SkyRC — IFA 2014 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

[kreisl]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

yes unfortunately a few units of a specific batch must have slipped material quality QA, but those are covered by warranty np

and as mentioned, concerned prospective buyers could contact the dealer or the sky to inquire about state of affairs (which i know but don't tell as of yet)

just as a hint, the sky listens carefully to constructive criticism re firmware, software, apps, and hardware, and i can feel the progressive improvements at every corner cant you

if the sky didn't get not few complaints and warranty claims re broken pins, don't you not doubt they wouldn't unchange the origin of the pin breaking problem?



thanks for your nice comments anyway looks like it's time to edit my ignore list again bye bye

 

[Andrey]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Pretty ridiculous. This thing might have the unique features but it's still a junk-type item like you'd buy on bangood...oh wait, it IS on bangood. Too bad nobody is making a high quality charger like this - something actually well-designed and thought out.

Come on! MC3000 is far from "junk"! It does have minor issues which don't affect its usability. Really, you can even temporarily work around broken spring pins using rubber bands. This charger remains the most advanced one for the price.
One may design and produce a mechanically top-quality device, but it will cost $500... Most people from this thread will never buy one. I believe the MC3000 design and manufacturing quality are very good compromises making it a great tool for flashlight enthusiasts. And, last but not least, it remains affordable for majority of people.

 

[sns]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Come on! MC3000 is far from "junk"! It does have minor issues which don't affect its usability. Really, you can even temporarily work around broken spring pins using rubber bands. This charger remains the most advanced one for the price.
One may design and produce a mechanically top-quality device, but it will cost $500... Most people from this thread will never buy one. I believe the MC3000 design and manufacturing quality are very good compromises making it a great tool for flashlight enthusiasts. And, last but not least, it remains affordable for majority of people.

I agree. It is quite complete device that has everything up to almost professional device. If sky would work better with software or give out its USB protocol - it would have wonderfull software as well. Sky's software for almost every charer is, actually, crap from ten years old programmer, written in just couple of days with no testing or idea on what it should like. (sorry, but this is true). Nice software would add whole lot of value to this device.

 

[Beckler]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Sky's software for almost every charer is, actually, crap from ten years old programmer, written in just couple of days with no testing or idea on what it should like. (sorry, but this is true). Nice software would add whole lot of value to this device.

^ Well the software is at least 50% of the device! So if you're correct you already admit it's trash. Without even owning one I could tell this was the case, because it's that type of product - I can tell just by looking/reading. But everyone has different standards. Just like some of the reviews on sites like banggood for some product which is obviously complete junk, might have a lot of ppl saying "great quality" or something. (Those could be fake reviews I suppose). Anyway, actually well-designed, high-quality products are an extreme rarity these days. I dispute that a quality product here would be $500. Good design isn't necessarily any more expensive than a bad one, it's just that most product designers are clueless - you only have to look at the plethora of horrible junk available today in all consumer products...

 

[kreisl]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

wonderfull software as well. Sky's software

i don't use the sky software anymore. the pcls is usable, functional, pretty basic, but also serves as demo and reference for interested coders who want to make something nicer than pcls. those coders can contact the sky and ask for the usb protocol. since the protocol changes with every beta firmware revision and the description may even be lacking or faulty or outdated, its not posted just like that on the www no way.

so far dex does only logging but it does it better than pcls.

@sns what dont you like about dex? its free, open source, and has replaced my needs for pcls.

 

[sns]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

i don't use the sky software anymore. the pcls is usable, functional, pretty basic, but also serves as demo and reference for interested coders who want to make something nicer than pcls. those coders can contact the sky and ask for the usb protocol. since the protocol changes with every beta firmware revision and the description may even be lacking or faulty or outdated, its not posted just like that on the www no way.

so far dex does only logging but it does it better than pcls.

@sns what dont you like about dex? its free, open source, and has replaced my needs for pcls.

After first installation dex worked. For some 10 minutes. And then it froze. Tried changing skyrc module to the one you've put on dropbox - says some error on logging start (missing or extra parameter or something like that). Now either module does not work properly, one of them (the older one) gets usb driver fail. So neither software for MC3000 does work on my system (win10 surface pro 2). Older skyrc Charger Master does work ok overnight (ver 1 and ver 2). With another charger of course.

 

[Gauss163]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

.. If sky would work better with software or give out its USB protocol - it would have wonderfull software as well. Sky's software for almost every charer is, actually, crap from ten years old programmer, written in just couple of days with no testing or idea on what it should like. (sorry, but this is true). Nice software would add whole lot of value to this device.

You can't expect more from these Chinese RC hobby charger cloners. They are hardware companies. They probably don't have a single software engineer in the entire company. For a couple decades the software on these hobby chargers has essentially been stagnant - cloned from the original higher-quality Korean chargers. So, they've had little need to hire competent software engineers. It's unlikely that a niche product like the MC3000 will change that.

Instead, we should aim to convince these manufacturers to make the software open source (or at least the communication protocols) so that we can write our own software. This has been partly achieved with the MC3000 but, alas, not completely, since the Bluetooth (phone) protocol appears to still be proprietary. But it shouldn't be too difficult to reverse engineer if need be.

