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Revolution Models . CarbonXtreme . Midland Helicopters

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Radio - Servo - Gyro - Gov - Batt > BLS451 Glithing
 
 
lfalsetto
Veteran
Location: COLORADO

I am a Futaba guy and have been for 15 years. However on the recomendation of a friend a while back was that I should use JR 8411 servos, I did and then there was the recall of the 8411's for heli use. I had 12 servo's sent them in and JR replaced them with brand new 8311's no questions asked. I even had an 8717 that was glitching and they replaced it with what ever I wanted which was another 8311. I had a plank from Horizon Extra 260 the wing separated in flight. I emailed them a picture of the spar and they sent me a brand new plane plus repaired my Saito 180 for free. THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!! I have been a loyal JR servo user ever since, except for the Futaba gyro servo since I use Futaba gyros.
I purchased a 12z and updated it with the 2.4 software. On my first attempt the software upgrade didn't work, I got Futaba on the line and tried it with the person again. He said I should try the 14 mz update since the unpacking didn't work right. Then once I did that he said oh you screwed up it changed your firmware. You now have to send in your radio. And called me an idiot. That tech should know that to upgrade an EPROM you need a burner. And software patches would not do what he was describing because he said that I had changed the encoding on the chips. Finally I got to another tech after 3 tries and he laughed and said that their instuctions on unpacking the update were misleading he said all I had to do is unpack the update to the flash card directly and then do the update and everything will be fine. It worked however, my concenses is that if I have Futaba service I send it to Tony Stillman and get it fixed right the first time. I do not like dealing with techs that have been given a script to follow and beta test products on customers.
03-05-2008 08:47 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
hootowl
Elite Veteran
Location: Garnet Valley, Pa.

Looks like I will be looking for return and a full refund including shipping charges due to misleading and tampering of usage data after my purchase.

Member Bog Troll Club #1
03-05-2008 09:04 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
s80mac (passed)
Senior Heliman
Location: San Diego

I just purchased thre Bls 451 to use on my Fury and after reading this post I got concerned so I spoke to the customer service guy at Futaba just five minutes ago and he said no problem they are ok to use.
03-05-2008 09:07 PM
 
 
lfalsetto
Veteran
Location: COLORADO

S80Mac

The reason for that comment is that if you install them they are used and NO RETURNS
03-05-2008 09:15 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
hootowl
Elite Veteran
Location: Garnet Valley, Pa.

This thread started because heli flyers are reporting issues. Are these normal production/design bugs or does the heli environment create problems?

Krysta,

It's not cool to make a statement about a product that we spend big bucks on and not elaborate. What is up with the "preciseness" statement for helis?

Member Bog Troll Club #1
03-05-2008 09:22 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
s80mac (passed)
Senior Heliman
Location: San Diego

Do you think that I should return them and go with a different servo?
03-05-2008 09:23 PM
 
 
Jay1
Veteran
Location: Colorado Springs

Quote 
Do you think that I should return them and go with a different servo?

If it were my money then I would say YES!

Jay
Sooner or later, Gravity will win!
03-05-2008 09:33 PM
 
 
cscheli
New Heliman
Location: chicago, il

I'm really interested to see how this is all going to play out in the end.

I just finished talking to my retailer and he is one of the bigger sellers of heli parts dometcially and he pulled all the BLS451's off his site and he's sending them back to the distributor, he told me to just send mine back to him since I bought them last week and he would deal with the distributor on my behalf. I'm lucky he's such a standup guy!

He agrees that Futaba and the distributor presented these servos as an all purpose servos sutible for air and helis and a brushless upgrade over the S9451's (yes the brushed replacement for those are the S9452's) and now there trying to back pedal out of a potential product recall.
This really touches to the point Lfalsetto made about customer service! I'd be really impressed with Futaba if they came back later this month and said "we goofed up and are willing to exchange these to the appropriate servo for anyone who bought them 'prior' to us catching our mistake and correcting.

If you just bought yours I would call your retailer and let them know the issue and key them into this thread and maybee they will take good care of you. I'd hate to see the retailers and 'us' the end users get burned by this.

Either way these servos are comming back to Futaba but now from a bunch of dealers. I'm letting all the other air and heli retailers I know personally who are selling these things about this issue. I'm sure there under the same "mistaken" impression

I think it's really bad that you can still call Futaba support and get a different answer from some poor guy just 20 minutes ago who hasn't gotten the word. Even worse Futaba sponsored pilots have been touting these in there helis!

But I'll still say that I don't blame the service guys one bit. This stuff happens at a level that's beyond there control. The fact that once they were made aware of the incorrect/missleading informatoin at the main website, the got on the ball to have it corrected and that I can appreciate.

