Hi,
Wanted to share my experience in hopes of saving someone else the massive waste of time and money, and in the slim case management from 3DR reads this and is aware of the misleading, and possibly fraudulent activities goes on within their company.
5 weeks ago I placed my first order with 3Drobotics. I received
-1 broken motor
-2 broken ESC's
I suspected I did not have SimonK flashed ESC's, but was assured "there is no possibility of this, we only sell simonk flashed ESC's". OK.
I ordered 2 additional motors & 3 ESC's to replace my brand-new-broken-equipment. When I receive this, 2 of the ESC's say "simonk" on the sticker (and one of two new motors is broken). I call 3DR to find out - tech support then says my other, original 4 ESC's are NOT simonk, and that would send me 4 more that are 100%, for sure, simonk flashed firmware.
4 ESC's arrive without the Simonk sticker. I call support again, actually speak to a technician and make them listen to the codes over and over, and they assure me the 4 new ESC's NOT labeled with "simonk" are actually simonk, and the 2 I have that are labeled "simonk" need to be sent back to them.
I have:
-been lied to by multiple 3DRobotics employees on the phone (sales & tech support) as to what kind of ESC's I have in attempts to make me go away. Maybe sales does not know how to identify an ESC.. but technical support? there is no excuse.
-experienced a crash, at my expense, due to mismatched ESC's cutting off while the others kept running.
-received 3 distinct hardware versions of supposedly the same exact item. 1 had simonk, 2 others did not. I say different hardware because they have different length wiring, are different physical dimensions and have different board layouts.
-paid for shipping 4x on mistakes made by 3dr. and of course, each time prepaid for all items & had to wait at least 2 days for an order, with ALL ITEMS IN STOCK, to ship. 3DR 'Next day' = 3Day
If you have ordered an ESC from 3drobotics in the last 5 weeks, chances are you do not have a SimonK loaded ESC. Also, you may have mismatched hardware running the same firmware or maytech firmware with different settings (ie: low voltage cutoff). I would HIGHLY suggest checking to see what you actually have and avoid a crash. Besides being DUPED by 3Drobotics.
Replies
I have been having problems with a ESC just twitching the ESC, which would make me suspect the ESC timing is wrong for the motor... Ir bad or the wrong firmware... Could I have this same problem with the new DIY y6 that I got this week?
For those who have received ESCs WITHOUT SimonK, here is the programming sheet :
1. wait for sequence 5, then factory default the ESC
2. Item 4 : Set to LOW (alternatively also set 3. to NICD)
3. Set Item 7 to START
4. NB : set Item 10 to 16KhZ - this makes a substantial difference
NB : Do not do this if you dont know how to program ESC's. This procedure takes a LONG time on a Hexa or Y6, because after every setting change, you have to start over with the sequence.
Dear Chris, Raph and all,
I contacted the customer support and now received an email saying "Your order has been shipped".
So I am hoping to receive the new SimonK flashed ESCs soon (unfortunately overseas takes a while). 3DR was kind enough to send me new ones first before I send the wrong ones back. The ESCs were already soldered to the PDB and new connectors and now I can proceed with testing and preparing the copter and do not have to wait another 2-4 weeks.
Thanks to everybody involved. I hope this helps to establish a better QC.
Best wishes,
Thorsten
What happened to Quality Control?, I hope its not all about shifting units out the door!
HOW can I be sure if and witch one of the five (5) ESC have or not SimonK inside? Externally they are all the same (NO SimonK label on it), on all five I can program the internal parameter (Brake, ecc).....Are they normnal ESC?
What are the parameter for use it on a multicopter (h--quad)?
Rino
Where can i find the ESC programming instructions?
Thx
Hi to all,
Same situation of Thorsten. In my order #R645140716 there were five (5) ESC 20 Amp with SimonK. They arrived.
No one report on the stck the "SimonK firmware"!!! I wrote 4 times to the customer support. I said.." There is no SimonK mark on it, I can normally program the parameters of the ESC, like Breake, Lipo count, ecc..... this is not SimonK firmware..."
All four times the answer was... be sure they are SimonK!!!.... NOW!! What can I do? Lucky that all five ESC work and four are on my quad (wire cut, soldered).... but they are not what I bought.
Send picture? Send back from Italy to USA?
Are they releable? I had two crash, without broken part... could be the ESC?
We are checking into this issue to find out where the problem is exactly.
If you have any images of those esc it would help to send them over, so we can compare to what we have here.
We will let you know what happened asap.
However these stories do happen with alarming frequency so one hopes there is some serious board-level review of 3DR's supply logistics and QOS.
Raph,
We're investigating this issue. The ESCs come from a supplier and we are not aware of an issue with the firmware not being loaded as per spec. But I've asked the team to test them to see if they can verify what you're seeing.