Flytrex Live 3G Released - Review

[jasonnelson007]

I was pretty excited ed about the new update until I read that it's only available on the can-bus units considering they came out pretty much the day I received the soldered one. Can I convert mine? I would really like the new feature.

There's nothing to convert. Just buy the CAN-BUS adapter and plug it in.

Oh.lol
Thanks maybe I need to read more.

 

[jasonnelson007]

I was pretty excited ed about the new update until I read that it's only available on the can-bus units considering they came out pretty much the day I received the soldered one. Can I convert mine? I would really like the new feature.

Jason,

Yes you can convert your existing unit to CAN-BUS. All you need to do is order one from one of the dealers near you (due to extremely poor delivery track record from Isreal). Once you have it in-hand, crack the case, unsolder the unit and reconnect it through the CAN-BUS interface. There are a number of videos that will walk you through the steps.

Thanks. This is what I'll be doing. Finding someone local. The 4-5 weeks from Isreal was painfull. And that was the expedited shipping too...

 

[flyNfrank]

+1 to flyNfrank. I placed separate orders last week for the 3G and Canbus. In respect of the 3G I immediately received the standard, "your order is ready for shipping" reply but nothing in relation to the Canbus. Like frankNfly I am still waiting for notice that my items have been despatched.

Flytrex really need to get their act together as far as communicating with its customers is concerned. If you know that you are unable to meet the demand, then why send out an email stating, " We ship every 48 hours, so your Flytrex should be on its way very soon now." I'm sure that I am not alone in saying that we would far rather Flytrex was honest and upfront instead of mishandling orders the way that they do at present.

Over to you Amit.

Damage control this week was above the usual. In relation to the Can-Bus Adapter, there was a quality issue that effected a large number of them. This is why they are currently not being shipped. The problem is, as we all know, is the lack of communication. There has been email programs for over 20yrs that can be used with a couple clicks to keep a companies customers informed, rather then letting those customers become upset.

 

[terrylowe]

....The problem is, as we all know, is the lack of communication. There has been email programs for over 20yrs that can be used with a couple clicks to keep a companies customers informed, rather then letting those customers become upset.

I'm not sure exactly WHY I'm an upset customer. They communicated.... some. I realize that this is just a toy for a toy and that there are many more important things to worry about in this world. I understand production issues and weather delays. My brain still whines "But it was supposed to be expedited. I paid for that. What happened to getting it about a week after placing the order?" I'm at 32 days and getting grumpier each day.

 

[amitregev]

Well it looks like the albatross finally landed in NYC. Just got a text update from NY USPS. Thanks for the updates Amit.

Thanks bergenfelter for the update! Reviewing the status this morning of our shipments it seems that ~30% of them were delivered, the rest are still moving between sorting centers and the final delivery destination. Seems like it is still slower than usual I will try to phone the shipping company once again tomorrow morning and ask why things are taking so long to catch up with pending orders.

This have caused us great deal of trouble :/ We're doing our best to get those shipments moving as quickly as possible!

 

[amitregev]

Amit,

I ordered a FL3G from UAV Outlets yesterday. Looking forward to installing it on my Phantom 2. Can you confirm what dealer said regarding Canbus: that it doesn't offer any new functionality, just saves you from having to open the shell? I have my shell open on a regular basis, so don't mind that at all. If, however, there was additional functionality from the Canbus method, I would consider that.

Thanks,
Kelly

Hi Kellly,

Almost

Using the CAN-BUS Adapter and the Phantom 2 you'll indeed be able to install the system via the plug placed on the Phantom 2 landing gear, plus, you won't need to solder the red and black wires at all, so the installation is 100% plug-and-play (you can cut those wires completely if you wish or tape them securely. Cover them to make sure they don't short with each other).

In addition to the simplified installation, when using the CAN-BUS adapter the Live also logs and transmits additional flight data that isn't available when using the basic installation cable. Currently we're presenting compass heading (in addition to the flight direction, which is displayed even with the basic installation cable), and we just added flight-mode display that lets you see the flight mode used at any stage of the flight. We hope to introduce additional data for those using the CAN-BUS in the upcoming days.

I hope this helps.

UAV Outlet and other dealers please take note: There is more to the CAN-BUS adapter than just ease of installation. That confirms my suspicions when you told me otherwise on Tuesday.

My end goal, Amit, is smooth integration of GPS location of each photo for use in Pix4D or similar mapping / 3D applications. I assume Flytrex is already looking closely at that space. If not, you should be! Call Pix4D today.

Kelly

Thanks Kellly for the feedback and suggestion! We will try to see what is the best way for us to keep our dealers up to date with all the details of our new product releases.