I just still don't agree with the "it's your fault becuase now were saying there surface only stance".

My dealer said he would swap out the JR 8717 for these, so I might end up jumping ship from Futaba to JR like Lfalsetto in the end!
03-05-2008 09:37 PM
 
 
cscheli
New Heliman
Location: chicago, il

Quote 
This thread started because heli flyers are reporting issues. Are these normal production/design bugs or doe the heli environment create problems?

I'll see if I can find the link again but when I did a web search after my first glitch for BLS451 issues I saw a few R/C Car forums where a couple of guys were complaining of the same issues.
Maybe these were the guys jumping there cars over houses and stuff. So technically I think that would still qualify as air and not surface operations

I'm sure when they figure out the problem and find a bad POT or something your going to see a new "BLS451 Thunderbird Cougar" model just for helis
03-05-2008 09:49 PM
 
 
Jay1
Veteran
Location: Colorado Springs

Quote 
"BLS451 Thunderbird Cougar" model just for helis

Good one!

Jay
Sooner or later, Gravity will win!
03-05-2008 09:54 PM
 
 
turboomni
Elite Veteran
Location: 63 Rambler Down By The Dumpster

Quote 
The BLS451 is designed by Futaba for use in Nitro or Electric cars, they are not precise enough for the demands of heli flight.

The only brushless servo we offer at the moment for heli use is the BLS251.


Sincerely,
Krysta
Product Development & Support Specialist
Futaba Service Center USA

Tower Hobbies has the 451's listed for Heli's also.

Setup is everything, All my heli's can fly better than I can pilot them
03-05-2008 10:00 PM
 
 
lfalsetto
Veteran
Location: COLORADO

Futaba tried to be tricky however they left the source code HTML exposed. IF anyone wants the broccure in PDF that shows the 451 as a recomended servo for heli's pm me and I will send it to you. That was one thing they forgot to change the brocures, still on the site.
03-05-2008 10:01 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
cscheli
New Heliman
Location: chicago, il

Is there a emotion icon for a Homer Simpson Dooohhh!
Busted!
03-05-2008 10:11 PM
 
 
Jay1
Veteran
Location: Colorado Springs

Why does a company that sells products to the general heli community think that we are a bunch of kids that will just take whatever they give or tell us?

Most of us in the hobby are experienced professionals in all different walks of life like lawyers, IT professionals and Engineers to name a few. It wouldnt be to hard to pin it on a company that orignally wrote something that was wrong in the first place. We depend on quality products and expect to be treated fairly if something is not right.

Comon Futaba, just admit it---Do what is right and lets move on!

Jay
Sooner or later, Gravity will win!
03-05-2008 10:17 PM
 
 
turboomni
Elite Veteran
Location: 63 Rambler Down By The Dumpster

The latest edition Tower Hobby flier that is good through April 30 and the previous one both list the BLS451 for airplanes ,heli's.,off road electrics ,nitro cars ,powerboats and sailboats.

Setup is everything, All my heli's can fly better than I can pilot them
03-05-2008 10:23 PM
 
 
cscheli
New Heliman
Location: chicago, il

Dooohhh!!!!
03-05-2008 10:43 PM
 
 
hootowl
Elite Veteran
Location: Garnet Valley, Pa.

Smoking gun


Quote 
BLS451 Glitching

Whirlybird,

The BLS451 is designed by Futaba for use in Nitro or Electric cars, they are not precise enough for the demands of heli flight.

The only brushless servo we offer at the moment for heli use is the BLS251.


Sincerely,
Krysta
Product Development & Support Specialist
Futaba Service Center USA


Member Bog Troll Club #1
03-05-2008 11:03 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Jay1
Veteran
Location: Colorado Springs

Opppppsss...

Jay
Sooner or later, Gravity will win!
03-05-2008 11:05 PM
 
 
WhirlyBird500
Senior Heliman
Location: Rhode Island, USA

2008 Tower Hobbies Catalog PG 215 servo chart, BLS451 Airplanes, Helicopters, Cars (all types), and Boats(all types).
03-05-2008 11:19 PM
 
 
lfalsetto
Veteran
Location: COLORADO

I could see a new company that doesn't have a loyal customer base trying to pull this but Futaba, hopefully they will do what is right and recall the servo just as JR did. JR got a tremendous fan base when they did this.
03-06-2008 12:21 AM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
7 pages [ <<    <     2      3     ( 4 )     5      6     NEXT    >> ]4159 viewsTOPIC CLOSED
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Radio - Servo - Gyro - Gov - Batt > BLS451 Glithing
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