Am I the only one who feels slighted?

The Android RFR is currently in Beta Testing. Other than the iphone app and soon to be android app I have never heard of another RFU in the works.

I also have the Net3 RFR and although expensive it is decent minus the battery life and overall life of the rechargeables. But you can replace the rechargeables as they are just regular energizer rechargeables or use standard AA batteries. It is a bit of a pain to change regular AA's just because of there being 4 small screws, but it isn't hard and doesn't take long.

Not sure what the moaning is about the ETC RRFU.  I've had mine for 20 mos. and have no issues with it.  I replaced the batteries once with cheapie nicads, which didn't work well then switched to Duracells and have good usage from these.  My RRFU works very well, is every bit as reliable as the hard wired RFU I had on my Express and thus was worth the money, IMO.

Steve Bailey

Brooklyn College

A little known, but budget friendly answer is the phone remote. In this day of cell phones there are many cordless phones sitting on shelves. Plug one into the back of your console and you have a (yes limited ) RFU.

See Appendix E of the 1.7 Manual.

Are you the only one who feels slighted: Yes

I have had Ion and the RFR since they first came out and I have seen nothing but constant improvements in both products. 

Those who have problems with the RFR, talk to your dealer and ETC. It's not like they ignore problems with their products. My RFR never had any problems but I do know those who did and their issues were resolved directly by ETC.

Now I can understand that it is expensive for the RFR, but if you need remote control of the console, there are a couple of cost effective solutions. 

You might have to just bite the bullet with your aversion to Apple products. You can get a fully functional (albeit MORE functions than the actual RFR) RFR for less than $350. Hello? What's wrong with this picture? Ipod touch 8GB= $229, iRFR app=$50, a good router (Linksys WRT54G)=$50. 

I used to not like Apple until I started using this stuff. It is so logical and well done, I just don't see what the problem is. There will more than likely be many many problems with an Android app because of the different brands and processors and speeds that each device offers. At least with Apple has consistency with hardware and predictable performance with it. (Side note: I had to edit many of the negative comments about PC's and Android in order to keep this positive and truly helpful)

Second option: get an Ion dongle for full remote control of the console from either Mac or PC. They have worked very hard on making this a great product. This can be a hard wired network connection to the console (better) or wireless (a little more difficult but not impossible). They used to be free when you registered your console but I think they stopped doing that, but it can't cost more than an RFR!

Third option is the phone thing I saw mentioned above. There is just a little blurb about it in the manual but that's because it's so easy and simple to set up!

So are you the only one who feels slighted? Yes, in my opinion. There are so many wonderful solutions that ETC has - There's 3 solutions for you! I'm sorry but when I see things like you're starting to feel like a Strand customer I just have to intercede because I know what that means. I used to work for a dealer where you couldn't get them to answer the phone. ETC always answers and even on weekends and nighttime they have somebody on call that will always call you back to help with issues.

I've had 2 Ions since for a couple of years. 

I do wish the RFR had a more stable wireless connection, or was self-searching.  It works great when it has connectivity.  It has a habit of dropping out when in the furthest reaches of the concert hall.

The operation of the device itself it good, and has been upgraded (Channel Check mode) and I assume will be upgraded (DMX device functionality??) more in the future.

Yes it's expensive.  yes it's a pain to change batteries when some nitwit left it ON overnight (guilty).  On of my operators can't make the "1" button work, but it's fine for everyone else.  Go figure.

Are you the only one feeling slighted?  Probably not, but I don't think there are that many of you.  There are other solutions, cheap to expensive.  Take your pick.

(Yes, I know this isn't that much of a help)

Andrew Riter

Our departments owns 3 Ions and 2 RFRs.  Much like everyone- I do find that the rechargable batteries are horrid.  Our problem is that we don't consistently use the RFR and we keep it on the charger so it is charged when we need to use it.  The extreme downside is that it kills the rechargables.  I also own the iRFR which has the addition of color picker and other ML controls.  The only real suggestion I have for folks having issues with their RFR is replace batteries and make sure you have updated the RFR and the basestation firmware.  Once I did that, many of the wierd problems went away.  Plus it made the battery meter more accurate.