11-Apr-2017, 09:04 PM
Dear forum, and especially dear fellow beginners,
I can't warn you enough about FLIGHT CONTROLLER CLONES,
as I have made my own very painstaking and time-consuming experiences. I should have rather spent that time flying, instead of trouble-shooting over some f***-up clone FC. As a total newbie, I just didn't know about the whole clone-industry, and the confusion they make about the components and terms they solemnly copy.
I wanted to try a F4-fc some weeks ago, and while they were sitting in the drawer, I just forgot about them being clones/having been so cheap. It costs to develop a product, and quality control does also.
What costs most, though, is the time you will waste upon solving problems which should not be there.
DON'T EVEN GET THOSE THINGS INTO YOUR SYSTEM, stay away from them and don't even let them get into your house or close to your workbench, because Murphy wants it that they're going to end up inside your quad one day, and you cannot imagine the havok they're going to cause.
I admit it, I have been this stoopid. It's pretty much like buying a sports car, and getting some cheapo or run-down tires for it. Or expensive motors, and mounting bent props on them. Just doesn't make any sense at all..
I just had my go at 2 units of the following FC:
![[Image: 1eQTyIdl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/1eQTyIdl.jpg)
raceflight betaflight cc3d revo f4 stm32f405 flight controller mit vbat/summer für rc multirotor diy teile
today I wouldn't have fallen for it anymore, but only some weeks ago I just didn't know better. To be honest, I was waiting on some original FC's I ordered @ rotorgeeks (SSD F3, and you can't believe how much I am looking forward to those!!
), but I am living in Switzerland, country with a very suspecting customs office, and therefore I don't know how long I'll have to watch them linger at the border.. *bohooo - still waiting..
However, in the meantime I thought: "Oh, come on, it can't be that bad..", and I tried using those two F*** ups.
Honestly, that's still nicely put. I've invested lots of time on the first, and had a go at the second, as they presented the same problems. Examples? Here you go:
Press it a couple of times, and the boot button will come off. That's not dramatic, but an indicator of lacking quality.
They're both notoriously unstable. Tend to lose all settings / reset themselves spontaneously. Try setting them up gingerly in betaflight to have all your work erased, and when you want to restore through backup, they just won't save the new settings, only manual input.
They both have faulty pin-outs. (testing pin-outs is definitely an advanced task, not shorting anything.. NOT GOOD FOR YOUR NERVES, NOT AT ALL..) They both cannot handle e.g. led-currents on the board, even though powering directly off the lipo. Ignore those LED-pins, they won't work.
They spontaneously drop all the settings, even in between changing lipos..
..in brief, THEY'RE DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS!
Absolutely buy them if you're a full-fledged masochist. For everybody else,
keep your fingers away! Cheap is still way too expensive, when it costs you stick and flight time!! It may even cause physical damage to your other components, leave alone people around you because of a malfuntioning quad. These FC's are hell..
So from now on, I'll triple/quadruple-check where my FC's are coming from. I won't buy anything under 25 dollars, that's just not possible. Btw, the Rotorgeeks SSD costs only 29 USD and they feature a lot of nifty details. If you want a no-fuzz FC with truly intelligent design, get these. They run D-shot and have an SD-card-slot. I've ordered three of them, one with the RROSD I'm pretty curious about.
I'll be writing a little report on them as soon as I could put them into my quads, that @ the moment I don't dare fly because of these heaps of crap. *I beg to excuse my language, but I'm still pretty p*****..
..well aware that all of it is my fault. Knowing or not, something that cheap just can't be good, especially when it's so dev-intense.
Get real & some decent, dev-supporting, QC stuff. For motors and other stuff, clones may be okay, and I still have troubles telling which chinese manufacturers sell what. The way I solved it was to order over reliable shops, even if this means shipping from Australia to Switzerland. Thank you, Will of ImpulseRC. Those guys are true darlings, and they'll walk you through your requirements, backing you up with great suggestions about what you really need.
So there's a custom 7-inch Helix (!) coming up. The 6-inch version I built recently was balm on my clone-battered soul. Everything works just supersmooth, and setup is a blast. They feature their own FC, PDB, Vtx and so forth, which more than justifies the price along some marvellous carbon quality. No filing, smoothing or use of sandpaper. Just candy..
So now I'll recover a bit on the Sim :o/ and continue waiting for those Rotorgeek SSD's, since I have a Kraken3 waiting. (..which just went berserk the other night and tore off a motor - I couldn't explain why, until i plugged in the FC today: Completely blank, the entire set-up was missing, figure that..)
So once more: Don't even think about it!
It's not fair, it doesn't work, and it will get you seriously frustrated. I can handle a lot of frustration and I've already had to many times in my life, but this really beats them all..
Safe flying, everybody, and enjoooyyyy!!
