As many others, I have bought some "clone products" from RC-timer in the past, simply because some stuff is pretty cheap there. Now, I got the bill for that and learned that paying less often means paying double.
Earlier this year, I bought two MinimOSD clones from RC-Timer. One went to my copter and the other for the moment into storage for another project. Several weeks later, I took the second OSD out of storage to use in my new project and I found that it was not working. The Arduino IDE kept reporting connection errors and I even couldn't flash a new bootloader with an original Atmel AVR USBISP Mk II and the original Atmel IDE.
I emailed RC-Timer on 22JUL13, and their "Jane" emailed me back on 23JUL13, saying that I should send the OSD back to them and providing a return address.
I sent the item back after returning from a trip on 09AUG13 via registered airmail ($17 from Finland to China) and informed RC-Timer via email. "Jane" was answering that they will get back to me as soon as it arrived.
According to the tracking system (see here), the shipment arrived on 18AUG13. When I didn't hear from RC-Timer until 07SEP13, I sent another email to them, requesting status information. To that email, I never received any reply.
On 20SEP13, I again sent an email to RC-Timer, demanding a status information. Again, I did not receive any reply.
In my opinion, this behavior constitutes fraud. I will, for sure, never order at RC-Timer again and I write this blog post as an intense warning to the community about RC-Timer and to think twice before ordering from far east "cloners".
Opposite to this case, I once had the problem with the serial multiplex chip being fried by a dying ESC on my (original 3DR) APM 2.5. After posting about the problem in the DIYD forum, I was contacted by Rogelio of the 3DR support team and he sent me a new automux chip for my APM for free. No product costs, no shipping costs!
Now you decide... Do you want to save a few dollars when buying the stuff and be left totally alone or pay return shipping for nothing if something goes wrong? Or is it wiser in the long run to pay a few dollars more for your stuff and receive great support?
My choice for the future is pretty clear!
Comments
Your wrong "Ned Stojanadiv", RCtimer uses the EXACT SAME BILL OF MATERIALS (BOM) as 3DR (but way less margin) , I have bought 2 apm 2..5 from UAVobjects and so have 2 other friends and they have been perfectly working, buy 3DR, but if you want a lower cost solution and exact same solution buy the exact clone, been in electronics for 3 decade's, and have looked at the soldering from RCtimer under the micro scope,,,,perfect production, exact copy of 3DR for way less money, period.
A couple of issues, if you please.
First of all, components from other suppliers are not "clones". The designs are developed by the community and consequently belong to the community. Anybody is free to build their own versions or else throw their hat in the ring and try to mass produce and sell their own version. As we have seen in this discussion, it is not so easy to do.
Secondly, people ARE buying the cheaper versions. They know that it's a risk buying stuff from overseas but the low price makes it attractive to have a go. The inducement is that it is possible to buy, say, three cheap APMs for the price of a single unit from 3DR plus postage and the odds are good that at least one will work.
am I understanding open source incorrectly? should there not be other resources for hardware
there are numerous testers of the code that are running non 3dr hardware, I support 3dr in every way, however sometimes new hardware to experiment are beyond my price range, should another hardware vendor not offer an inexpensive solution whether it be shipping cheaper or the hardware itself sometimes it's needed to advance in this hobby, I dont think it;s right to steer people away from trying at whatever level meets their price range
Hi All,
I have added a section on Chinese Imports good or bad to my Build Your Own Multicopter Wiki page here: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/build-your-own-multicopter/
Please look it over and let me know if you think I need to add or change anything.
Not throwing stones at a glass house, but I have had issues with a faulty FTDI chip on an APM 1.4 from JDrones a year or so ago and received no help whatsoever. Being that it was my first foray into the APM Hardware the experience left a sour taste in my mouth - however after ordering a new v1.4 (less than a month before V2 was launched lol) and after a period learning about the arducopter and arduino hardware I managed to fix the (factory) broken APM by wiring in a hobbyking $4 FTDI/usb ship to the 2560/oilpan FTDI connection and fixed it for good.
Until a lockout from a cheap and unreliable Hobbyking radio/bec caused the whole thing to fly away forever.
The moral of the story is just do your damn best to triple check all vital systems even when you are running things on the cheap, and spend as much as you can on radio link equipment. Customer service will sometimes blow no matter who you buy from, but the only thing you can do apart from cry is educate yourself as much as possible about the hardware you are using.
There is no black and white, good or bad just grey grey grey - Good Lcuk!
I have bought from RC Timer and UAVojects, zero issues (APM 2.5, GPS, mavlink, OSD, props, misc).
I had zero issues with RCTimer after buying more than $3k worth of stuff from them (in several orders). I had only one issue with 3DR where I received a wrong GPS (ordered uBlox, received Mediatek) explained here. So if you are out of luck, any online shop can bite you.
I started out with 3DR for my APM2 board, telemetry and other accessories but got sick of delays before shipping and the high price of shipping to Australia. 3DR gear is priced as premium goods but the service is no better than I got from cheap suppliers like Hobby King...
After a few orders to RCTimer and a lot of orders to Hobby King, I am more than happy to continue to buy from Chinese suppliers. Low prices on products and lower shipping costs.
What finally burned 3DR for me though were the comments of a certain Adrucopter developer on RCGroups that has ensured I will never again buy from 3DR.
...unless you have a faulty product...
I have bought from both sources and have had no problems from either ,as long as you read any manual or follow recommended settings or procedures you will have the same results in the end
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