Thanks for the tip about Pix4D - we will definitely review this more closely when working on upcoming features.

 

[amitregev]

I was pretty excited ed about the new update until I read that it's only available on the can-bus units considering they came out pretty much the day I received the soldered one. Can I convert mine? I would really like the new feature.

If you're using a Phantom that includes CAN-BUS support (Phantom 2, 2 Vision and 2 Vision Plus), than of course you can convert without any problem. You'll need to remove the solder points and install the new adapter and you're ready to go!

 

[amitregev]

+1 to flyNfrank. I placed separate orders last week for the 3G and Canbus. In respect of the 3G I immediately received the standard, "your order is ready for shipping" reply but nothing in relation to the Canbus. Like frankNfly I am still waiting for notice that my items have been despatched.

Flytrex really need to get their act together as far as communicating with its customers is concerned. If you know that you are unable to meet the demand, then why send out an email stating, " We ship every 48 hours, so your Flytrex should be on its way very soon now." I'm sure that I am not alone in saying that we would far rather Flytrex was honest and upfront instead of mishandling orders the way that they do at present.

Over to you Amit.

Hi Jetlagged787

We do our best to keep users informed as much as possible and post status updates on our Facebook channel to try and keep as many of our users up to date with our stock status and shipment delays.

Orders that include items that are fully as stock will get delivered within 2 days, but recently we find ourselves missing items from stock more often and have been doing our best to speed up production so we can catch up with orders and start shipping all items back again within 2 days.

Regarding the initial confirmation email that goes out from our system, this is a matter of development gap that we need to close in our internal systems so we can provide better indication about shipping times with our order-confirmation emails. At the moment, our system sends this fixed email to give customers a confirmation that their order was received and is now in processing. This email system was created a while back, when we just started, and had much less products on sale, so shipping turnaround was also much simpler and faster. The problem is that the system sending this confirmation email is not connected to our inventory systems and can't provide real-time status updates to customers depending on the items they ordered and availability.

NO DOUBT this needs to be improved and fixed. We continue to grow our systems and team and this won't be left behind much longer, but we will need a bit more time until we can provide better automated shipment updates to customers - really sorry about that!

We're also trying to increase our production rate so that we won't run out of stock of different items and hope that shipping times will get faster shortly.

If you would like, let me know what was the name your order was placed with and I'll gladly verify when it will get out. Thanks!

 

[amitregev]

I was pretty excited ed about the new update until I read that it's only available on the can-bus units considering they came out pretty much the day I received the soldered one. Can I convert mine? I would really like the new feature.

Jason,

Yes you can convert your existing unit to CAN-BUS. All you need to do is order one from one of the dealers near you (due to extremely poor delivery track record from Isreal). Once you have it in-hand, crack the case, unsolder the unit and reconnect it through the CAN-BUS interface. There are a number of videos that will walk you through the steps.

Thanks. This is what I'll be doing. Finding someone local. The 4-5 weeks from Isreal was painfull. And that was the expedited shipping too...

Shipping times right now are getting a bit better, but still seems slower than usual We were told this was related to the weather conditions in the east coast that caused some major delays. For what its worth, we were able to confirm similar shipment delays from other destinations to the US as well, so I don't believe these are only due to shipments coming from our side.

Just to confirm, even a bit, of what we've been told about shipment delays to the US, please see this post about shipment updates and delays. Search for updates about the US and you'll see delays reported with shipments to the US from the UK, Germany and others:

http://forum.postcrossing.com/viewthread.php?tid=88980

Basically all reports state that weather conditions and flight cancellations have caused delays with shipments that are routed via USPS. Really wish we could do more to help with this!

 

[amitregev]

....The problem is, as we all know, is the lack of communication. There has been email programs for over 20yrs that can be used with a couple clicks to keep a companies customers informed, rather then letting those customers become upset.

I'm not sure exactly WHY I'm an upset customer. They communicated.... some. I realize that this is just a toy for a toy and that there are many more important things to worry about in this world. I understand production issues and weather delays. My brain still whines "But it was supposed to be expedited. I paid for that. What happened to getting it about a week after placing the order?" I'm at 32 days and getting grumpier each day.

Hi Terrylowe

I just checked your shipment status and I see it was shipped about a week ago and should have arrived by now. :/ I will ask our shipping company to try and help with this as well. Most of the shipments that got delayed are now back on their path of already delivered, so I hope this will also start moving on its way to destination shortly.

 

[flyNfrank]

We do our best to keep users informed as much as possible and post status updates on our Facebook channel to try and keep as many of our users up to date with our stock status and shipment delays.

