Kiwi's XPS test results are up.

[Woketman]

	Quote: Originally Posted by XJet
	I published a little piece in my daily blog today about how powerless *facts* are in the face of *faith*. Although it wasn't written with XPS in mind, it does seem to be a very similar situation. Faith versus Fact (or how scammers make a living).

Most EXCELLENT article, XJet. Hits the nail on the head, and you are correct: it reflects the reality of the XPS FanBoys perfectly!

[easytiger]

Good article.
You know, early on, a few months after XPS was announced, I told the story about my friend Weber.
This goes back about 20 years...one day, my friend Weber was at the mall, and two guys came along in a van. The van was full of high-quality audio speakers, new in their boxes. They told Weber that they did deliveries for a stereo store, and the guys on the loading dock made a mistake on the invoice and gave them an extra pair of speakers by accident. They offered to sell these $2000 speakers to my friend Weber for only $700. He bought them.
He brought them home and hooked them up, and invited us all over to hear...
They sounded like paper cups. Broken paper cups. Awful. Not worth $50, much less $700, much less $2000. And when we opened them up, it was pretty obvious that they were pretty much just pasteboard boxes done up to look like high-end speakers.
But Weber thought they sounded GREAT.
A couple of weeks after that, there was a story in the local paper. The guys in the van had been arrested. It turned out this was a very common scam that ran all over the country. We showed the paper to Weber. But he just would not beleive he had been taken. Still won't beleive. Still thinks those speakers sound great. Still thinks he got a great deal. No matter what, his ego will not allow the proper synapses to connect to make him realize the reality of the situation. We long ago gave up trying to convince him...

[Simpleton]

After 20 years, he probably needs to look at having them re-coned, or at least new foam surrounds installed. ;-)

(I have speakers that cost that apiece back then, the genuine article, and have to have the drivers rebuilt every few years)

[easytiger]

Well...all I can say is if two guys roll around in a van and offer you a schweeeet deal on a couple of speakers, or an Xbee-based radio control system, go for it!

[Simpleton]

I'll be on the alert.

[easytiger]

As I understand it, Jason Shulman also listens to speakers, so consider that a sound endorsement...

[Woketman]

Glad I'm not the Slidell, LA Weber!

[Boomhauer]

I delt with Scott most of the time at Nall and we switched 2 planes over, a 33% Laser and a 46% Ultimate, We may be one of the lucky ones or something but there were no issues the whole weekend with either plane and Scott was more than helpful with all issues. I also bought the system for my 42% extra and installed it this past weekend with 7 flights and no issues, I was unaware of all this mess beforehand and sure hope it all get resolved. We simply ripped out all regs on receivers and bought the smart fly expander and run full 7.4 volts on system, hope all troubles stay away from us.

[jonkoppisch]

Another one!!!

	Quote:
	My first flight with XPS resulted in lock out and losing the plane. It's still in the wilds of Florida if you want to help look. I installed it as per instructions. It had a Dimension Engineering BEC and only two servos on the plane. The plane flew for years on 72Mhz prior to me losing it. I think XPS is smoke and mirrors. You cannot sell the stuff to recoupe your loss. How anyone can shill for this company is beyond me. -Ken

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=52

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by lomchevac
	I delt with Scott most of the time at Nall and we switched 2 planes over, a 33% Laser and a 46% Ultimate, We may be one of the lucky ones or something but there were no issues the whole weekend with either plane and Scott was more than helpful with all issues. I also bought the system for my 42% extra and installed it this past weekend with 7 flights and no issues, I was unaware of all this mess beforehand and sure hope it all get resolved. We simply ripped out all regs on receivers and bought the smart fly expander and run full 7.4 volts on system, hope all troubles stay away from us.

Not wishing you bad luck. . . but with XPS it's not a matter of IF there will be a problem .. only WHEN it will happen. Best of luck!!!

[Costas]

	Quote: Originally Posted by jonkoppisch
	Another one!!!

We also had another XPS Rx go into the so called 'Zombie' state last Sunday at our heli club.

It was fitted in a Gasser machine and was fed with a dedicated receiver battery (servos fed off their own separate isolated battery). Luckily for the owner the Rx locked up just before takeoff and the machine just sat on the flight line at a lowish throttle setting, so no harm done to the model.

