Chinese parts and products

As I wrote before, so far i've ordered everything I used from Chinese web vendors. The argument initially being the price, of course. I did not want to invest too much in a project with an unsure outcome, if that's not necessary. And in my case, there were many possible negative scenarios, making this a sort of high risk project. I did not know if I could pull it off, software-wise. I had some confidence in me getting the mechanical part sorted out. But then, if those two would come together, I did not even know if i could fly at all, or if I would like to fly such an apparatus. Or if I would continue to like it, once the challenge of getting things to work would wear off.

But since my experiences with those Chinese vendors was positive all around, I continued to order from there to this very date. I have only once not received an order (out of some 200 orders), and that was settled with a refund after only two messages. Also, I received something different than I thought I ordered, but after reading the product description better, it appeared I ordered exactly what I got. So that one was my mistake.

I wanted to start as cheap as possible. I knew I would need a transmitter and receiver to start off with, and I would rather buy one for €50 and wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive, than pay €150 for a Spectrum DX6E (for example), and take that home the same day, in a regular RC store, here in the Netherlands.

So I started out with an FS-I6 transmitter, packaged with an FS-IA6 receiver.

Once it arrived, the retail box it came in was a little dented, but the inner packaging protected the product sufficiently to arrive undamaged.

 

Since I am no retailer, the damaged box is of no concern to me.

As long as the product is intact, right?

Now, this is an example of me being positively surprised! Not only does it do exactly what you'd expect of a basic 6-channel transmitter, it does more! Like mixing, end points, excellent fail safe possibilities, and with an easy hack it even turns into a 10-channel transmitter too!

The only thing I haven't found, which is available on a Taranis, or any other Open TX compatible transmitter, is the possibility to set the speed at which the signal changes wit a toggle- or three position switch. That comes in handy to control the speed with which flaps and gear extend and retract. But that's it so far.

My next transmitter will probably be a Taranis (they have an awesome Q X7S out, now...), but for now, this FlySky will do just right! I will need a second transmitter at some point, because I fly near home and near the camping we spend most of our weekends. And packing a transmitter, charger, batteries every time - with the risk of forgetting one of them - is just a drag. And at these prices, there's no good reason not to have a second basic setup.

But, back to the topic of Chinese vendors. So far, I have not had any negative experience that was not solved by a refund, or re-sending of the product. And I have placed about 200 orders (each for an individual piece) up 'till now. 

Also, I have only had one or two items that were of a poor quality to the extend that I decided not to use it anymore. Like one item: de-soldering braid, that would not pick up any solder, no matter how much flux I added. That was €0.50 down the drain... 

The only real down side of ordering from China is the longer delivery time of which you do not know how long it is going to be. As long as you can live with that, the price difference will make you happy. The price difference, and the fact that you seemingly get random "presents" in the mail of items you might not even remember ordering anymore. Or at least not expecting anymore. 😃