I forgot to update this thread. In further discussions with Robert he believed the Deans plug had a quality problem that slipped through his QC and he was determined to fix my problem.

Robert sent me a new EQ-10 immediately on the "honor system", without waiting for me to ship my original unit back. I swapped out my old one and now have zero problems with the new one. I boxed up my old unit to ship back to him after I copied the wire locations.

Had I pulled out my old unit, sent it in for repairs, shipped it back, etc., the whole process would have taken at least a week or more. The way Robert did this only took 3 days, minimizing my own down time.

Customer service simply doesn't get any better! I am a customer for life, and will recommend the Smart Fly products to anybody needing power distribution systems or mixers. I am a totally no-name, anonymous person who bought the product through a seperate dealer, and Robert treated me like his best customer! He is tops in my book.

I couldn't be happier and now expect many years of trouble-free operation from my EQ-10.

Brett

Originally Posted by Rush7

Wow send you out a new unit! Now if that isn't great customer service then I dont know what is. I hate to jump in here and hijack your thread but I have to say that when it comes to customer service and great products, I dont think that you can beat Smart-Fly.

smart-fly service is top notch

Somewhere at Flying Giants I saw some photos about how to make a tool from a clothes pin to open deans connectors. Any body know where that is, or do you have any good ideas on how to pull connectors apart without pulling on the wires?

Latest AMA mag. has an article covering this issue.

Check this out for easier Deans soldering:
http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-12...s--dsh-/Detail
I read about them in one of the mags (MA?) but I haven't actually used them myself as I've never had a problem with my soldered Deans connections. There are a lot of videos showing how to correctly solder these things.
-NormS

There is something up with Deans connectors. Been running them for ~10 yrs and never had an intermittent or bad one. I've soldered hundreds of them. But recently I've had some bad ones, and we've seen a number of them at the LHS I used to help out at. Both on premade packs and by guys who have been soldering these forever.

The last two flight power packs i bought (with supposedly genuine deans) have an intermittent issue in the pre soldered connector. In addition if you plug them in fully they don't work, leave them out 2mm and they make a solid connection. I also had a great planes premade parrallel connector fail when wiggled or vibrated. Cost me a nice little edge.

It's a little disconcerting as I've always considered them absolutely bulletproof. My investment in them is too large to switch without a HUGE undertaking, but every failure brings me closer. Blech! Hope they get it together soon.

Mike