Broken Phoenix dongle

[PB]

I plonked the leg of my chair onto my Phoenix flight sim dongle cable right where the cable goes into the USB connector and sat down before I realised it. It crushed the USB connector and though I managed to straighted it out enough to get it back in the PC, Phoenix is now telling me I'm not connected.

I was dismayed to find that I can't buy a replacement Phoenix dongle - what sort of customer care is that?. OK I could chop the lead back an inch or two and try to solder a new USB connector on and I'll have a go at that if I have to, but I thought I'd ask if anyone has had any success with these:

**LINK**

It specifically says that it works with Phoenix to v3. I notice that these things are all over eBay from Hong Kong for as little as £3 or £4, so any comments/experiences of them would be most welcome.

[J Myers III]

I bought this: **LINK**

All you will have to do is download an emulator to emulate a phoenix dongle. Works with no problems whatsoever.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Can you get in touch with Phoenix Morvagh and explain the situation?

My guess is that they use the dongle as proof that you've paid for the software, a copy protection system, so I can understand why they don't wnat to just sell dongles. People would buy dongles and copy the software.

However. I would have thought that they would be able to sell a new one on receipt of the old one. By prior arangement of course.

[PB]

OK thanks for the link to the dongle - I'll get one.

Yes, I went stright to the Phoenix web site and clicked on the 'Worldwide Support' link. Up comes a new email window with my email address filled in the 'from' field and guess what........there's no 'To' address filled in. So who the heck are you supposed to send it to? The USA/Canada support link goes to Horizon Hobby.com so I've pinged them to see what they say. Not impressed with Phoenix customer care at all.

Thanks for the help though.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

I tried clicking on the support link and on my PC the "to" field is filled in with:-

support @ phoenix-sim.com (but there were no spaces, you need to remove those)

The subject field was filled with:-

Phoenix RC Support request

They could well use the subject field automatically to route the email to the right people.

Try using those details, see what happens.

[PB]

OK thanks. As soon as I clicked in the blank 'To' field to type in that address, the address appeared - strange way of doing it.

[Plummet]

The way that browsers behave varies. What might look fine to the web page developer on their browser may be odd to a customer on another.

Plummet

[PB]

Here's the reply I got from Phoenix:

You can return your cable for replacement.

The returns address is:

PhoenixRC returns

10 Wilderton Road

Poole

BH13 6EE

UK

There is a charge for this service of £14.95 plus shipping which you can purchase from our on-line shop www.phoenix-sim.com under purchases>accessories when we confirm that we have received your returned cable.

Please send by recorded or signed-for shipping as we cannot replace cables 'lost in the post' and also include your full name and address, e-mail address(very important) and contact telephone number.

The bit about buying it from thier web site is curious because the cable isnlt listed there, so I don't know how they enable that after they've received the return. But it looks as though you're right Chris, they're a bit precious about their donlge cable as an anti piracy measure.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Of course they are - its their liveihood they are protecting!

BEB