VFS Inclino, Imperio, Origo News ??

[Rich Schaefer]

Curt, how about an update over here for your current customers?

I see there has been more posting on the 5D forum than this one. Here is the latest:


As you say, since there is only one of you: who is working on all the "other goodies"?

I suggest delivering the products that are over a year late!

 

[Brigham Edgar]

Yeah right...a hell of a lot of posts over there and all talking about new products he is working on while 'persevering' with the Inclino...that's just great. Curt, if the Inclino/Impero situation isn't resolved and units shipped, i can't ever see how you are going to develop as company and sell new products. Time to invest in some staff to help engineer and build these paid for units to get things working and into our hands then think of new product...fairs fair heh?

 

[CVB]

Everything that is happening in regards to delayed shipments is currently due to bad parts from shitty venders that screwed our entire manufacturing schedule over 6 months ago. It has nothing to do with the design of lack of engineering resources. Out of the 500 sets of parts we received there were a total of about 100 good housings (of which 75 have already been shipped out). We have tooling still sitting in Asia because our manufacturer refuses to ship it to us even after 6 months of demands and lawyer intervention. We are now in discussions with some international commerce lawyers to expedite delivery so we can have our U.S. die cast guys get to work on making more housings. We can easily manufacture the internal components but the housings are a significant chunk of CNC work that takes a lot of machine time. I'm currently machining fixtures so we can make housings on our mill but I'm hoping something comes of our lawyers efforts in the next few days to avoid machining them out of billet. When we have good parts, a motor can be assembled in as little as 20 minutes. Thats about 50 motors per day between two people. We can wrap up all the orders in as little as three weeks + 1 week machine time. I'm sure you guys dont trust my estimate but I'll put it out there anyway.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to give everything you have and its just not enough. I regret that we were so optimistic about the delivery schedule and ultimatley missed the ship dates. I regret that I failed to account for venders that have no qulams with screwing a company over by sending sub-standard parts. I understand all of your frustrations. You paid your hard earned money up front for a product that was supposed to be delivered to you long ago. I am frustrated as well and feel the pressure to get these products delivered every minute of the day. On the same token I need to make sure we are a company that will be around to support these products.

In the past four months we have paid out a lot of refunds and I have another batch of customers that promise to cancel within the next month if we dont deliver. We are processing refund requests as quickly as possible but a lot of you asked for refunds at the exact same time its taking a little longer as we have one person managing all our finances. Running a company is very difficult when we have to refund so many orders in addition to the significant sums of money we've already paid out in parts inventory and tooling expenses. We have learned our lesson on manufacturing side of things and everything is being made in the U.S. now but we will never be open with our product development again and will certainly never take orders on products until they are on the shelf.

For those of you upset with us over contemplating additional products even though we haven't shipped the existing orders I want you to think about what good a product is with no support and no way of getting it repaired/upgraded in the future. We need to continue to develop other products NOW so that we will have revenues coming in to keep us moving along in the future. We stopped taking orders for the follow focus systems a few months ago to catch up and finish delivery on the existing orders and its apparent that the orders for the DFFs are minimal and wont result in as much revenue as we were expecting a year ago. All in all this has been a very laborious two years and the net result is NO NET REVENUE for our company. Either we diversify and get more products to market that we can make quickly and with minimal effort or the odds of us closing our doors sometime next year are significantly increased.

One last thing I want to get out there... We have 70 units in the field and 6 units in the shop that are being upgraded to the new drive train. All RMA's will be returned next week. If you sent your unit in for repair and dont have a tracking number by Tuesday then send us an email and we'll make sure its taken care of.

 

[Peter Karlsson]

Even though I appreciate a visit to the forum, I totally gave up on you after reading this. Almost a month ago you told us that ONLY the the drive train and firmware was the last piece of the puzzle. I asked specific about this because I was feed up with all new suprises along the way that kept pushing the delivery date further and further away. And your answer was:

Only hurdles left are putting a bunch of them together and finalizing this firmware update.

Now, you suddenly don't have a housing?!? I'll have to look at other options now, this turned out just to be a complete waste of time

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Is this the right moment to quote a post from Curt from 23 December? I mean 23 December 2008.

Curt: "If all goes to plan I'll have this firmware locked up by tomorrow afternoon as we can start shipping units right after christmas day."

It is on page 62

Of course, miracles do happen, it is just that they are very unlikely.

