If you are thinking about getting an EDTracker

[Dead Fred]

Just a quick point I'd like to make.

The bump in the road was entirely of my own doing and in no way reflects the fantastic status of Rob and Dan and Becky who all do a wonderful and professional job.
I suppose what I am trying to say is sorry to the others in EDTracker team for letting myself get annoyed and going off halfcocked.
Also, as is always a danger when dealing only with text, sometimes it is hard to see the difference between a kind of banter and actual animosity.

I have also heard it said before that any exposure is good exposure!

Yeah, it was all intentional, honest.....

 

[Dead Fred]

It's the same board no matter what supplier you get it from. It's a little hobby board with a programmable arduino.

They aren't buying dodgy parts. I bought mine from an electronics supplier, it's the same exact board.

Have a flan in the face.

@ Tryst I had hoped to get your quote too. Something about another supplier. The full post is just above.

Yet in the tradition of all things new round here, all I can say is " Soon™ "

 

[Dead Fred]

I have an EDtracker and it clearly states, on the documentation I received, that due to the nature of USB cables and the size of the connection there may be an inherent weakness. I taped my cable in place on my headset to prevent the weight and movement of the cable from breaking the unit and have had no issues in seven months of use.

It seems, reading your OP, that you were offered a replacement and I believe that some of the makers are not native English speakers so maybe you have read too much into the email. It seems to me that he may well of been offering to replace while suggesting an upgrade to solve the additional drift problem...I would not expect the upgrade would be free though.

I think I managed about 9 months before I dropped my headset in the wrong way and snapped the usb connector away. They can be fixed if the tracks have not been lifted and ripped off the board.

I am Scottish, does that count as a non native English speaker?
Aye, well at least am no a weegie.
I'm a Borderrr gadgie.
Hehehe



These days I don't play elite. For the last six months all I seem to do is solder and do emails. all by myself.
Yeah I'm looking for sympathy.....
when I do get to play , it's going to be a whole new game to me.


peace.

 

[Dave1235]

Sorry, it was private email between two individuals, one of whom did not expect to see it plastered all over a forum. As I said, not cool.

I agree, everyone has an "off day", we are all people at the end of the day.

Many times I have hit the reply button here and typed a post, with my blood pressure high, reread it, retyped the whole thing & then deleted it.

Hitting send by mistake, replying to an email rather than forwarding, with your comments, happens every day.

Had a few problems setting mine up, I asked in the EDTracker thread and I got it sorted, helpful bunch.

It's a great bit of kit, I couldn't make one myself so am glad they sell them ready made, these guys invented something & shared it (including the specs so if you have the ability to make one you can do it cheaper) to add to our enjoyment of the game.

Thanks is the word I would use.

 

[Dave1235]

It sounds like these things are incredibly cheaply made and poorly designed in the first place, any engineer would not use the solder on the wires ends to hold a cable in place, there HAS to be a clamp, knot, tiedown or something to hold the cable firmly before any soldering is done, best not to deal with such a shoddy company and build your own next time.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -


...and get poorly make junk as a result.

Are you for real?

They sort out the software, make the board and tell you where to get the parts cheap, give you every option, make your one out of titanium if you want to, the spec's are out there. This "company" is a few people adding a cheap alternative for people that can't afford the expensive versions.

Then (and by popular demand I am sure) they make them for people like me that can't make their own, in their spare time, time they could be playing ED, for not a lot more (thanks again) than I could buy the parts for.

I broke my one, see that, "I broke my one", I stuck it on the headset with some velcro and didn't consider the weight of a 2m cable hanging on a little bit of solder, I am surprised it lasted so long.

If it's not fixable I will buy the new one next payday, I will OFC ensure the cable is fixed better next time, I think I will add a couple of cable ties so its fixed, and cable tie & superglue the cable to the headset to ensure "I don't break another one".

 

[Dave1235]

I'll jump in here and make a statement, although it wasn't myself who liased with you, gunuk.

I have asked for the other side of the story but I have no reason to think you're making any of this up. If what transpires is true then the response that you received was poorly worded, and while it did offer to replace the device, the language and style of writing leaves a lot to be desired. As part of my association with the EDTracker team, I can only apologise.

The USB connectors on the devices are obviously not made by us but are part of the Pro Micro design, so there is little we can do to change the way they are made other than make our own design. What we do do is beef up the solder points a little to hopefully improve the reliability of the item but, as may have said above, the USB connector does not like being waggled around and that is why we include a cover sheet with all devices with a bold "WARNING" text stating the above.

