Devon Flyer Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Quite shocked tonight to find that one of our club members has been duped into buying fake Spektrum AR 500 receivers. He ordered them from the States and was told they were a discontinued line and that 14000 were available?! At £20 a pop they seemed a bargain. Apparently he ordered them direct from Horizon, the Email was intercepted and the fake items were supplied by someone else. Horizon have offered to replace the fake items. They differ from the real items by having a white sticker on the back and stating 'Made in China' - genuine ones have black stickers and say 'Made in Taiwan'. The fake ones fall out of bind once the Tx is switched off and you have to rebind to get them working again. The biggest surprise was that, from what he told me, Horizon are aware of fake transmitters, including the the latest DX18, are on the market, which unless you took the back off them and had a real good look inside you would never know the difference. Someone has supposedly already lost a large model at a show, using one of these. This is a very worrying state of affairs. Edited By Devon Flyer on 03/05/2012 22:59:31 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Grigg Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 I will only buy receivers from UK stockists seems to much of a risk elsewhere nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Flyer Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 How can you be sure of getting the right gear, when even the main world wide supplier/manufacturer seems to be vulnerable to scams? This must be costing Spektrum an absolute fortune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antiquated Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 It is worse than that - many ICs and other components are faked. I believe that in one case, a fake has even ended up in an american military aircraft. Legitimate manufacturers can also inadvertently buy fake components. In short, I don't think there is any easy way for a consumer to detect *all* fakes. I think the only answer is to buy from trusted sources, and hope that their supply chain hasn't been compromised. It doesn't help that manufacturers don't always make it easy to spot fakes, by changing visible aspects of the design (q.v. the pound coin, and the estimated 3% fakes in circulation). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Are the counterfeit units substantially different than the pukka AR500 in practice? In other words have they been implicated in lots of models being destroyed and all sorts of reports of loss of control? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Flyer Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 Posted by leccyflyer on 05/05/2012 07:32:21: Are the counterfeit units substantially different than the pukka AR500 in practice? In other words have they been implicated in lots of models being destroyed and all sorts of reports of loss of control? Who knows? Most people wouldn't even know they were using fake stuff. The receivers I saw would have fooled me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Claridge Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 a few years ago a fake bolt was found on air force one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cantwell Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I KNOW THERE HAS BEEN A FEW STRANGE NUTS ON THAT AIRCRAFT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispin church Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 but are the fake AR500 better than spektrums as horizon uk changed all mine for AR600 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Flyer Posted May 7, 2012 Author Share Posted May 7, 2012 Posted by crispin church on 07/05/2012 17:40:40: but are the fake AR500 better than spektrums as horizon uk changed all mine for AR600 ? You are missing the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmerrail Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I think I may have some dud I recently brought 3 ar6200 and all 3 lose bid when I turn everything off and some times only the sat receiver would bind. I'm sending them to hobby horizon to get checked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liam bennett Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Well, I only buy goods from trusted places such as my LHS or you end up with possiable fakes! I also keep the recipts. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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