That doesn't look good at all. As screwed up as it has been a number of times, and then point out that this is your best that you can do. "We do our best". Did you know that not all people use facebook? Some even refuse to access it from their PC. I'm sure you have some exceptional people that work for you doing their best. But It's obvious your best in these situations has been horrible. People send you a number of emails over a couple of weeks that are ignored. We see it in other threads at times. I had it happen to me as well, and it gets played out with others in the same manner as it did a year ago. If you were really concerned with it, you wouldn't run your company with no phone access. At a minimum you could at least offer your customers the ability to send you a text message. Just make sure you respond to the text and not ignore your customers until weeks later. With the fact that DJI opened up the SDK and now similar features are now available as your products should make now not the time to chase customers away.

Please get it together, Amit. You are so close to being a all around great company.

flyNfrank

 

[amitregev]

We do our best to keep users informed as much as possible and post status updates on our Facebook channel to try and keep as many of our users up to date with our stock status and shipment delays.

That doesn't look good at all. As screwed up as it has been a number of times, and then point out that this is your best that you can do. "We do our best". Did you know that not all people use facebook? Some even refuse to access it from their PC. I'm sure you have some exceptional people that work for you doing their best. But It's obvious your best in these situations has been horrible. People send you a number of emails over a couple of weeks that are ignored. We see it in other threads at times. I had it happen to me as well, and it gets played out with others in the same manner as it did a year ago. If you were really concerned with it, you wouldn't run your company with no phone access. At a minimum you could at least offer your customers the ability to send you a text message. Just make sure you respond to the text and not ignore your customers until weeks later. With the fact that DJI opened up the SDK and now similar features are now available as your products should make now not the time to chase customers away.

Please get it together, Amit. You are so close to being a all around great company.

flyNfrank

Hi Frank,

I'm sorry you feel that way, but as I mentioned earlier we really are doing our best. It is possible that our best at this time isn't good enough for the standards you (and possibly other users) are expecting and I can definitely understand this.

We are not Apple nor Google, we are aware of this fact and I believe so does our customers. We cannot put resources on phone support since our resources are allocated to other tasks that we believe, at the current stage of the company, are more important. If you expect this level of support I honestly suggest that you'll try us again in a year from now -- we probably still won't be Apple or Google, but I'm pretty sure we'll have new support agents and options available by then that you will be happier with.

The fact is that we are doing our utmost, but I understand that we can't get everyone satisfied. With that said, I do believe that the vast majority of our users are both happy and excited with what we do and what we've been able to achieve until today and I have no doubt we can continue and bring new innovations to our hobby as we continue moving forward.

At the moment, we place more support-related efforts on pre-testing each system before it leaves our offices, even if this means slower shipping times. We have learned that at the overall this leads to better user experience and also overall higher user satisfaction (even if this leads to shipping delays).

We've always been fair with all our customers and are working hard to make sure our users will enjoy our products. if you feel otherwise in any way, please send us a short email to support[at]flytex[dot]com and we'll make sure to refund your latest pending order right away. We are in no way here to take money without return.

I hope this helps a bit to explain how we are progressing and what users can expect to see in upcoming months. We appreciate all the support and patience we've been getting very very much!

 

[bergenfelter]

What is the usual time for express shipping from Flytrex Israel to the US - Midwest? Does it usually get handed off to the local US postal service?

Thanks!

Hi Bergenfelter and all,

Shipments to the US usually go pretty quickly. Using Express Shipping it usually takes between 4 to 5 days to arrive form shipment.

However, for the past few weeks our shipping service have experienced delays with shipments to the US due to the recent weather conditions on the east coast. Our express shipments are routed through EMS with final delivery inside the US handled by USPS. Myself and the team have been in contact with our shipping service pretty much on a daily basis and have been told that the recent delays are due to the extreme weather that have led to sorting and distribution delays of shipments on the USPS center.

For the past two days we finally started seeing some of the delayed shipments getting released and had their tracking status update as they were back on track to their final destination for delivery. We still have shipments to the US that are stuck in the sorting center, but we were promised things will get back on track in the next few days so I do believe it shouldn't take much longer.

I'd also like to explain that we are monitoring this case closely and we will make sure every shipment arrives to its customer. We've been working with this shipping service for over a year now and have shipped thousands of shipments with them. Over the past year and a bit we've had very few issues with them, so we have decided at this stage to continue working with them as we do feel this is a one time issue and understand weather might have caused some trouble in this case.

If we'll see more trouble with shipments with upcoming weeks we will definitely make sure to setup alternative shipping routs to make sure that our shipments get to our customers quickly and safely.