 

[Andrey]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

I dispute that a quality product here would be $500. Good design isn't necessarily any more expensive than a bad one

Totally agree on the cost of design point. It doesn't take much more time of the same engineers to put better materials and components into design and require certain standards of manufacturing and assembly. It does cost, however, to acquire these parts for every unit, enforce standards and quality control throughout the entire manufacturing process. Compare the price of iPhone to the one of cheap devices: six times more expensive! Those devices, however, have pretty much the same functionality. It is the build quality that makes all the difference.

 

[HKJ]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Compare the price of iPhone to the one of cheap devices: six times more expensive! Those devices, however, have pretty much the same functionality. It is the build quality that makes all the difference.

That Apple has a high selling price do not imply that iPhones are expensive to make.
We can also discuss the quality of iPhones, one one model you could basically kill the communication by placing the fingers a specific way. That is very bad quality.

 

[Ravel]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

SKYRC Mc3000 owner here. FW version 1.03, HW 1.4.
I can't get in any way a firmware update: unable to get firmware from the internet.
I use the MC3000 monitor software that I got from the SKYRC MC3000 webpage.
Any help ? Thanks.

Hello,
same here, tried two versions of winblows
and disabled virus-checking.

I imagine it is an issue on the server side
Plus incoming newer versions of FW (hence disabled, awaiting upgrade)

Regards

 

[jal]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

I've been posting my experience with the one MC3000 I own, but haven't really shared my thoughts on the problem, other than a little grumbling. Here's my take.

The TLDR: My annoyance at the breakage should not be construed as a negative review of the MC3000. For me, it is the best charger on the market. If you're unwilling to engage in the occasional junkyard engineering, it may not be the best charger for you.

It is a hobby charger. These are comparatively very low-volume sellers, and making them at this price point entails a ton of tradeoffs. I would, in fact, pay more for something like it that chose the more expensive, better quality paths through the design space, but suspect there are too few other people who feel the same to earn back the cost of the first unit. So expecting extremely high quality, perfectly even manufacturing/QC, etc., it seems to me, is a category error[1].

I'm generally quite happy with it, but my expectations are, I think, set accordingly. I'm used to making/buying/playing with custom electronics, where the manual is a schematic if you're lucky and the safety instructions are "turn it off if you smell burning." The MC3000 is a couple steps up from that, and that's fine with me. I went the warranty route, and it turns out that it doesn't make sense to keep doing so, and that's OK, I'm perfectly comfortable voiding warranties. I am actually considering buying a second one; due to my occasionally poor planning skills, the capability to charge a bunch of cells at once would be nice.

[1] Regarding the Apple comparison, I think it simply doesn't make sense to even compare. This article is going around around Bay Area startup circles explaining part of the reason why. It doesn't make sense for a number of other reasons, but that article should be sufficient argument on the topic.

 

[tjh]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

It's a great charger. More options than any other. HKJ approved.

Mine is sturdy and robust, even after I've opened it up.

Trying to suggest the firmware is badly written or a copy/clone obviously haven't used it. Just read the manual to see how different and customisable it is.

Sure, focus on the few negatives. That says a lot more about you as a person than it does the charger.

 

[Gauss163]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Sure, focus on the few negatives. That says a lot more about you as a person than it does the charger.

Nonsense. Someone who bought the charger expecting the Bluetooth software to be functional has a right to be quite perturbed. The software is crap. That says a lot about the manufacturer, not about the buyer.

 

[LiteTheWay]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Pretty ridiculous. This thing might have the unique features but it's still a junk-type item like you'd buy on bangood...oh wait, it IS on bangood. Too bad nobody is making a high quality charger like this - something actually well-designed and thought out.

This is way wide of the mark - as judged by most of us here. The MC3000 is far and away the best and most versatile charger out there. Some of them seem to have a few problems - mine which is a first-production run without FCC sticker - so far not.

Like others here, I have used it to replace ALL my other other chargers (except for travel chargers of course) which have now been sold. Also like others here, I plan to get another one since occasionally I want to charge more than 4 cells at a time (or more likely more than 2 D cells at a time). That some bugs need to be - and apparently are being - removed does not change my mind.

 

[sns]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

I thought the other day - why did they not include just one banana port for charging non-format accumulators? Might be a good idea to make one myself... Another one is missing - 9v batteries are missing here. It's a hobby batteries as well - used all over multimeters. So you will not end up with a single charger anyway, even though it was so close.

 

[TeMpL]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Nonsense. Someone who bought the charger expecting the Bluetooth software to be functional has a right to be quite perturbed. The software is crap. That says a lot about the manufacturer, not about the buyer.

I strongly agree

 

[sns]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

I strongly agree

I am too agree that it should work, but personally don't see any reason to put bluetooth in there in the first place. It is as handy as manual control, with a range of 10 meters - useless for any other operation... Would appretiate much more additional 1-6 cells port for other types of batteries as in imax b6.

..Well, except for the nice icon on a package and a marketing "wow! bluetooth!". Interesting - did it work out as a selling point?

 

[tjh]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

How does the Bluetooth function not work?

Everyone jumping on the "me too" bandwagon doesn't own one and their jealousy is showing.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Everyone jumping on the "me too" bandwagon doesn't own one.........

Well, it would be good if members owning the charger were more considered in their opinions, than those who do not own one. Let's see how that works.

Bill

 

[sns]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

How does the Bluetooth function not work?

Everyone jumping on the "me too" bandwagon doesn't own one and their jealousy is showing.

I do own a charger. Not tried bluetooth though. Don't see any reason to.
Can try to figure out how it works.