Curt, sorry for bad timing, but any chance of resolving the Origo problem before you close the door? :toetap05:

 

[CVB]

Even though I appreciate a visit to the forum, I totally gave up on you after reading this. Almost a month ago you told us that ONLY the the drive train and firmware was the last piece of the puzzle. I asked specific about this because I was feed up with all new suprises along the way that kept pushing the delivery date further and further away.
Now, you suddenly don't have a housing?!? I'll have to look at other options now, this turned out just to be a complete waste of time

Paul, I didn't say we do not have housings. I said we have bad yield on the housings. I'm making modification fixtures to fix the tolerances and get them in spec. We aren't going to run out of parts for another week at which time I will have more housings ready.

 

[Tai Wah Lim]

Paul, I didn't say we do not have housings. I said we have bad yield on the housings. I'm making modification fixtures to fix the tolerances and get them in spec. We aren't going to run out of parts for another week at which time I will have more housings ready.

Curt, most of us shared your grief and lesson learnt. Out of the 70 sent, how many reported satisfactory result. One feedback is good and another from Tony is so so. Lim

 

[CVB]

Is this the right moment to quote a post from Curt from 23 December? I mean 23 December 2008.

Curt: "If all goes to plan I'll have this firmware locked up by tomorrow afternoon as we can start shipping units right after christmas day."

It is on page 62

Of course, miracles do happen, it is just that they are very unlikely.

Curt, sorry for bad timing, but any chance of resolving the Origo problem before you close the door? :toetap05:

Pawel, you are quite the implacable individual. As I have stated numerous times before, the origo problem was with bad cable connectors. We replaced every cable that was returned to us from our customers and have been selling more units than ever. The Origo thread regarding that problem has been dead since June. I have not had one customer report a blown power board since the issue came up back in May. Red has referred several customers to us to buy origos since then. If there is still a problem that we aren't aware of then maybe you should share that information so we can take action.

Curt, most of us shared your grief and lesson learnt. Out of the 70 sent, how many reported satisfactory result. One feedback is good and another from Tony is so so. Lim

I have had 8 customers with problems and had them send back their units. The issues they reported were the same as what Tony saw with dithering and drifting. We tracked those issues back to an incorrectly installed magnet on the encoder knob. The fix was easy and it has been resolved. The other issues that came up were complaints about the noise levels. We resolved those problems by changing the gearbox design and the material used for the components. As I stated before, we have that issue resolved.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Pawel, you are quite the implacable individual. As I have stated numerous times before, the origo problem was with bad cable connectors. We replaced every cable that was returned to us from our customers and have been selling more units than ever. The Origo thread regarding that problem has been dead since June. I have not had one customer report a blown power board since the issue came up back in May. Red has referred several customers to us to buy origos since then. If there is still a problem that we aren't aware of then maybe you should share that information so we can take action.

Pleasure, Curt. The $800 camera repair bill is still awaiting your action and so is the Origo #20 and 10m cable that need a refund, evaluation, repair or all of the above. Ready when you are. :smiley:

 

[CVB]

Have you verified that your cable has non-lemo connectors? I never realized that you were Origo #20 , the first 100 Origos we shipped used 100% Lemo connectors and the cables/origos were manufactured by a CM in northern California that has provided excellent yield to us thus far. I'll email you so you can send them to us for evaluation.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Have you verified that your cable has non-lemo connectors? I never realized that you were Origo #20 , the first 100 Origos we shipped used 100% Lemo connectors and the cables/origos were manufactured by a CM in northern California that has provided excellent yield to us thus far. I'll email you so you can send them to us for evaluation.

Thanks, Curt. Indeed it looks, smells and tastes like a genuine Lemo connector. Glad we finally managed to identify the reason for my implacability :smiley:

 

[Curran Giddens]

We have 70 units in the field and 6 units in the shop that are being upgraded to the new drive train.

Whatever happened to shipping in order of payment date?

I am supposed to be #20 in line. Seems that I was skipped over because I never threatened to cancel my order....

Have you verified that your cable has non-lemo connectors? I never realized that you were Origo #20 , the first 100 Origos we shipped used 100% Lemo connectors and the cables/origos were manufactured by a CM in northern California that has provided excellent yield to us thus far. I'll email you so you can send them to us for evaluation.

I think I know what may have happened. I have Origo #18 with Lemo connectors. The collar where the red dot is became loose (on a rental) and is now able to rotate 360. So, if someone tightened it back up but with the red dot in the wrong position the pins would get plugged in the wrong way. Maybe some Loctite is in order?

BTW, can I send my cable in to get tightened up? I don't want to risk doing it myself and blowing $800.

 

[Michael Panfeld]

I have had 8 customers with problems and had them send back their units. The issues they reported were the same as what Tony saw with dithering and drifting. We tracked those issues back to an incorrectly installed magnet on the encoder knob. The fix was easy and it has been resolved. The other issues that came up were complaints about the noise levels. We resolved those problems by changing the gearbox design and the material used for the components. As I stated before, we have that issue resolved.

