Wasted $400 on a fancy remote control system that died after 3 weeks

I bought one of those newfangled wireless remote control setups for my crawler crane back in June. Figured it would save me time on signaling and make the job site safer. Worked great for the first 10 days, then started glitching out on a Friday afternoon in Phoenix. By the third week it just stopped connecting completely, no error codes or anything. Company said it was 'moisture damage' even though it's supposedly weatherproof. Took it apart myself and found a cheap circuit board with zero sealant around the connections. Has anyone else had bad luck with these newer wireless systems or did I just pick a dud?

3 comments

3 Comments

morganmartinez1d ago

Damn that really sucks, especially dropping that kind of cash for something that craps out so fast. Feels like these companies slap a "weatherproof" sticker on anything and call it good.

brooke_jones1d ago

Man I read somewhere recently that a lot of those 'weatherproof' remotes have basically zero waterproofing on the actual board, just what the case gives you. Sounds like you got the same cheap junk.

aaron8801d ago

Those companies know exactly what they're doing. They test the case with clean water in a lab, not muddy rain on a actual job site. Found the same thing when I took apart a supposedly tough radio for my dozer, just bare solder points with a thin layer of tape over them. Remotes for heavy equipment need to survive grease, dust, and pressure washing, not sit in some controlled environment. Your dud is the same as the rest of them unfortunately.