Hi,
Look, I am not going to argue with anyone on this forum who's fault something is. All I can do is provide technical information. I have an EE degree from Caltech. I have done electronic design for about 35 years. I have worked on everything from experimental radar systems, to broadcast special effects systems to high-resolution video and HDTV. Before I got into Smart-Fly I made a very good living consulting. I had a very good reputation for getting jobs done that worked and could be put into production. I know what I designed and I know the failure modes. I can tell you that any failure on the Eq10 electronically CAN NOT cause a failure that results in traces fusing. That can only be caused by high-current, whether that be a short or reverse polarity. Any electronic failure on the Eq10 will cause a something to stop working but cannot cause burned traces. Pretty much the same goes for blown MOSFETs. There is a remote possibility that a manufacturing defect in the MOSFET could cause it to fail after some use but I use automotive grade MOSFETs (Fairchild FDD6637) parts in the power path of the Eq10. The automotive qualification is a higher grade that normal commercial grade parts. So, when I get these boards back and see the damage I know something external happened even if the customer would not like to admit it or maybe did not realize it happened. A short is a short is a short and can blow something like a MOSFET out 50 to 500 milliseconds. You might ask why don't I put short circuit protection in? Well, this adds more circuitry that could possible fail. Also, at what level do I define a short, you don't want the circuit to think there is a short just because there is an extremely high servo load momentarily. There are a huge number of tradeoffs made in the design of these units. I have pulled apart competitor's units and they do not go to the lengths I go to. They do not use bypass capacitors on all their ICs, they do not use ferrite filters on all the signal lines from the receiver and to the servos, and on and on and on. Honestly, people in this hobby take the electronics too much for granted. They put tons and tons of money into the airframe and engine and then cheap out on the electronics that keep all that good looking stuff in the air. Its really demoralizing to have people tell you that you don't know what you are talking about when you have put your heart and soul into making something for the hobby when I could make a much better living consulting and it would be a whole lot less stressful. Sorry I rambled but I do not speak up when when I am not sure about something but one thing I am sure of is the quality of my products and if this hobby does not appreciate that its too bad.

While I addmittedly question the need for them in some of the installations I see these things crop up in I can say this for sure.

As someone with a background in avionics and electronics I can attest that these things are well thought out, very high quality, and quite useful in a number of situations. After a short learning curve they are very easy to set up. If you're tinkering with multiple servos per surface, and don't want to worry about power distribution, these things are the way to go, especially if you dont have a high end radio with balance functions.

I always use the smart-fly on any bird from 100cc up. Great product, great service and good solid performance!
Keep up the great work!
I agree that things happen sometimes but is usually the user that brainfarts.

An EQ-10 smoke'n.........it must be pretty quick ?