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Yemen, Sanaá
1 Level
678 Review
50 Karma

Review on SainSmart Channels Ethernet Controller Connected by Steven Doty

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Poor support and engineering

I'm an engineer working for a reputable aerospace organization and we have several of these (both 8ch and 16ch, different types). The concept of these devices was very attractive for DO control applications due to their small size and TCP/IP compatibility. Here are the problems: 1) The documentation is TERRIBLE, very minimal and unclear. 2) Do NOT expect any support from the manufacturer. They are not proud of their product and essentially told me they would not help me until I placed another large order, completely ignoring the fact that I had ALREADY bought at least 10-15! And that was just so we could taste them! They only care about making more money and don't care about customers who have already paid for their products. 3) I had to factory reset this controller. So I held down the reset button for a few seconds until the LED lit up. After that the controller stopped working. I couldn't access it with the old IP address or the factory default IP address. It just didn't work anymore. This happened on multiple controllers. 4) ALL the controllers we received had the SAME MAC ADDRESS! to overlook such a thing is absolutely unforgivable. This causes big problems when trying to use more than one on the same network. I tried to get documentation on how to solve this problem and the support team kept making false promises and never delivered. Good idea, very badly designed. I will never buy or recommend a SainSmart product again. My organization could have been a solid business partner for them, but they were too short-sighted to see it and only willing to help if the money was right under their noses. Too bad.

Cons
  • Can't remember