If your device did not have the solder beefed up, that is a failing on our part and we should rectify it.
If you did not have a letter included with your device, that is a failing on our part and I have reminded those who send devices out that they should include it.

If you are still willing to give us an opportunity to fix this for you, I would and will quite gladly attempt to repair your device for you and, considering the way this has been handled, will do it free of charge naturally.

Hope you don't mind me posting this out in the open but I like transparency here and I like to think that most, if not all, of our 'customers' trust us enough. This is an unfortunate bump in our otherwise blemish-free road and I'd like to nip it in the bud promptly!

+1 Rep & thanks for the previous help.

 

[Dave1235]

To gunuk,
Please accept my apologies for being so blunt and using such offensive language. I suppose there is no real excuse other than to say I was a little at the end of my tether.
The reasons for that are not really relevant here but I realise now that it was a very silly thing to do.
Also I failed to communicate effectively that I am prepared to replace the existing unit with a 9150 version as I believe that is a better product.

I feel a bit awful about the whole thing and am sort of shocked/impressed at how many people in the community have an opinion and have become sufficiently motivated to write their take on the issue!
I suppose I should be thankful for that and realise that it isn't just a hobby anymore..

Just to reiterate, gunuk I am very sorry and I hope the situation between us can be repaired given a little time.
People tell me time is a great healer.

Sorry.


Dor.

+1 rep Sir, we all all human, not one of us is perfect (apart from my wife OFC (IHHO))

- - - Updated - - -

Man, if I could rep you twice, I would

+1 8chars

 

[Dave1235]

He offered advice, and offered to replace it. If I'd been nice enough to create a whole project around a $10 piece of hardware THAT SOMEONE ELSE MADE and then very rudely get accused of "supplying poorly made junk" after I'd been nice enough to run around doing a whole lot of work that the OP was too lazy to or had no ability to perform, ESPECIALLY after the number of caveats and warnings given on the forum, and for no personal profit, I'd have responded in a much nastier fashion than the OP got and felt quite justified in doing so. It's this sort of entitled whining that STOPS people creating cool projects like this without a multi million dollar development budget and a legal team behind them. This is WHY companies that make crappy, chinese built hardware are flourishing, and DIY projects are disappearing.

I don't agree with every word, but most of them.

PS you have broken my rep button again.

 

[Dave1235]

Updated the OP with responses from EDTracker.


Can this not turn into people attacking other members of the community. This issue is now hopefully being resolved.

Fair play on the EDTracker team.

I won't attack anyone but I will stand up for their device and their people that helped me out, it has added a lot to my game personally.

They released the info for free, then made them for people that could not, and for a decent price too.

Storm in a teacup, a chap sent an email he has apologised for, no one got hurt, unless I read something I think is outrageous I am gone from this thread, like they said "This issue is now hopefully being resolved.".

 

[Dave1235]

Especially that Brumster bloke. You can hardly understand a word he says.

ROFLPMSL

Luckily no liquid coated the monitor on this occasion. It was close (and is particularly unpleasant when it exits via the nostrils), please use spoiler tags in future "remove drinks from area before reading" in BIG RED FONT, it may help you in future litigation, I can see you getting sued for keyboards & monitors damaged by liquids.

 

[Super_Duty]

yes the response is unprofessional from what you posted however you have to remember you are not dealing with some huge company who has customer support EDtracker is a cheap version of trackIR and for a small team they at least did offer to replace the unit in question.

Totally irrelevant in this day and age. To survive as a company, this type of nonsense/response won't be tolerated and it doesn't matter if the company is small or large. This will hit every social media site on the planet and ultimately will end, I repeat "end" the company.

 

[Rafe Zetter]

I realise you're disappointed, but I have to say that after 5 months and 60-70 hours' use I think you'd find very few companies would give you any sort of replacement or refund. I certainly don't think you'd have a leg to stand on under UK Trade of Goods act.

You're kidding right? I suggest you go and read the sale of goods act PROPERLY and this: "Under UK law, buyers in England and Wales can get a partial refund or full repair up to six years after the purchase was made (five years from discovery in Scotland). The refund should take into account how much use the customer has already had of a product. Ultimately, a county court would decide this.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1677034/Two-year-warranty-EU-law.html#ixzz3XR69FKeQ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook"

50-70 hours usage FOR A GAMING PRODUCT is nothing, a blip.

