DASH 1 - No display

[ssharkey]

Okay I am just about ready to start shouting now - I bought a DASH 1 last week to go with my DL1 (bought some time ago). The new unit eventually arrived earlier this week but I am unable to use it because the instructions say if not bought with a Logger you will need to reflash the logger.

Fair enough, except why was this not checked out in advance of sending me the DASH1 then I could have had it done and ready whilst waiting the week or so for the DASH 1 to arrive. Now I'm waiting on responses to get details on upgrading the DL1 and having spent so much of my hard earned cash it is quite frustrating to be waiting.

Okay so I may seem impatient especially when compared with the length of time we've been waiting for "proper" support for open course, BUT I feel extremely saddened by the customer service from a company that produces such handy products.

[RTUSA]

Steve:

Have you got the info you need yet?

If not, feel free to email me at aseim@race-technology.com and I can get you going.

Also - is the DASH1 completely inert or just not doing what you want?

Best Regards,

[ssharkey]

Opinions invited...

What should I do?

I get absolutely no response from RT UK where I bought the DASH1 & (originally) the DL1 - in fact I had to ring them and they said the response I got from RTUSA can be treated as their official response. I am grateful that our US cousins still know something of customer support but am very angry at the treatment from the UK (with whom I have spent a fair bit of hard earned cash).

The long and the short of it is my DL1 is one of the early units and needs a hardware mod to work with the DASH1 so I now need to send that off to be done and reflashed before I can use the DASH1. I am pretty furious because if they knew this is a possibility (and having ordered the DL1 with them they should have KNOWN it for certain) when I placed the order they could have had my DL1 then (when I didn't need it) and returned it to me with the DASH1 as it is I waited 1 week for the DASH1, 1 week for them to return my communications and now another week will pass before I can have it in the car working - so the question is (particularly to those who have a DASH1/DL1 combination) do I do it or do I return it for a refund?

They say they can upgrade and turn it around within 2 days BUT with the delays on support for open circuit and my recent ordering experience I have little confidence.

Steve Sharkey

[jlucas]

Steve, I realize your frustrated, I've been there before, but I think your really like having segment times/deltas and predictive lap times available to you in the car. Your almost there! Don't give up now.

In my experience, it does not appear to me that RT knows which serial number unit belongs to which specific customer so that would have made it impossible for them to be certain your DL1 needed the upgrade. That doesn't excuse the response delays but might address your other frustration.

[ssharkey]

In my experience, it does not appear to me that RT knows which serial number unit belongs to which specific customer

From a company that specialises in data capture & logging that's a pretty poor record. But my point was that when I placed the order EVEN if they didn't know which unit I had they could have asked it's not like there is any other reason to order a DASH1 other than to connect to one of their dataloggers. They didn't even ask if it was a DL1 I was connecting it to I phoned them up after placing the order to tell them this information.

As for the sector times etc I can get some of that from my digidash dashboard anyway and it sounds like the limitations of open course (which is what I do) will limit the DASH1s usefulness to me anyway.

I guess the main reason for my contemplating a return though is that a part of me doesn't want them to have my money based upon an impression of taking the money and providing poor service. It isn't like they are cheap (okay good value compared with their comeptitors on the logging front but buy a sensor and they are having a laugh surely when they want to charge you 5ukp for 1 metre length of 3 wires?

Steve Sharkey

[RTUSA]

Steve:

There are several issues here:

1. Re your DL1 - there are relatively few DL1s that require this mod, only the very early ones, it's easy to forget about this caveat. I have one myself, and yet I completely failed to recognize the issue the first (and only, I think) time I sold a DASH1 to an early DL1 customer and it didn't work. In a perfect world this would not happen, of course.

2. I wouldn't generalize from a long delivery of a fairly good size development project (V7 and improved open course support) to a technician soldering a couple of wires. I have every confidence that RTUK can turn your unit around as promised.

3. I don't honestly think that many companies have a comprehensive list linking all customers to all serial #s for products selling for $1000/500GPB. Again, maybe we should, and in a perfect world everyone would.

4. RTUSA is part of RT, so a positive response from RTUSA should reflect well, not poorly, on RTUK.

5. Perhaps most importantly, will the DASH1 benefit you? I'm assuming from your email that you are mostly interested in timing on a hillclimb course. I'm 90% sure that the DASH1 currently works fine for that, though most of my DASH1 customers are circuit (road) racers. But I'm testing a customers' DASH1 this afternoon and I'll try using it in that mode and let you know for sure.

Best Regards,

[ssharkey]

1. Re your DL1 - there are relatively few DL1s that require this mod, only the very early ones, it's easy to forget about this caveat. I have one myself, and yet I completely failed to recognize the issue the first (and only, I think) time I sold a DASH1 to an early DL1 customer and it didn't work. In a perfect world this would not happen, of course.

But the documentation that comes with the DASH1 says if not purchased with the DASH1 your logger will need upgrading. So wouldn't it make sense to state this upfront and establish which unit you are connecting to at the time of ordering - the upgrade files could be sent out prior to the DASH1 arriving.

2. I wouldn't generalize from a long delivery of a fairly good size development project (V7 and improved open course support) to a technician soldering a couple of wires. I have every confidence that RTUK can turn your unit around as promised.

Quite right I was just feeling grumpy - it wouldn't be so bad if I only had to contend with one battle at a time but my mobile supplier is messing me around and the Church projector has failed again (same problem as last November - INFOCUS only guarantee their work for 90 days and want me to pay to fix it again). I gather then that the DASH1 units are NOT held in stock but built to demand - otherwise the delay makes no sense.

3. I don't honestly think that many companies have a comprehensive list linking all customers to all serial #s for products selling for $1000/500GPB. Again, maybe we should, and in a perfect world everyone would.

It seems like a silly wasted opportunity to me to loose that marketing information. Walmart etc spend big money to gain such customer information and RT can't be bothered to set aside a small access database to keep track of its customers - I would certainly do something about that.

4. RTUSA is part of RT, so a positive response from RTUSA should reflect well, not poorly, on RTUK.

So does poor service from RTUK reflect badly on RTUSA also then?

5. Perhaps most importantly, will the DASH1 benefit you? I'm assuming from your email that you are mostly interested in timing on a hillclimb course. I'm 90% sure that the DASH1 currently works fine for that, though most of my DASH1 customers are circuit (road) racers. But I'm testing a customers' DASH1 this afternoon and I'll try using it in that mode and let you know for sure.

There are many reasons for DASH1 in my case - to be honest hill climbs in the UK are so short and frantic that sector times are not practical. Having read more about it I think there are several short comings and am not sure what scope there is for the DASH1 to be modified - I guess I will wait until I get it all working (yes I've sent the DL1 off) and start to input to the wish lists and see where we go from there. I think the biggest deficiencies in the unit are the lack of: user specified ranges for the bar charts (so you can zoom in on a required range) and the lack of max/min hold facilities.

Steve Sharkey