Once we manually shut the motor off, we went over the installation and the Rx was sitting there with a green steady LED but there was no response from the servos - It did NOT go into failsafe, and at all times the pilot was no more than 10 feet or so from the heli. Checked all batteries etc and all OK.. It was not until we cycled the power to the Rx that we gained control. Needless to say the owner was very lucky to not lose the machine or cause an incident etc.

I am certain he is now purchasing some Spektrum gear as I write this...!

This is the THIRD time XPS receivers have locked up into a 'Zombie' state on 3 different machines (2 different owners) at our club - Luckily the majority of us are not flying XPS and these only two XPS owners (in our club) are currently in the throws of switching systems.

I am convinced that some sort of firmware problem causes this problem as it does not occur all the time and the two guys have had quite a few successful flights with the same setups previously.

After these three incidents they cannot trust XPS anymore - As a matter of fact, I would confidently state that all of our club members would now only purchase Futaba or Spektrum/JR 2.4GHz gear at this point in time.

[XJet]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Costas
	We also had another XPS Rx go into the so called 'Zombie' state last Sunday at our heli club. This is the THIRD time XPS receivers have locked up into a 'Zombie' state on 3 different machines (2 different owners) at our club

And JD says it's "impossible".

Then again, he says that he's tested the firmware and is 100% certain there are *no bugs*.

This shows a naivety beyond belief and is *not* something that any software engineer would *ever* say, for fear of being ridiculed.

As with the hopping issue, JD seeks to simply deny things that don't tally with his view of the world.

Unfortunately that means that users of his gear can find their support requests summarily dismissed as being "impossible" or due to something *they* have done wrong -- without any real investigation or willingness to accept that it might just be a problem with XPS.

I feel sorry for Xman2004 over on RCG who had his very genuine help query handled in this way.

Not only that, JD deleted the thread in which he asked for help.

There were no accusations, no challenges to JD's word -- a simple description of the problem and a request for help.

It seems that JD won't have any talk of problems with XPS, at least not in his support forum. I think perhaps the word "support" becomes a misnomer when the only postings that are acceptable are those which praise the system and berate anyone who'd dare bring a fact or two into the area.

But I see those unexplained XPS failures continue to mount at an increasing rate -- another since I looked earlier today, and now there's a growing amount of *unused* XPS stuff being flogged in JD's own forum by people who have got cold feet after seeing the way JD behaves.

The pigeons appear to be coming home to roost.

[USN_POPS]

I fully agree that the FAAST Rx install is pretty much a no brainer. Having tested it in some less expensive, and easier to get over if I lost, planes - I've put it in my 3 year old Corby Starlet. Great range checks, now waiting for the right weather this weekend.

Already flown in my Quique Yak, flawless performance. And I sure feel safer flying now.

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by XJet
	And JD says it's "impossible". Then again, he says that he's tested the firmware and is 100% certain there are *no bugs*. This shows a naivety beyond belief and is *not* something that any software engineer would *ever* say, for fear of being ridiculed. As with the hopping issue, JD seeks to simply deny things that don't tally with his view of the world. Unfortunately that means that users of his gear can find their support requests summarily dismissed as being "impossible" or due to something *they* have done wrong -- without any real investigation or willingness to accept that it might just be a problem with XPS. I feel sorry for Xman2004 over on RCG who had his very genuine help query handled in this way. Not only that, JD deleted the thread in which he asked for help. There were no accusations, no challenges to JD's word -- a simple description of the problem and a request for help. It seems that JD won't have any talk of problems with XPS, at least not in his support forum. I think perhaps the word "support" becomes a misnomer when the only postings that are acceptable are those which praise the system and berate anyone who'd dare bring a fact or two into the area. But I see those unexplained XPS failures continue to mount at an increasing rate -- another since I looked earlier today, and now there's a growing amount of *unused* XPS stuff being flogged in JD's own forum by people who have got cold feet after seeing the way JD behaves. The pigeons appear to be coming home to roost.

Uh, X-jet, it's NAIVETE` (there's supposed to be a French accent mark on top of the 2nd e. . my 'puter can't do it.). . .nothing personal, just adding to your repertoire. . .

I'm HOPING that someone can get it on VIDEO. . this "receiver has a solid green light, but no one is home" phenomenon. That would pretty much put all the excuses to rest from XPS and JD.

[jonkoppisch]

He'd deny it and say the video is doctored, just like they say kiwi's video is doctored....