This situation have only affected shipments going out to the US between certain dates (around end of Jan to Feb). From what we've seen, it seems that newer shipments that were sent to the US at the end of February are moving faster, so it seems they have some backlog of shipments they are now catching up with.

Please accept our apologies for this delay. We've been doing the best we can from our side to get shipments moving back again and we will to make sure any shipment that was delayed gets shipped as quickly as possible.

Let me know if I can help with any additional details about this situation. Thanks!

Well it looks like the albatross finally landed in NYC. Just got a text update from NY USPS. Thanks for the updates Amit.

If you look very carefully (in the bundle of sticks) - the albatross has transferred my Flytrex package to this dude in Pennsylvania. I figure Pennsylvania to Illinois about another couple of weeks weather and wild wolves permitting. I just hope the guy uses some of the $35 I paid for express shipping to get something to eat. OW, he might not make it.

 

[amitregev]

If you look very carefully (in the bundle of sticks) - the albatross has transferred my Flytrex package to this dude in Pennsylvania. I figure Pennsylvania to Illinois about another couple of weeks weather and wild wolves permitting. I just hope the guy uses some of the $35 I paid for express shipping to get something to eat. OW, he might not make it.

Thanks for your patience - next time we'll ship you a beer with this guy! (*and good spirit*) I do believe that now that they got shipments moving again, and since the trouble was only on the east coast parts, it should get faster from here on. Please keep me posted!

 

[terrylowe]

Hi Terrylowe

I just checked your shipment status and I see it was shipped about a week ago and should have arrived by now. :/ I will ask our shipping company to try and help with this as well. Most of the shipments that got delayed are now back on their path of already delivered, so I hope this will also start moving on its way to destination shortly.

Thanks Amit
Your young company is experiencing "growing pain". This is a problem that businesses all over the world would love to have. I don't know yet, but you must have a pretty reliable product as it looks like most of the complaints that I see are related to production and shipping issues. I have a PhD student living with me that studies business logistics. If you want to grow your business even faster with deeper customer satisfaction, then perhaps you should consult a person like him.

I partake in other hobbies and enjoy getting on the forums pertaining to those. It seems that the product representatives that try to have a voice on the forums, no matter what the product, take a good deal of heat from some of the forum members. Most all of the rest of us are very happy that you are here and communicate with us. I know that if I have issues with install, etc, I can come here for help.

 

[Perdidoflyer]

Amit - I appreciate that you are being communicative. At the same time, I have a bit of a bad story, and am fairly frustrated. I purchase a Flytrex Live from Dronefly - their website was nondescript as to version. I paid the list price, received the Flytrex, did the solder install, registered with Flytrex.com to obtain the IMEI, and THEN learned that I received a Live 2G. Your customer service offered to replace it with a 3G, so I agreed, unsoldered/uninstalled and returned the 2G to Flytrex, and ordered and paid for the CAN-Bus adaptor. On February 22 I received a notice from Flytrex that my shipment was in route, via air mail, complete with a tracking number. The tracking number shows nothing other than "shipment is being prepared". Nothing received as yet, now over two weeks. Then, on Facebook I see that Flytrex is/was offering the Live 3G at 10% or 20% off (changed each time I saw it). Bottom line, not a good experience for me at all.

....The problem is, as we all know, is the lack of communication. There has been email programs for over 20yrs that can be used with a couple clicks to keep a companies customers informed, rather then letting those customers become upset.

I'm not sure exactly WHY I'm an upset customer. They communicated.... some. I realize that this is just a toy for a toy and that there are many more important things to worry about in this world. I understand production issues and weather delays. My brain still whines "But it was supposed to be expedited. I paid for that. What happened to getting it about a week after placing the order?" I'm at 32 days and getting grumpier each day.

Hi Terrylowe

I just checked your shipment status and I see it was shipped about a week ago and should have arrived by now. :/ I will ask our shipping company to try and help with this as well. Most of the shipments that got delayed are now back on their path of already delivered, so I hope this will also start moving on its way to destination shortly.

 

[AmosMoses]

What is the usual time for express shipping from Flytrex Israel to the US - Midwest? Does it usually get handed off to the local US postal service?

Thanks!

Hi Bergenfelter and all,

Shipments to the US usually go pretty quickly. Using Express Shipping it usually takes between 4 to 5 days to arrive form shipment.

However, for the past few weeks our shipping service have experienced delays with shipments to the US due to the recent weather conditions on the east coast. Our express shipments are routed through EMS with final delivery inside the US handled by USPS. Myself and the team have been in contact with our shipping service pretty much on a daily basis and have been told that the recent delays are due to the extreme weather that have led to sorting and distribution delays of shipments on the USPS center.

