It just looks to me like they’re dumping the remaining inventory since switching over to carrying Stormcore. I think they should offer a doa refund type warranty, but as said they could have just dumped them on eBay. $225 might be over msrp from last year, but with parts shortage still a thing I’ve seen a few used sell on here in that price range
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Yeah the price is definitely arguable, with a lot of grumbling from me. But there’s a big difference between a tested and light to moderately used ESC from someone reputable here for $230 vs a strongly suspected of being ded one from someone with a mixed reputation who’s explicitly said he won’t help you if it’s goosed
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is it an issue with the latest batch or something? how do you differentiate between a “good” unity and a bad one?
The ones that say “unity” are bad
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I was going off this but maybe I misunderstood and they were just talking about unities in general being sketchy. It could also be that mboards were having to deal with a high failure rate because unities in general have a high rate
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Lol, sorry, not serious.
Later batches seem to be more hit and miss than earlier ones. That’s about all I know of em
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yeah that’s what I’ve heard as well. honestly between all the uboxes popping lately, the price on the dv6, and stormcore being unobtainable, imma give it a go, fuck it
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I bought one from MBoards in December and it blew on the first ride. I emailed with some info from a thread here and pics of the fried component and Mark warrantied it no problem. He never said it but, at the time, i got the feeling that they may have been a recurring issue. That’s just speculation though. I have recieved great service from them personally and will continue to use them if they have stock on an item that i want fast because orders get to me in PA in 3-4 days tops.
Im somewhat new to the community so i wasnt around when some of the issues i read about occurred. In my opinion it seems as though a lot of people who have not had a bad experience or have never even ordered from MBoards are quick to tell you all about how terrible they are. My dealings have always been satisfactory.
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I’m conflicted about Mike Beard. I avoid mboards lightly at this point, but it feels like they don’t operate in the interest of the DIY community even though they’re exclusively a diy shop. I had a brief conversation with him about the warranty void if removed stickers on the stormcores he sells, and his justification was something along the lines of
If it’s within warranty, just don’t open it.
Uhh, no, that’s not how this works. Not only are warranty void if removed stickers ILLEGAL AND UNENFORCEABLE but it’s pointless to prevent someone from opening an esc. Like, what is someone gonna do to it? Replace components? You can visually tell when that happens too. If he’s worried about people swapping the board with a dead one and trying to exchange it, then put the sticker on the PCB itself, not the shell.
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I don’t agree that unless you have firsthand experience with MBoards, you can’t develop an opinion about their service.
I had multiple friends get hosed by Mr. Beard back in the day, to the point where I wouldn’t have dreamed of buying from him.
Mike went on .builders, apologized for his poor service, then did it all over again. Patterns matter.
In fairness, we’re talking about two years ago, and they do seem to have gotten better and are running a fairly reputable store these days.
I’m glad to hear they’ve taken care of you. Every positive story like yours moves the needle further into the black. But the slate is not yet fully clean.
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He’s gonna make it all the way back into good standing & then @kook is gonna come out of nowhere & loot the entirety of his fully stocked warehouse
A fitting end
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Sorry, I didnt communicate properly. I know there are people on here who have had issues in the past. I dont feel strongly either way, i just tread lightly and have yet to experience anything really negative on any orders, emails, etc.
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I got my Stormcore 60D+ from Mboards (only one that had it in stock} and the overall process was good. Dispatched in a timely manner and arrived OK. Would have liked it to have been boxed rather than double jiffy bagged but it arrived working.
I had a query on it as it had 60d marked on it not 60d+ but turned out it was manufactured missing the +. Plugging into pc confirmed it was the right model in vesc tool.
Only issue I had was I got it with a discount but Mboards still put the original value on the packing label so I paid customs / vat based on that, not what I paid. I emailed them and they said it was right and stopped replying. Only talking a few pounds so suppose it doesn’t really matter.
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Is that true though? I’ve never heard of the printing mistake on stormcores.
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I checked with lacroix and they said to check for sure, either check in vesc tool or open it and look at the printing on the board. I didn’t want to void the warranty but it definitely shows up as the 60d+ in vesc tool. Mboards said it was a printing error on the batch. The lacroix warranty label is still in tact too.
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Cool good to know. I’m gonna check mine out later.
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You can also tell by seeing if the second uart port is enabled and working with FW 5.3
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This is really important to highlight. Those stickers are completely illegal. For @MikeBeard to be using them is a real shitbag move, and he should stop immediately. Mike, if you dont want to offer a warranty on your parts, just say that up front before a customer buys it.
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