Hoping to fly new quadcopter soon... maybe?

H

Heffa

Member
Not wanting to build my own, about a month ago I purchased a Turbo Ace X830-D quadcopter and have been excited to try it out. Three weeks after receiving the copter, it has yet to fly. I wish I could tell you when it will get airborn, but I suspect I'm still weeks away. Why?

* Most of the instructions received were for equipment other than what I purchased. The controls in the instructions don't translate well to the controls on the equipment I purchased. When I complained about this, I was told I got the "newest and greatest" and that it could be months before the updated instructions are available. (?!)
* Many steps are simply excluded from the instructions. Some accessories also came with absolutely no instruction (blade balancer, for example).
* I've waited up to 7 days for replies to my emails to the seller (they do not accept phone calls for technical questions -- only for sales questions).
* Many of their replies have been of no use (i.e.: their solution is to "watch the instructional video that came with your quad", where the video is for different equipment and I've already explained this to them). After each of these, I have to reply and start waiting days once again.

I'm not going to fly it until all my questions are answered. There's too many $$$ at stake here to find out after the Big Crash that "....you should have tethered cable b to stud d -- everyone knows that."

I'm clearly frustrated. I had a specific commercial use for this thing, and I've missed out on that opportunity. If there was a refund option, I'd be all over it (of course, there isn't... though disputing my credit card is still on the table). PS: if anyone is interested in purchasing a never-flown X830-D, I'm listening.
 
D

DanaB

New Member
Yes, the joys of dealing with an offshore vendor can be troublesome. As you have found, you are not only dealing with distance time zone issues as well as language issues. I also suspect that many Chinese vendors just don't give a damn if you are unhappy. There are enough other potential customers to offset the problem ones so they don't really care. Sometimes it's worth paying the extra bucks to deal with a US vendor that provides support. Hit some of the other quad rotor forms as well and make some noise. If enough bad press gets out there maybe it will have an impact in these clowns will either change their ways or grow out of business.
 
Mike

Mike

=)
Admin
Man, that sucks to hear! My number one problem with this hobby has been the lack of good documentation from these Chinese vendors. DanaB is right when he says it's sometimes worth the extra money to go with a US vendor. They tend to provide a lot of support if you need it and a lot of times, the price difference isn't that much because the shipping is a lot cheaper. I guess the good thing about it is that you do learn a lot when you don't have step by step instructions... but I agree with you, putting a lot of money in the air, not being sure if you did everything right, is pretty crappy. That's what I did though when I started (and even today when trying out new stuff). The worst part about the money is having to wait 3 weeks for replacement parts after flying for 2 minutes and crashing.
 
H

Heffa

Member
Thanks, though I'm confused. While I'm sure the equipment is from off shore, I purchased the quad from a seller in California so there's no time zone issue per se. I even offered to drive to their store so they could first-hand show me how everything works. This would be a 2,100+ mile round trip on my part. When I proposed this, they responded by saying they can't have someone spend that much time with me.

They are still alarmingly unresponsive -- it has now been 7 days since I last sent them a question, and still no response. I even sent a couple of reminder emails letting them know I'm stalled until I hear from them. I'm throwing in the towel on this -- I don't have the patience for it.
 
Mike

Mike

=)
Admin
Oh, wow - what shop did you purchase it from? If it's from Ebay, you can use the seller protection - or if you paid PayPal, I think they might be able to help you dispute/ refund. If it's just a regular shop/ credit card purchase, there's not much you can do, other than disputing the cc purchase and sending it back to them without their permission.

My experience with US sellers is that they are way more responsive than the Chinese sellers for the most part, but there is always a few bad apples. I've sold some copter parts on Ebay and when people ask questions, if I don't have the answer off the top of my head, I work with the manufacturer, etc. and get it for them ASAP. Kits are normally purchased by people with less experience building quads, so accurate build instructions are a must. If they only have old instructions from their supplier, they need to sit down and build the "latest and greatest" they sold you and update the instructions and send you out a PDF.

It's possible that someone else has had the same issue and posted the build on YouTube or something. Have you checked there? I've only ever gotten one frame that had any official assembly instructions, but I've always been able to find multiple videos of people assembling each frame so I was able to figure out what they did to ensure I had everything right. It might be harder to find with an entire kit, but you never know.
 
H

Heffa

Member
Wow Hobbies is the seller. It's not a kit -- it was fully assembled when I got it, and was fully binded/calibrated/etc. when it left their store. However, the transmitter I received was a different model than all the instructions, and I somehow unbinded the quad while trying to figure out how the instructions relate to my transmitter. When I asked about it, that's when they said it will take them months to figure out how the new transmitter works and provide instructions.

I have not found YouTube videos for the specific problems I've had, which mainly relate to binding (that took 3 weeks), and now calibrating the fail safe settings (the calibration software I was instructed to downloaded says it is incompatible with the firmware, but nobody can tell me how to resolve this).

This morning they finally responded to my email from a week ago and are recommending I return it so they can set it all up for me again. More delays. And I'll still lack the understanding of how this thing really works, so I'll not be confident that all the Is are dotted and Ts are crossed prior to flight.
 
Mike

Mike

=)
Admin
Oh man, that is unfortunate. It's good that they are finally going to set it all up for you again, but binding and setting up failsafe should not be that difficult to provide instructions for. With my tx/rx, each of these tasks take less than 15 seconds - and I'm slow.
 
