Asked
— Edited
I have been talking to Beth, the store manager at a Brookstone in Miami, and they are having terrible trouble getting a Six running. She isn't able to view the tutorials at work, nor can she bring the Six home to work on.
See the secondary discussion on thread http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=8197
I have also communicated by email.
Is there anyone in the area who can go to the store and help? If you could bring an EZ-B Lipo battery, charger, and your EZ-B just for troubleshooting purposes to make sure hers are not damaged or an out of box failure, that would be even better.
Contact me by email (address in my profile) and I'll forward you her contact info.
Thanks,
Alan
Beth has tried to use her internal contact and he is not responding to emails or phone calls. She had no instructions for contacting EZ-Robot, so I forwarded an email to customer support for Aislinn to forward as needed.
She has tried 2 Six's and neither will even turn on (they may have been damaged or have blown fuses, the associate who put them together had several of the servos plugged in backwards that we know of, unsure what else might have happened before Beth took over trying).
As well as the email I forwarded to support, you can see the beginnings of the discussion in this thread http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=8197 (she didn't know how to post a new thread... like I said, not at all technical, can't access the web from work, so trying to remember as much as she can for when she comes home, but she can't bring one of the Six's home either, so really stuck in a hard place, which is why I was looking for any Miami based users who might be able to physically assist rather than remotely assist.
Alan
I am not sure, other than it is a Brookstone. I sent you an email with Beth's contact info.
Alan
Alan
Alan
OMG I was there trying to help them last week! I am on vacation and noticed the JD right up front in the Brookstone at Dolphin mall.
I tried to help those ladies but they dont have any experience in robotics. I was with my son and spent more than 30 minutes trying to get 2 of thier SIX to work. They didnt have even proper screwdrivers.
Immediately i noticed that each of the six had a reversed servo connection. The 2 batteries didnt seem to want to charge. I suspected they drained too far. I contemplated using the power supply from the JD display but quickly realized that i was already spending too much time away from my son. I only have 2 weeks with him. Im sorry DJ but i had to refer them to call or contact you. They said they didnt have instructions on the proper connections of the servos to the ports either.
Also, the JD didnt seem to be performing right. They said a child had pulled its head off. Its barely on it and its flopping with motion. It wasnt doing much motion of its arms and legs either.
Good to know you can help them out. I'm sure they will make a lot of sales when it's all good to go.
PS: @anthony, Mangos Tropical Cafe is a great place to eat.
Alan
if the answers to all the questions are the big blue question marks, then there should be an nice tablet in which the person is browsing the robot to read/watch from.
Even a cheap thin square plastic bubble like they use for bubble packs of parts and toys would do. Probably wouldn't cost more than a dollar each wholesale. Somebody must make those things in large enough sizes. All the stores could be supplied for a few hundred dollars. To me it would be worth the investment to save many more hundreds in broken part replacement. Heads pulled off by kids isn't going to be covered by warranty replacement either. Not to mention the hours in lost labor fixing them. With 200-some-odd stores, maintaining the robots will be no small task as it is. Damage from grabby hands won't help.
I never saw the $400 drones out to be touched and child handled at will. And for good reason. Should be the same with JD.
I'll bet money that many other stores are having this same issue. I also agree with a previous post that instructions should been sent "on paper" with detailed instructions on how to set these up. You GOTTA idiot proof things and make even easy things clear and easier. Businesses don't have the resources or time to let the employee sit in front of a computer for even a short time watching videos let along trouble shoot a mis-wired robot. They need to get this thing set out on the showroom floor and that employee out there selling everything else in the store to money spending customers. Weren't these displays pre-assembled and tested? If so they should have stayed that way and shipped in-tacked even if shipping cost more.
EZ Robot has spent a lot of labor and money on this venture. It's a great idea And if set up properly can attract many new customers. However as it is, if nothing is done other then to direct them to the question marks and tutorials it has the potential to blow up in your face and turn away many, many customers that would have spent money on EZ Robots. These people will also tell their friends and family "Not" to buy from EZ Robot based on those broken, crippled and mis-wired examples of expensive peaces of junk they saw at the store. This is truly how many people think and act all over the world. You guys have got to take this seriously and get personally involved with a rock solid solution like mentioned here and other posts. All your doing now is loosing customers on a grand scale. If you cant fix this you need to pull these displays ASAP.
Like 69Developer said; "this irritants me and I'm not even involved". *mad* However I feel I am involved. I want EZ Robot to seceded and become as big and accepted as Arduino. I've spent many hours over the years promoting EZ Robot over many places on the internet and to friends. I hate it when someone comes back and gets in my face with a story like this. EZ Robot is worth every cent spent on it and worth much more then money in education and pleasure. Watching a broken and burnt up robot jerk and flop around makes it very hard to justify and defend. *blush*
Good luck EZ Robot and I truly hope you all get this worked out. Soon.
the kid his finger would be broken or cut clean off.many robots has,
handel bar to safely transport a robot.am feeling sad for the team here,
they work long and hard for it.one not satisfied person tells it further to,
7 other people.
Alan
We really need to get this display up and running. That place sees people with deep pockets and we need to lighten their burden.
The last time I went by the local Brookstone, they didn't have a JD out front at all. Instead they had a non-functioning Six with it's legs folded on top. Makes me wonder if their JD is already broken or no one could set it up or what. Maybe they sold it, but that seems unlikely since the demo units are special. But you never know. Could have sent it back for repairs for all I know. Are there Six demo units out there I wonder?
I'll probably go by there tomorrow. I'll find out at that time. And, as was suggested, I'll offer to help if they are having problems. Only thing is, I wonder how you put the demo JD into demo mode? Assuming they have one that's not too badly broken. I have a number of spare servos I could use to get it going if need be. Even a pair of extra feet and a few micro-servos. No spare head though, so here's hoping it's Okay. Or spare EZB4, for that matter. If nothing else I should be able to get their Six going so they can control it via a cell phone.
But that's all conjecture until I actually go by. Hopefully though, they have something going and all is well.