Edtracker's are almost £50 with postage - I know because I have one - but I bought the non box version and made my own box (and covered it in leather! 50 - 70 hours use from a £50 product aimed at gamers - think about that for a minute.

(although I have to say I bought mine to play Elite, but with all the issues the game still has I've not yet played it so my edtracker is still unused).

I know they are hand made by "hobbyists" but many other items are made by hand and still fall inside UK law requirements to be sold as "fit for purpose". I'm not trying to start anything here or get pitchforks out for the EDtrackers guys, but all the people who responded "it's made by hobbyists what did you expect?" are obviously not fully conversant with UK selling laws which don't just apply to large companies but to small "hobbyist in a shed" sellers too.

You make a small number of anything and sell it, it has to do what you said it would and if it doesn't or breaks too soon, you're liable. it's that simple.

(now that I've been forewarned I'm going to apply copious amounts of hot glue which should hopefully spread the stresses somewhat)

 

[QziQza]

this is the only complaint about this product or these guys i have ever seen, the only complaint in what the past 16-18month they have been doing this, a complaint about a part of the unit that they are aware of and warn against, a complaint raised and aired not because of the fault they were willing to repair, but because of badly worded email. because your knickers were put in a twist, you decided that it was imperative that you throw it into the public forum, like they are some mean nasty money grabbing cheapskates, rather than following up the response with another email to the individual expressing your disatisfaction. did you even bother to search the internet to see if anyone else had ever had an issue with them? regardless of how badly worded that reply to you was, was it really necessary to make this public an issue about it? had there been a few other complaints against these guys, or their product and service, then ok i could understand this, but there sint, so really i cant. this is a really pathetic way to go about it an issue.

 

[gunuk]

this is the only complaint about this product or these guys i have ever seen,

you decided that it was imperative that you throw it into the public forum

did you even bother to search the internet to see if anyone else had ever had an issue with them?

was it really necessary to make this public an issue about it?

had there been a few other complaints against these guys, or their product and service, then ok i could understand this, but there sint, so really i cant. this is a really pathetic way to go about it an issue.

QziQza, I've picked out a few points you made, do you see anything wrong with your argument (think chicken and egg)?!


I didn't want to get into a spat with other members of the community over this despite when people write such dribble attacking me! I didn't attack anyone, I simply gave the facts about a product I bought. I didn't tell anyone NOT to buy one.

I still stand by what I said in an earlier post, consumers have the right to know the type of companies they give money to. If it wasn't for public feedback, social media and forums we would be uninformed about the products we buy. How the products perform and in this case how a company (yes they are an LTD) interact with customers and resolve complaints.

In this case the original issue that a member of the EDTracker caused was acted upon extremely quickly and resolved very efficiently by Brumster. My complaint that I brought to a public forum was never about the device itself.

You shouldn't judge a product by it's faults, you should judge a company on how well they deal with said fault........

To Brumster:
I know I've said it a fair few times in my emails to you over the last couple of days but thanks again for your professionalism and I hope you do well with EDTracker.

Thank you.

(updated OP)

 

[brumster]

No problems . Just on the Ltd front; the Ltd company was set up last month for the upcoming EDTracker Pro but it is not trading as yet. It's set up in readiness. We've not been trading on the quiet, or hiding anything, before anyone thinks there's something nefarious going on. We were looking to keep it a little surprise for when Pro goes out, but that's blown now

 

[gunuk]

No problems . Just on the Ltd front; the Ltd company was set up last month for the upcoming EDTracker Pro but it is not trading as yet. It's set up in readiness. We've not been trading on the quiet, or hiding anything, before anyone thinks there's something nefarious going on. We were looking to keep it a little surprise for when Pro goes out, but that's blown now

I'll look forward to buying one!

 

[brumster]

The USB connector is certainly a hell of a load better

 

[oceancalm]

Guess I'll hold off ordering then...

 

[Dead Fred]

Thanks Druid.
Fait de bo reves mon ami

Glad its sorted, DeadFred is the guy who helped me out even when he was on holiday so if he was a bit short he had his reasons and it is out of character and he has done the right thing. Great bunch of guys you all have my thanks for your hard work saving me over 150 quid and enhancing my enjoyment of ED and other games .

/respect

 

[T4nk83]

You bought a cheap, barely tested, open source peripheral, and now you're complaining it broke.

You shouldve just bought a TrackIR with Pro Clip

and been done with it.