E
I can't warn you enough about FLIGHT CONTROLLER CLONES,
as I have made my own very painstaking and time-consuming experiences. I should have rather spent that time flying, instead of trouble-shooting over some f***-up clone FC. As a total newbie, I just didn't know about the whole clone-industry, and the confusion they make about the components and terms they solemnly copy.
I wanted to try a F4-fc some weeks ago, and while they were sitting in the drawer, I just forgot about them being clones/having been so cheap. It costs to develop a product, and quality control does also.
What costs most, though, is the time you will waste upon solving problems which should not be there.
DON'T EVEN GET THOSE THINGS INTO YOUR SYSTEM, stay away from them and don't even let them get into your house or close to your workbench, because Murphy wants it that they're going to end up inside your quad one day, and you cannot imagine the havok they're going to cause.
I admit it, I have been this stoopid. It's pretty much like buying a sports car, and getting some cheapo or run-down tires for it. Or expensive motors, and mounting bent props on them. Just doesn't make any sense at all..
I just had my go at 2 units of the following FC:
raceflight betaflight cc3d revo f4 stm32f405 flight controller mit vbat/summer für rc multirotor diy teile
today I wouldn't have fallen for it anymore, but only some weeks ago I just didn't know better. To be honest, I was waiting on some original FC's I ordered @ rotorgeeks (SSD F3, and you can't believe how much I am looking forward to those!!
), but I am living in Switzerland, country with a very suspecting customs office, and therefore I don't know how long I'll have to watch them linger at the border.. *bohooo - still waiting..However, in the meantime I thought: "Oh, come on, it can't be that bad..", and I tried using those two F*** ups.
Honestly, that's still nicely put. I've invested lots of time on the first, and had a go at the second, as they presented the same problems. Examples? Here you go:
Press it a couple of times, and the boot button will come off. That's not dramatic, but an indicator of lacking quality.
They're both notoriously unstable. Tend to lose all settings / reset themselves spontaneously. Try setting them up gingerly in betaflight to have all your work erased, and when you want to restore through backup, they just won't save the new settings, only manual input.
They both have faulty pin-outs. (testing pin-outs is definitely an advanced task, not shorting anything.. NOT GOOD FOR YOUR NERVES, NOT AT ALL..) They both cannot handle e.g. led-currents on the board, even though powering directly off the lipo. Ignore those LED-pins, they won't work.
They spontaneously drop all the settings, even in between changing lipos..
..in brief, THEY'RE DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS!
Absolutely buy them if you're a full-fledged masochist. For everybody else,
keep your fingers away! Cheap is still way too expensive, when it costs you stick and flight time!! It may even cause physical damage to your other components, leave alone people around you because of a malfuntioning quad. These FC's are hell..
So from now on, I'll triple/quadruple-check where my FC's are coming from. I won't buy anything under 25 dollars, that's just not possible. Btw, the Rotorgeeks SSD costs only 29 USD and they feature a lot of nifty details. If you want a no-fuzz FC with truly intelligent design, get these. They run D-shot and have an SD-card-slot. I've ordered three of them, one with the RROSD I'm pretty curious about.
I'll be writing a little report on them as soon as I could put them into my quads, that @ the moment I don't dare fly because of these heaps of crap. *I beg to excuse my language, but I'm still pretty p*****..
..well aware that all of it is my fault. Knowing or not, something that cheap just can't be good, especially when it's so dev-intense.
Get real & some decent, dev-supporting, QC stuff. For motors and other stuff, clones may be okay, and I still have troubles telling which chinese manufacturers sell what. The way I solved it was to order over reliable shops, even if this means shipping from Australia to Switzerland. Thank you, Will of ImpulseRC. Those guys are true darlings, and they'll walk you through your requirements, backing you up with great suggestions about what you really need.
So there's a custom 7-inch Helix (!) coming up. The 6-inch version I built recently was balm on my clone-battered soul. Everything works just supersmooth, and setup is a blast. They feature their own FC, PDB, Vtx and so forth, which more than justifies the price along some marvellous carbon quality. No filing, smoothing or use of sandpaper. Just candy..
So now I'll recover a bit on the Sim :o/ and continue waiting for those Rotorgeek SSD's, since I have a Kraken3 waiting. (..which just went berserk the other night and tore off a motor - I couldn't explain why, until i plugged in the FC today: Completely blank, the entire set-up was missing, figure that..)
So once more: Don't even think about it!
It's not fair, it doesn't work, and it will get you seriously frustrated. I can handle a lot of frustration and I've already had to many times in my life, but this really beats them all..
Safe flying, everybody, and enjoooyyyy!!
E
![[-]](https://intofpv.com/images/collapse.png)
(..sorry, dear Chinese, pls don't take it personally, or as a criticism to your culture. Your politics may be another subject, but it's really not meant personally, once more!!) 
