Low cost RC quality


Just A few notes: my impression of Chinese product quality

Many people currently think of product from China as a knockoff and/or rubbish. I think this will change. I heard recently that China is patenting more stuff now than the rest of the world is. It doesn’t mean it’s good stuff, just that as well as everything being made in China we will be paying license fees to China. It doesn’t worry me as long as I can get a product at a low price, as I don’t believe expensive = quality or a sensible buy.

Maybe this will be the key to reforming the patent system; when America looses it’s monopoly on “we have the patent, it’s all ours” they will push an end to patents; or just start another war.

Why is mass produced product from China rubbish? I think only a very small portion of it is. Just as a portion of every countries production is crap. It’s just that China supplies so much more than anyone else and one bad experience far outweighs many good experiences.

China makes and sells direct to the end user some good product at a what we think of as low prices. They also make some lower quality product at even lower prices because we are continuing to buy it.

I recently read a comment In relation to a RC transmitter:

“you get what you pay for, substandard components in substandard housings with substandard functionality.”

This is a pretty common theme.

Substandard needs to be considered. That $50K Toyota is substandard when compared with a $500K Ferrari. So why would anyone be so stupid as to buy a Toyota.

When you buy an expensive “brand name” product at 4 or 8 times the price you are paying for finish, documentation, a local dealer.

Finish: this is the overall apparent quality of the product. The time put into design niceties, tooling finish, materials choice, software tweaking etc. If a product has to last a long time then this matters more. For shorter lived or products that we can afford to replace more often, it doesn’t make much difference.

Documentation: China usually doesn’t produce a good manual. Generally barely enough to get by and it’s written in some language that no body understands. If you can work it out, it’s not a long term problem. If you can’t, you’re screwed.

Local Dealer: For RC products, you can argue the value of a local dealer but for me it’s a pointless argument. If you a buying a very expensive “name brand” product then you are going to be happier if there is someone local who can fix it for you when it goes wrong. If the dealer is not local it may cost you as much as the cheap Chinese alternative to send it to the dealer so that he can tell you it will be sent back to America for repair and you should have it back in 8 to 12 weeks. Had this been the cheap Chinese product to begin with, you would have cursed at it and ordered a new one which would have been here in 8 to 12 days.

Back to the issue of component quality.

Excluding plastic moldings a RC transmitter is a bunch of electronic circuits, chips, wires, switches, LCD, and assembly.

The small electronic parts are pretty much the same parts that go into the “name brand” product. There are however differences in the switches, pots and sometimes connectors. These differences do not justify a 4-8 times price increase, maybe 50% on 50% of the component cost into the factory; that’s sod-all of the price we pay for it.

I’ve heard the argument that this XXX brand radio is expensive because it has a 32 bit microprocessor and a memory card slot but the cheap one only has a old 8 bit microprocessor. BULL SHIT. I buy 32 bit “name brand” micros that are significantly cheaper than 8 bit micros. Actually a pretty good 32-bit micro costs less than a cup of coffee from a noisy machine.

Many cheap Chinese products are crap because the firmware/software lets them down. This is a HUGE part of the development of the product. In a way the name brand product is much better as it’s more “finished” and less buggy. What’s good about the cheaper product is that you are more likely to find a open source software project that will completely fix it, often making it better than anything in the same pricing time-zone let a lone ball park.

I guess Chinese software is so bad because they push it out quickly to get the product selling and there no incentive to fix it. The next generation product is so different that it’s a complete new design and it’s along time before the problems are addressed; if ever.

The other argument is that it can’t be trusted because it’s cheap. This is just funny. Sure it may be an expensive model plane but I’d be much more worried about RF links and interference, servos, linkages, batteries, weather conditions and pilot error.

The expensive “name brand” product is probably made in China although with some parts being of better quality and more strict quality control; which probably makes it leave the factory at $50 rather than $30. Once it’s been sent around the world and delivered to you by your local authorized dealer with the new 200 page manual and 12 month limited warranty, you feel totally chuffed and hand over $500+ knowing you have the best that the west has to offer.

Why is the expensive “name brand” product made in China and not the west.. Simple, because the manufacturer can get it cheap and make more profit.

In the end it’s your choice and I don’t really care what you do.

I’m going to stick with my $50 Chinese transmitter with open source software upgrade and if it craps out I’ll fix it or get another one.

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