CVB, those were the problems that Tony and others were having months ago. We have read about your solution months ago. So that is old news. I think the question is what about the problems that Tony is experiencing in the units he received last week. Primarily, that the wireless FF doesn't work wirelessly, only wired. There are also software issues that Tony mentioned. Also, apparently some of the promised features are still not available, most importantly- the ability to program two focus points to rack focus.

So far we have heard one good reviw and one bad review. How about some testimonials from other customers that have the very latest units?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Whatever happened to shipping in order of payment date?

I am supposed to be #20 in line. Seems that I was skipped over because I never threatened to cancel my order....

I am wondering the same thing. I've been patiently waiting, I understand the pitfalls of manufacturing, especially with foreign vendors. I've been there, done it. Almost bankrupted one of my companies in the process... Curt, I feel your pain.

But I have to wonder... If there are 70+ FF systems in the field, what happened to mine? I know initially the statement was that the first few would go to local users in your area so that response time for upgrades and repairs through the beta process would happen quickly. But there are people who are out of the the country that have received these units and now apparently our order dates and numbers were meaningless???

 

[Ziad Oakes]

One last thing I want to get out there... We have 70 units in the field and 6 units in the shop that are being upgraded to the new drive train. All RMA's will be returned next week. If you sent your unit in for repair and dont have a tracking number by Tuesday then send us an email and we'll make sure its taken care of.

Hold on. If you have sent out 70 units, and I am serial 51. Why haven't i received mine yet?

 

[Peter Karlsson]

Paul, I didn't say we do not have housings. I said we have bad yield on the housings. I'm making modification fixtures to fix the tolerances and get them in spec. We aren't going to run out of parts for another week at which time I will have more housings ready.

Ok, thats about it.. Bad parts or no parts. You still don't have a housing for it the way I see it. I also cant figure out your math. You said 20 minutes for assembly, and you got 25 good housings left on the shelf. Thats 8 hours for one man, so your housings are to be gone today, and not next week, or does it indeed take much longer time than those 20 minutes? I've just sent a mail asking for instructions about a refund, since this just never ends :rolleyes5:

 

[CVB]

Whatever happened to shipping in order of payment date?

I am supposed to be #20 in line. Seems that I was skipped over because I never threatened to cancel my order....

The first 30 orders we sent out were all over the place in terms of order numbers. Several of the orders we shipped were three motor kits. I mentioned this a couple months ago... http://reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=476786&postcount=2380 You will receive your order within the next couple weeks Curran.

BTW, can I send my cable in to get tightened up? I don't want to risk doing it myself and blowing $800.

Send me an email and I'll get you a shipping address and acct# to use to send it back to us for repair.

CVB, those were the problems that Tony and others were having months ago. We have read about your solution months ago. So that is old news. I think the question is what about the problems that Tony is experiencing in the units he received last week. Primarily, that the wireless FF doesn't work wirelessly, only wired. There are also software issues that Tony mentioned. Also, apparently some of the promised features are still not available, most importantly- the ability to program two focus points to rack focus.

So far we have heard one good reviw and one bad review. How about some testimonials from other customers that have the very latest units?

I have already spoken to Tony regarding his issue and we are working out the problems, most likely the bluetooth module came loose during shipping. With regards to the firmware, I did not send the newest to Tony as he wanted his system asap and I do not have the latest release finished yet... I opted to send the latest boot loader code but the firmware he has is no different than what we shipped months ago.

As far as testimonials from happy customers go, I can't control what people say. If someone is happy with our system and wants to post something here then by all means do so.

 

[Curran Giddens]

You will receive your order within the next couple weeks Curran.

That will do just fine. As long as the hardware is the final shipping version. I really don't mind doing firmware updates...

Send me an email and I'll get you a shipping address and acct# to use to send it back to us for repair.

Check your email

 

[Rich Schaefer]

I am not sure, but maybe some of the 70 units include the Birger mounts? Not receivers and motors?

Also, I can see how happy customers don't spend much time in this thread. You know "no news is good news" kinda thing. It would be great to hear more success stories.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I am not sure but I think some of the 70 units include the Birger mounts? Not receivers and motors?

Fair point. Although, looking back on it, I think the 70 units is talking about Inclino motors and not the Impero controllers. Several people have 2 and 3 motor kits on order. So I guess even without the first 30 orders being out of order, my number still wouldn't be up. Oh well...

I'm still wishing Curt the best on this. I know he will eventually deliver a good product.