TheFlyingBrit
Legendary member
About a month ago I bought an FRsky X8R 8ch receiver from Banggood, great receiver built in telemetry S-port for adding extra sensors and S bus capable of 16 channels. One of the best receivers I have bought in ages and a great price too, I was so impressed I've since ordered more.
Having a little Scottish blood in my veins I am always looking for a bargain and ways to save money. I noticed they where selling the same FRsky X8R receivers on Aliexpress but a little cheaper than Banggood, so I ordered one, in point of fact I actually I ordered two. That's because I found another company on Aliexpress a little cheaper still so ordered a 3rd receiver.
(A bit of background. Aliexpress sell the same item via multiple sellers, all offering it different prices so you can shop around like on Ebay).
This is where the story begins, my 2nd receiver arrived from Aliexpress today. Excitedly I opened the package and removed my new receiver, great I thought I will get it bound to my transmitter and check it out immediately.
Then I noticed the silver security tab on the top of the package was missing. When you normally buy FRsky receivers they have a security label which you peel back it then says void underneath.
Never the less it didn't initially raise alarm bells but there was a nagging doubt in my mind.
I headed up to my secret lair (the attic) and switched on my transmitter, then set up a new model by copying the previous set-up with my first X8R. All I needed to do then was change my model name to test and change my receiver number to the next one in the sequence. I connected the battery to the receiver while holding the failsafe down and set my transmitter to bind.
It didn't bind, checked everything and tried again failure no bind. I went through loads of options D8 versus D16 with and without telemetry. Eventually I decided I would give up and try again tonight while in work and have more time. Then that little bit of doubt sprang forth, is this a genuine FRsky receiver, what firmware is running on this compared with my previous receiver.
Then the missing security label really made me feel annoyed what if this is a fake/counterfeit receiver, that's why it wouldn't bind.
I sent an email to the company who sold it via Aliexpress, asking about the missing label and suggested that it might be a fake ? But by the time I had reached work this evening I was really angry and contacted Aliexpress direct telling them of my concern and requested a return and refund on the grounds that I had been sent a counterfeit receiver.
Only after all this did I sit down calmly and decide to try and bind this thing again.
The original set-up for the genuine receiver was FrskyX2 D16, this is the protocol setup I used on my internal module for binding, combined with 1-8 channels and telemetry.
Then it occurred to me what if this receiver is an older version with an earlier version of firmware. So I changed the protocol selection to just FRsky D16 and selected 1 to 8 channels and blow me, it bound first time.
I am now in a quandary, the receiver is now working great. But was I correct in my assumption its a fake , I don't know if I should keep it or follow my gut instinct and return it as a suspect fake, purely down to the missing security label ?
So I have emailed the seller again giving them the option to convince me of the receivers authenticity and explain to me why the security label was missing. If they cant I will have to return it. If they start to stall with respect to the return or refuse me a refund, I will be forced to contact FRsky direct and ask there advice regarding the authenticity of the receiver.
I have brought this up because having been caught out in the past with 2 fake Spektrum receivers, this is purely a warning to anyone buying RC gear to beware. There are plenty of fakes and counterfeits about and some are very impressive and hard to distinguish from the genuine article. If an item is so cheap its to good to be true, then sadly it probably is.
The money savings I have made by buying from Aliexpress was £2 - £3 cheaper than the original I bought from Banggood, that's $2.70 - $4.10 to you guys in the US. Not a big financial saving, but enough to to entice me over to the dark side.
Having a little Scottish blood in my veins I am always looking for a bargain and ways to save money. I noticed they where selling the same FRsky X8R receivers on Aliexpress but a little cheaper than Banggood, so I ordered one, in point of fact I actually I ordered two. That's because I found another company on Aliexpress a little cheaper still so ordered a 3rd receiver.
(A bit of background. Aliexpress sell the same item via multiple sellers, all offering it different prices so you can shop around like on Ebay).
This is where the story begins, my 2nd receiver arrived from Aliexpress today. Excitedly I opened the package and removed my new receiver, great I thought I will get it bound to my transmitter and check it out immediately.
Then I noticed the silver security tab on the top of the package was missing. When you normally buy FRsky receivers they have a security label which you peel back it then says void underneath.
Never the less it didn't initially raise alarm bells but there was a nagging doubt in my mind.
I headed up to my secret lair (the attic) and switched on my transmitter, then set up a new model by copying the previous set-up with my first X8R. All I needed to do then was change my model name to test and change my receiver number to the next one in the sequence. I connected the battery to the receiver while holding the failsafe down and set my transmitter to bind.
It didn't bind, checked everything and tried again failure no bind. I went through loads of options D8 versus D16 with and without telemetry. Eventually I decided I would give up and try again tonight while in work and have more time. Then that little bit of doubt sprang forth, is this a genuine FRsky receiver, what firmware is running on this compared with my previous receiver.Then the missing security label really made me feel annoyed
what if this is a fake/counterfeit receiver, that's why it wouldn't bind.I sent an email to the company who sold it via Aliexpress, asking about the missing label and suggested that it might be a fake ? But by the time I had reached work this evening I was really angry and contacted Aliexpress direct telling them of my concern and requested a return and refund on the grounds that I had been sent a counterfeit receiver.
Only after all this did I sit down calmly and decide to try and bind this thing again
.The original set-up for the genuine receiver was FrskyX2 D16, this is the protocol setup I used on my internal module for binding, combined with 1-8 channels and telemetry.
Then it occurred to me what if this receiver is an older version with an earlier version of firmware. So I changed the protocol selection to just FRsky D16 and selected 1 to 8 channels and blow me, it bound first time.
I am now in a quandary, the receiver is now working great
. But was I correct in my assumption its a fake , I don't know if I should keep it or follow my gut instinct and return it as a suspect fake, purely down to the missing security label ?So I have emailed the seller again giving them the option to convince me of the receivers authenticity and explain to me why the security label was missing. If they cant I will have to return it. If they start to stall with respect to the return or refuse me a refund, I will be forced to contact FRsky direct and ask there advice regarding the authenticity of the receiver.
I have brought this up because having been caught out in the past with 2 fake Spektrum receivers, this is purely a warning to anyone buying RC gear to beware. There are plenty of fakes and counterfeits about and some are very impressive and hard to distinguish from the genuine article. If an item is so cheap its to good to be true, then sadly it probably is.
The money savings I have made by buying from Aliexpress was £2 - £3 cheaper than the original I bought from Banggood, that's $2.70 - $4.10 to you guys in the US. Not a big financial saving, but enough to to entice me over to the dark side.
