo
BLP650, $129.99
www.highestrc.com

Product review written by Leo Arnold:

In Korea there is a very practiced and fascinating strategy game that takes the name of "janggi" (장기 將棋), ie the Korean chess. The Korean company Highest upon introducing on the market the BLV650HV servo has proclaimed "checkmate" to its direct opponents, offering drivers of the 1/10-scale categories (on-road and off-road) a masterpiece of reliability and innovation.

The Low Profile design of the Highest servo housing is a combination of technology and design taken down to even the smallest detail.

The servo weighing only 51g, is enclosed in a very elegant package and inside includes a 25T engraved aluminum clamping servo horn.

Like all the top-of-the-range Highest servos, the BLP650 also includes its advanced technology in a 6061-T6 aluminum case, machined with CNC machines and designed on three levels, among which we find the O-ring seals to control the infiltration of dust and humidity. The central part, as in the big brother D2000 servo, has been milled to facilitate the dispersion of heat during operation of the servo, offering a very low temperature range even in complex and demanding conditions.

I could not resist opening the lower part of the case first to directly access the insides of the servo. I was really stunned by so much accuracy.The quality of the components is very high, nothing has been left to chance, even the solder welds are polished clean with an alloy that promises a very low resistance among the components.

Highest has installed on this servo a high-tech "brain", a MCU (MicroController Unit), which is a 32-bit microcontroller with a high efficiency architecture. These numbers refer to the size of the data buses. With a larger data bus, the microcontroller can perform more complex calculations.

The "heart" of the servo this time is a high efficiency brushless operation, specifically designed to deliver a torque of 12.20 Kg / cm at 7.4V to a "slew rate" of 0.06sec / 60°.

After opening the upper part of the case, I found the high-speed steel gears, also machined with CNC machines. The gears are supported by two 6x10x2.5 bearings, which after analysis the tolerance of construction is ABEC 5-7 on the scale, ensuring less vibration, thus offering a feeling of fluidity while driving. To make it all highly functional there is a potentiometer that ensures a millimeter accuracy on the position of the servo and a confirmed quality by Highest Korea, who promises a lifespan of 1,000,000 cycles.

Final Word:

I had the privilege of mounting this jewel of technology in my LRP powered TC7.1 during track testing. I was speechless at its overall speed, response, and its degree of accuracy. Highest has also thought about the pilots of the Yokomo BD8 by designing the BLP680 version, with the fixing points of the lower servos removed.