@fastness That is exciting! Would you describe it as actually quiet?

@jarkman it's much quieter but I'm not sure I'd describe it as quiet. Still audible but the sound is very different and I find it less annoying - it has less of the grindy-sounding whine of the cheap servos when moving

It's still noisy if it's being loaded and trying to maintain a position though. It means that in the pen lift the whine has been replaced by the pen thumping down on the paper because of the higher speed I've pushed it to

@jarkman I think the brushless ones are supposed to be really very quiet but they also seem to be much more expensive (£60+) and I think they need higher voltages than 5V whereas this was a drop in

Edit: I didn't say what it was in case it was this specific one you were interested in - AliExpress called it a KST DS215MG swashplate servo, aimed at helicopters I think

@fastness Ta. I wonder how much of the noise is really from the cogs bashing together.

@jarkman potentially quite a lot, some of the brushless ones claim to be direct drive so that could account for any large noise reduction they have

@fastness Oh! I'm amazed they can get enough torque.

@jarkman so was I and it might not be accurate - I was reading descriptions on AliExpress so it might be mistaken (or deliberately false)