Hello,
I need to buy a few servo motors for high cycle use, not sure what I mean by high cycle but let's say 10K cycles. Needs to be fairly small not bigger than a footprint of maybe 5 cm x 2 cm, I was looking at the following: Miuzei MG90S 9G Micro Servo Motor Metal Geared Motor
Needs decent torque for size but not crazy demanding, I am more concerned about internal wear and lifespan.
Can anyone recommend a decent affordable servo that you can buy om Amazon?
Thanks! Steven Lightfoot
Thanks, that is helpful. Do you recommend any particular brand names or model numbers?
Thx, Steven Lightfoot
Generally speaking, the lower the price, the lower the expected lifetime.
Also, buy from a reputable suppliers that support their products. Ask them about lifetime estimates.
Penny-farthing? 
Neither do I..
Few years ago I built temporary solution to regulate power using servo to turn potentiometer. Servo is SG90, ~$1 from aliexpress. Later I built completely digital solution and decided that I replace the temporary one when it fails.
Servo is still running fine and digital version waits in a drawer.
It's making several thousand movements per day.
Check the data sheets, that should give you lifetime information.
thx good suggestion
yes agreed, good point.
thx good to know, does it have metal gears?
No, all plastic.
So what is high cycle?
I dont know, it was more of a question. I have a little servo that came with an Arduino kit SM S2309S and after minimal use it seems to have died. I am not 100% sure, but it just stopped working.
For me I would say 10K cycles would be a good minimum, which would be about a year of operation with one movement every hour.
I have an application that makes about 100,000 movements per year. When looking for a servo for that project about five years ago, I talked with the Hitec general sales manager.
He suggested servos with magnetic encoders like their MD85 (approximately 50 US dollars, metal gears). It also has a carbon-brushed motor that "should last longer."
Regarding their D85MG (approximately 45 US dollars...that I ordered before I talked with him), he suggested occasionally requiring the servo to rotate beyond the normal end points and/or stop at random points with in 5 or 10 deg band near the end points, to brush away any build-up on the potentiometer. He also said that if a servo is always on, the motor heats up (even if not moving) and that can cause premature death.
My D85MG has been working fine for five years. I did program the controller to occasionally move the servo beyond the normal end points. Also, it operates in a box that is kept at approximately 35 degrees, so heat isn't an issue.
Previously, I used TowerPro SG90 servos, and they'd die after a month or two.
So I'm unlucky with mine (still waiting for it to die).
Some things might have effect. I detach servo after movement. Coupling is not rigid. I made sure servo doesn't hit the mechanical end stops.
Excellent comments thanks, just the experience I was looking for. I have an aerospace engineering background so I think about things like this even if my projects for now are mostly toy-like and prototypes. Do you have any experience with Miuzei brand (common on Amazon). Do you have experience with the MG90, which seems to very similar to theSG90 but with metal gears?
Thx Steve
And in terms of a servo dying, I have only one (which came with an Arduino kit) a small SM S2309S which was obviously pretty cheap and while it worked well for what I wanted, I didn't get many cycle on it and it seems to have gone tits up. The problem could be power or wiring, but it was working fine and then seemed a little wonky for a few minutes then just stopped working, so I think it just died.
Daniel Rozin has a DIY series on his famous wooden mirror artworks, in which he describes the construction.
The original had over 800 tiles, each controlled by cheap servos, and after all the failures, he replaced them all with steppers, which took several months of work.
Hard lesson to learn.
Nope
Mine had a flexible coupling to a tiny valve on virtually frictionless bearings, with no end stops, so essentially no load on the servo. I did not detach after moving.
Great example thanks. That is super cool. My application may eventually be better served with stepper motor I may consider that in the future.