For the past two days we finally started seeing some of the delayed shipments getting released and had their tracking status update as they were back on track to their final destination for delivery. We still have shipments to the US that are stuck in the sorting center, but we were promised things will get back on track in the next few days so I do believe it shouldn't take much longer.

I'd also like to explain that we are monitoring this case closely and we will make sure every shipment arrives to its customer. We've been working with this shipping service for over a year now and have shipped thousands of shipments with them. Over the past year and a bit we've had very few issues with them, so we have decided at this stage to continue working with them as we do feel this is a one time issue and understand weather might have caused some trouble in this case.

If we'll see more trouble with shipments with upcoming weeks we will definitely make sure to setup alternative shipping routs to make sure that our shipments get to our customers quickly and safely.

This situation have only affected shipments going out to the US between certain dates (around end of Jan to Feb). From what we've seen, it seems that newer shipments that were sent to the US at the end of February are moving faster, so it seems they have some backlog of shipments they are now catching up with.

Please accept our apologies for this delay. We've been doing the best we can from our side to get shipments moving back again and we will to make sure any shipment that was delayed gets shipped as quickly as possible.

Let me know if I can help with any additional details about this situation. Thanks!

Well it looks like the albatross finally landed in NYC. Just got a text update from NY USPS. Thanks for the updates Amit.

If you look very carefully (in the bundle of sticks) - the albatross has transferred my Flytrex package to this dude in Pennsylvania. I figure Pennsylvania to Illinois about another couple of weeks weather and wild wolves permitting. I just hope the guy uses some of the $35 I paid for express shipping to get something to eat. OW, he might not make it.

At least yours has made it to Pennsylvania! Mine is stuck in never neverland New York......
[attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1425744837652.jpg[/attachment]

 

[Jetlagged787]

Hi Jetlagged787

We do our best to keep users informed as much as possible and post status updates on our Facebook channel to try and keep as many of our users up to date with our stock status and shipment delays.

Orders that include items that are fully as stock will get delivered within 2 days, but recently we find ourselves missing items from stock more often and have been doing our best to speed up production so we can catch up with orders and start shipping all items back again within 2 days.

Regarding the initial confirmation email that goes out from our system, this is a matter of development gap that we need to close in our internal systems so we can provide better indication about shipping times with our order-confirmation emails. At the moment, our system sends this fixed email to give customers a confirmation that their order was received and is now in processing. This email system was created a while back, when we just started, and had much less products on sale, so shipping turnaround was also much simpler and faster. The problem is that the system sending this confirmation email is not connected to our inventory systems and can't provide real-time status updates to customers depending on the items they ordered and availability.

NO DOUBT this needs to be improved and fixed. We continue to grow our systems and team and this won't be left behind much longer, but we will need a bit more time until we can provide better automated shipment updates to customers - really sorry about that!

We're also trying to increase our production rate so that we won't run out of stock of different items and hope that shipping times will get faster shortly.

If you would like, let me know what was the name your order was placed with and I'll gladly verify when it will get out. Thanks!

Thank you for your comments Amit.

First, can I confirm what frankNfly has stated in his reply above. That is that there are many people in cyberspace that have no interest in Facebook whatsoever. Personally, I do not understand it, do not trust it and have no idea how to use it. I have though asked a friend to look at your page and he informs me that your latest update was 5 days ago and simply stated, "Inspiring days @ Flytrex - Stay tuned!" The most recent status update was over two weeks ago when you said that more 3G and CAN BUS had come into stock.

I would also reiterate what others have said. We applaud your quality control programme that checks stock before despatch. I have no problem at all waiting for my order whilst the items go through this QC programme, my problem is with lack of communication.

I have sent you a PM as requested.

 

[Brent10]

At least yours has made it to Pennsylvania! Mine is stuck in never neverland New York......
[attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1425744837652.jpg[/attachment]

Mine is also moldering in NY. Or at least that was the last place it was scanned two or three days ago. It could well be on it's way to me, albeit at the pace of a tectonic plate.

 

[milspecjsc]

At least yours has made it to Pennsylvania! Mine is stuck in never neverland New York......
[attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1425744837652.jpg[/attachment]

Mine is also moldering in NY. Or at least that was the last place it was scanned two or three days ago. It could well be on it's way to me, albeit at the pace of a tectonic plate.

Same here Brent. My package spent 3 days in Customs and now 3 days in the sorting facility with no estimate on when it will leave JAMAICA, NY. Clearly NOT an issue with Flytrex now. USPS appears to be holding it hostage. Of note, I submitted a trouble ticket on Friday morning and USPS hasn't updated me of the status (no great surprise there).