X600D recall parts shipping delayed to 15th March

Dear all,

I'm sorry to report that I have now been told that the new v2 items will not ship until 15th March. This is despite being told that everything was ready to ship on 1st March 2010 by XAircraft!

Here is my Skype history:
1.55am on 1st March 2010: we are ready to ship you the new V2s/ V2 parts
4.55am on 3rd March 2010: sorry - we cannot ship until 15th March due to some problem with the motor supplier.

I'm very sorry to hear this and to report this news to you all, not least because I drove up to our Yorkshire base from Brighton last night in readiness to receive the new quads and to be able to do some flying up here and record videos, etc. Seems like I've made a wasted trip!

I will, as always, let you all know as soon as I know anything further. At this point I won't believe anything until I have a tracking number...or even better the correct parts in my hands!

Sincerely

Simon Dale

X600D to ship form China (to us) 1st March

I just received the following reply from XAircraft:

Simon

Good morning,I have back from holiday .it is sure that you will receive the V2 replacement parts ,don't worry ,it will be shipped out on March 1st

Regards
XAircraft

Fingers crossed we will have the v2 boards and motors 3 or 4 days after March 1st.

I'll keep you all posted

Best regards

Simon

RCMW FPV Article

RCMW (Radio Control Model World) has a great 5 page article about FPV flying this month (this issue hit newstands on 18th February). Apparently this is the 1st of 3 parts of the article and there's a free plan of an FPV plane to build in one issue also.

Its worth a read. Here's their website about the latest issue (March 2010): http://www.rcmodelworld.com/issue.aspx?i=4169

X600D owners to receive free upgrade to new model

Over the last week or so I have been working very closely with XAircraft and together we've managed to turn the X600D recall into a positive by giving all affected customers not just replacement parts but far superior next-generation upgrades.

The next-gen upgraded flight board includes several enhancements such as GPS functionality - a hugely sought after feature for a quadrocopter.

We have been working closely with XAircraft to get the new boards (that is flight controller, ESC and a new board for USB connection (they have moved the USB connection to a daughter board to make room for the GPS functionality)) and 4 new motors for all of our customers as soon as possible.

As soon as we have the new next-gen parts we will issue them to our customers.

We will also be stocking the next-gen X600Ds but stock will be very limited initially and this will be exacerbated by the Chinese New Year close down in February. Pre-order yours on our website now if you'd like one: http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/aircraft/x600D-quadrocopter

X600D product recall

Unfortunately a batch of X600D Quadrocopters have been found to have potential defects (as per this post on RCG http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1175755). In that post XAircraft have published a list of serial numbers and unfortunately several of our units were on the list.

We have now contacted all of our customers and got the serial numbers from each of them. Those that require new parts will be shipped new parts to rectify those potentially defective X600Ds as soon as possible.

We have never actually had any complaints from X600D customers or failures of our own X600Ds (which were on the list) and everyone has been very happy with them. That and the fact that XAircraft are dealing with the recall very professionally and properly will hopefully mean that it won't be too much of an inconvenience to our customers and XAircraft's reputation won't be badly affected.

All the best

Simon

X600D manual and step by step install video now available

I have now produced a translated manual and packaged it up along with the software, and Windows 7 drivers on our website www.firstpersonview.co.uk/aircraft/x600D-quadrocopter

In addition to that I've done a step by step howto video and uploaded it to YouTube! I had to split it into 3 parts for YouTube - the three parts are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4g3oC02kik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-3y_XEu_vg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHR33oyKkgc

X600Ds now in stock and pre-orders have been shipped out.

The X600Ds have arrived and the pre-orders have now been shipped out. You should receive them on Monday.

I've built mine but I'm waiting for a LiPo and receiver to arrive (hopefully on Monday) so I can't comment on flying it yet. The materials and quality of the components is excellent and the quickly translated manual was actually fairly easy to follow. I guess that shows how straightforward the X600D is to put together. There's nothing difficult about it, its just a case of putting it together step by step...and doing everything 4 times!

I'll be updating the manual to include an extra couple of photos and some slightly more clear translations today also.

I'm really looking forward to flying it on Monday, even if it is indoors.