Bad quality on buttons on Flexproduct

Lars Pettersson

The buttons on my Maestro

The black colure are almost gone after 4 months of use Tune button are worst but all buttons are bad.

I thought Flex had good quality but this is extremly BAD

I am very disappointed

Gord-VA7GP

I have a background which includes designing telephones. Our customers (major telcos) were fussy and we were too: the only keys we would use were two-shot (where one colour of plastic is molded first, then the second surrounding colour is then molded). In our labs, we tried all the latest "osmotic" printing and absolutely nothing held up :-(

While I firmly believe two-shot keys are the only way to go, the Maestro's buttons seem like they're a rubber-membrane design and really the only option here is pad-printing.

I want to separate "quality" from "design choices" but when I look at your photo I am sad and cannot convince myself otherwise 😕

Russ Ravella

Man ! I'd send that right back and expect Flex to replace all of those buttons under warranty ! I haven't used mine enough to have that problem yet but I noticed the pots are pretty **** right out of the box. They feel like there's sand in the mechanism on most of them.

Between all of this, not addressing the extreme latency in the monitor path, or even the famous and long standing "no side tone with N1MM" issue, not to mention the absurd headphone jack choice that's caused so much trouble, this was definitely not one of Flex's best efforts. I hope the new 8XXXs are more thoughtfully designed. But given they didn't even bother to provide a pair of dedicated APD inputs on the back, they're not off to a great start.

Good Luck with this Gord ! 73 Russ KR6W

WX7Y

I love my Maestro But I to have the silk screen on the buttons also flaking off and I just put in a help desk ticket about it. I would rather they send me new buttons overlays and instructions to change them out rather then ship it back to Flex but that is just me.

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Perhaps Flex changed button coatings with the Maestro C. The buttons on my 6.5 years old 6600M still look great.

WX7Y

I was asked by Flex AFTER doing a help desk ticket, to ship my Maestro 3 back and they would take care of it so maybe by the time the 8***M's come out it will be corrected. They paid for shipping so hope it won't take to long to swap them out

Russ Ravella

That's a reassuring story, Bret ! Glad they're taking care of it for you. Did they say anything ABOUT the problem itself ? I'm wondering if it's endemic or the result of an infrequent manufacturing process error type thing ? 73 Russ KR6W

WX7Y

No but I wouldn't of expected them to either, Tim did say it is quite a Job changing out the buttons to dissemble and re-assembly and if it's under warrantee they would take care of it.

If I where to guess, the Buttons were not cleaned of oils or to slippery surface for the silk screen paint to stick to when they where built at one of Flex's Product parts Vendors.

It took 5 months to show up so this doesn't happen overnight.

Russ Ravella

Yeah, sounds like a reasonable guess. I use mine is spurts and it will be just my luck its a problem with all of them and I just haven't worn mine down yet. And when I do, it will be out of warranty and cost a fortune to fix because of the "quite a job" situation you described. Even worse would be if the replacement parts are no better than the original. Anyway, good luck ! 73 Russ KR6W

WX7Y

Here is what mine looks like others are a different button I think but look similar

W7NGA

I am wondering if in all cases the owners have cats and that the buttons taste delightful. Lick!

W7NGA

WX7Y

No cats in my house and I have the hard cover on it all the time unless I'm using it, if a cat or dog did that to my radio equipment they would be taken to the pound.

Larry W0NQW

😒

Gord-VA7GP

@Russ Ravella wrote:

"I use mine is spurts and it will be just my luck its a problem with all of them and I just haven't worn mine down yet. And when I do, it will be out of warranty and cost a fortune to fix"

I am feeling this same way 😯☹️ I worry that my light use and my gentle touch may be "rewarded" in the worst way 😫 My Maestro C was shipped out April 15, but had only seen a couple of test-uses until I got the tilt-feet and battery end-July.

I guess I'm now 6 months in; halfway through the warranty period, with only a couple of days' use! (My pre-order survey indication to also get a battery and tilt-feet didn't trigger inclusion, hence the add'n'l 3 months' wait).

I even checked Flex's website to see if there was such a thing as a 5-year extended warranty 😯 I could buy, but alas … no

Russ Ravella

I feel your pain, Gord. And Flex's silence in this post is deafening. If it IS an endemic problem that most/all of their Maestro C customers will face at some point, they should offer to replace them free whenever it occurs (up to some reasonable limit). If it isn't, they should be happy to make the offer anyway since they'll rarely have to service it.

73 Russ KR6W

Neil D Friedman N3DF

so far two people have reported problems. Perhaps less than 0.2 percent of the installed base?

Russ Ravella

Doesn't mean a thing Neil - at least not yet. The other way to look at it is, only a small percentage of folks having the problem would end up reporting it here. And of that small percentage, we're already hearing about it and the thing has only been in production for about 6 months.

If we don't hear more about it after more time has passed, I'll take your point. And I obviously hope that iS what happens !

73 Russ KR6W

WX7Y

The majority of people probably wont have this problem as there has been only the two of us that have heard have this issue thus far that have written about it here anyway.

My Maestro hasn't been used much so I'm sure if you turn yours on more then 4 times a month you would have seen this problem before now, as that is about all mine get's turned on and off a month

Flex was VERY good with me and quick to respond to my Help desk ticked and to expect them to waist there time responding here on the Community is just dumb.

If it is a "endemic problem" I can just bet that FLEX will take care of it when they see the Radio Equipment again, after all, my old 2012 6700 went in for the first time in 10 Years for a SPA Day, they changed the 4 FAN out and put all the factory updates in it for FREE, I only had to pay for an Hour labor and the TCXO that was drifting for Parts, I can guarantee you it definitely wasn't under any warrantee.

The FLEX Trolls like this sort of thing to happen as they need something to say even if it doesn't pertain to them. HI HI

Russ Ravella

Yeah, not dumb at all Bret. Not dumb at all. Expecting a manufacture to "waist (sic) time" responding to two people already reporting something like this:

flexbuttons.jpg

within six months of releasing the product is totally reasonable. And as for claiming that you know "The majority of people probably won't have this problem" when we've already seen two reports of it here is, well …. Now if Flex responded here saying THEY'VE only had two reports of this, that would be different. And helpful.

Flex has been VERY good with me too in addressing what has been a total mess of endless manufacturing problems over the years which is part of why I'm surprised they haven't addressed this here. Though they're pretty busy right now and may have just not gotten around to it yet. But I've read many accounts of other customers who don't feel the same at all. So there is apparently some variability in that. And claiming that I'm a troll just for making that observation and because manufacturing problems don't pertain to me is simple ignorance, Bret. And pretty unconstructive too.

73 Russ KR6W

VE7FM

I purchased a 2 year old 6600M that had the same problem with several of the buttons. I was able to get a set of button caps from Flex and replace them myself. It is quite the process though and I'd only recommend doing it yourself if you're comfortable working on delicate hardware with ribbon cables etc.

The silk screening on the caps does seem very soft.