H

Heffa

Member
The problem is the Nazam assistant software. When I try running it to calibrate, I keep getting a "firmware incompatible" error and it locks up. It also asks for me to log in, and I set up an email address/password combo that worked once and then it keeps telling me "the email address and password are not a match". So I perform the password reset function, enter a new password, and get the same response. I've asked the seller and manufacturer for help with these issues. The seller told me to send it back and they'll calibrate it. I don't want to do that. I've already found another reason I need to use the assistant software, and I don't want to have to box this up and ship it every time I run into something. I want to make the software work for me here. The manufacturer didn't help -- they just told me to contact the seller for help. So I'm waiting for some additional responses to see where this will lead.

The good news: I HAVE flown the quad, and it's a blast! I don't have all the fail safe features yet, obviously, so I'm being very cautious. It's pretty jiggly, which I think is in part due to the lack of proper calibration. There are settings in the software to address gimbal gain to help resolve this (which is why I want access to the software -- so I don't have to send it back again to the seller to have them adjust this setting). I'm hopeful that I'm slowly sneaking up on the appropriate solutions.
 
H

Heffa

Member
Okay... progress in just 15 minutes!! While I was typing out my last post, it occurred to me that I should simply try setting up a new email/password combo using another email address. I did that, and I was able to get everything to connect and cooperate. Now my firmware is upgraded -- my previous obstacle has been cleared! Now I'll be able to calibrate, adjust the gimbal gain, etc. Success at last! Of course, I have commitments the next few days and probably won't be able to try this until the weekend, but it's still a relief.

My only other issue at this point is blade balancing. The seller suggested a magnetic blade balancer, which I purchased when I bought the quad. However the holes in the blades or not round -- they are like round holes except with two flat sides to fit the similarly shaped hubs on the motors. The balancer can be tightened down anywhere along this oblong shape, yielding wildly different results. I wrote the manufacturer of the balancer and asked them how I should use it (I feel like I'm becoming a pest to the seller, so I'm favoring the 'direct to manufacturer' approach with my inquiries). They responded and said this balancer can only work on a blade with round hole -- it can't work on the blades I have. So if anyone has advice for balancing a blade with an oblong hole, let me know. I'm thinking of trying to make a small plug to fill the oblong hole, with a round hole in the center of the plug. But that could impact the tight tolerances, too. I have written the seller, but so far no reply.

Thanks...!
 
Mike

Mike

=)
Admin
Nice! I'm glad you're able to fly now and you're having fun! As far as balancing goes, this is very important, although it doesn't seem like it is. Since the motors spin so fast, any imbalance in the props can wear out your motors quickly. I'm actually surprised that your copter didn't come with them balanced already since it's pre-built.

Do you have the balancer with the rubber cones that hold the props? This may work with your props since most of the sides are round. You have to be careful that it's centered though. You could also find a small plastic tube or sleeve that fits snugly in there so you can push the cones into it and get to the perfect center.
 
H

Heffa

Member
mm said:
Do you have the balancer with the rubber cones that hold the props? This may work with your props since most of the sides are round. You have to be careful that it's centered though. You could also find a small plastic tube or sleeve that fits snugly in there so you can push the cones into it and get to the perfect center.
Click to expand...

The balancer has two opposing metal cone nuts that tighten into the hole in the blade. The seller's advice is to use a caliper to make sure it's centered. I prefer the idea of coming up with some sort of "filler" for the ends of the oblong holes, forcing the cones into the center. I'll work something up...
 
H

Heffa

Member
Crash and burn. :(

I was finally able to make the failsafe adjustments (following a video provided by the seller). I took the quad out to a field for a test flight, and it was unresponsive to the controls. I tried powering it up again, and this time it took off straight up with no response from the transmitter. It flew up to about 50 feet or so and then shut off... and came crashing down. Several broken parts. I have no clue as to why it behaved the way it did. I'm not yet decided whether I'll be ordering replacement parts or dropping it in a dumpster.
 
Mike

Mike

=)
Admin
Oh, man! That is terrible. I had the same thing happen to me, but it was inside of the house. Broken quad and a day patching up the ceiling. I luckily had a spare frame and motors laying around, so I was able to rebuild. I was pretty shaky flying for awhile after that. Luckily I didn't have any FPV equipment on that quad or it could have cost me a lot more.

It ended up being a bug in the software on the transmitter. It was sending at least 50% throttle for a couple of seconds when I turned it on. I re-flashed it with new firmware and it corrected the problem.

With yours, it sounds like it could have been a failsafe issue. Did you set failsafe to zero, or did you try to set it to a setting that would gently land the copter if it lost radio connectivity? I thought the latter was a great idea when I was first setting mine up, but everyone suggests setting it to zero because of the potential for accidental fly-away.

Don't throw it in the dumpster though. If you're done with it, you could probably get something out of the salvaged copter on ebay or from a forum member. I thought about giving up a couple of times... but I didn't. I'm happy I didn't give up now, but it did cost me a lot for all my mistakes =)
 
H

Heffa

Member
I've been working on this thing for a few weeks now, with no luck. Every time I get something to work, I find two more things that don't... or need replacing due to the crash. The only advice I've been getting from the seller is, "send it to us -- our shop rate is $110/hr and it usually takes 2 hours to figure out the extent of what needs to be done". I don't feel like sinking any more into this.

Tonight, after a couple of hours of frustration and setbacks trying to work on it again, I lost it and destroyed the damn thing. Time to find a new hobby.
 
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