The end of the Beta85x HD whoop?
• Chris
BetaFPV seems to have pulled the Beta85x from their webstore (currently has the state of sold out).
Countless customers had problems from the start: They plugged in the battery and the Beta85x went up in flames.
Many think that the release was rushed and that BetaFPV wanted to get it out before the Chinese new year. A lot of customers got it during the festivities and encountered problems. It did not help that there was no reaction from BetaFPV for almost a whole month.
BetaFPV is trying to find out via Facebook how the Beta85x was failing. It seems that a lot of the porblems could have been caught in QC - if there was any. Had they just taken the time to plug the quadcopter in a single time, they would have caught 90% of the copters that went up in flames.
They also stated that they will make it right to their customers, whatever that means.
In my opinion it will be hard for them to gain back the trust of the community. A lot of customers that already received theirs are wondering if they should give it a go at all, send it back or resell it. Customers that already received theirs and it went up in flames are understandably pissed.
I myself was looking forward to getting one myself, since I was so happy with my Beta75x, but I wanted to wait for the first reviews of the HD version and I am glad that I did.
A fix seems to be to insulate the battery pads and prevent from shorting them out against the USB port.
I understand that people want their copters for cheap, but I also think, that they would be ready to pay a bit of premium if they knew, that each and every copter was tested before leaving the factory, which clearly did not happen here. Plugging in a battery, arming the copter and hovering it for a couple of seconds would not cost too much time, but would catch defects like those easily - I even think that it would have been the cheaper option instead of now exchanging the broken ones and trying to save their reputation somehow.
Companies make mistakes, what is important is how they solve them and what they learn from them. Maybe BetaFPV will learn some valuable lessons from this and will emerge a better brand - I wish them the best.
Chris is a Vienna based software developer. In his spare time he enjoys reviewing tech gear, ripping quads of all sizes and making stuff.
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