Luftwaffe60

Does anyone have any experience with these. Just how good are they and are they reliable? Thanks
www.lado-tech.com

warks62

My Feedback: (140)

I don't want to bash any new company that is trying to make a good product but a friend of mine purchased these and have had nothing but problems. They will work fine then one will fail. He had been promised over and over again that improved models would be coming out but he never came through. He did finally give him back his money. I am sure that he will get the bugs worked out some day but not right now.

Randy

mimoore67

My Feedback: (51)

Hopefully, this style of retracts will eventually be on the same level as pneumatics retracts. I am seriously looking at Lado-Tech for my next project, being a 60-90 size warbird. There seems to be numerous advantages to using a electric retract over pneumatic or mechanical, especially in the areas ease of installation and the lack of a air tank. I saw these last year at Toledo and hopefully they will be there this year, so I can talk to them and ask what improvements they have made.

jeff naul

My Feedback: (16)

i e-mailed them a few weeks ago wanting to buy some for my p-40, the reply was that he was changing companys who build the gears and was down for a few weeks. that was before christmas, give him a call.

pdansalvish

My Feedback: (23)

I orderd a set for my H-9 Mustang, Should be installing within the next few weeks. They look good, if they work I will order addtional ones.

warks62

My Feedback: (140)

All I can say is that he gave excuse after excuse as to why it had not happened yet even though my friend had paid in advance. Either it was moving, new lathe, always some reason. We had seen these at IMMA "Rally of Giants" at Castle AFB and he had thought it was a great idea. My friend hates air and thought this was the way to go. He is now going to use Likes Line Electric Retracts. I am sure that Lado is making use of his product for some other purpose do to the cost he has put into this and feel he is concentrating on that more than RC. I would be interested if pdansalvish gets them. I hope you do and that this finally works out it is really a neat idea.

Randy

v6goose

Hi guys...

I am putting Lado units in my giant scale TF Mustang and have been talking to Doug at Lado.

He has been nothing but straight up with me thus far and told me that the redesigned unit with integrated electronics is due for release around the end of January.

They have had a major setback just before Christmas when the company that cuts gears for them ceased trading, so Lado have bought there own equipment for cutting gears and had to move to a bigger workshop to cater for it.

Obviously there is an amount of setup and production ramp-up time, so patience is a virtue.

I have personally not heard anything regarding reliability of these units and will be providing feedback to all that wants to know.

My plan is to use two main units and one smaller actuator for my Sierra tailwheel unit. I will be using servos for the inner doors and all of this will be controlled by the new Lado Gs-2 controller which is also due for release soon.

Good luck with yours and lets hear your first hand experience with Lado's.

Cheers

Goose

saramos

Hi Goose. Look forward to hearing your experiences.

Scott

lado-tech

Hello All...Doug from LADO Tech here.

warks62 (Randy) I know who you speak of and I would recommend you go back to your friend and get the facts. Yes he did have problems but after he had such a bad landing the gear was ripped from the wing. This customer sent the actuator back to me for repair as the electrical wiring had been ripped completely out. I attempted to repair the actuator at no charge to the customer. After he tried the actuators again he started having problems with reliability. Again he sent them back for REPAIR. I noticed the output shaft on the actuator was slightly bent. I replaced the part and returned it to the customer explaining what I saw. I also mentioned that the best option would be to replace the actuator when our new design was done.

The only other problem that I know of was noise from his gas engine was interfering with our electronics. Again at no charge LADO supplied the customer with RF filters, despite the noise was most likely a wiring problem with engine and not a problem with our product.

At this point we started having some supplier problems and could no longer produce the old design. The customer asked for a replacement set of actuators. I informed him of the delay due to the redesign and he agreed to wait. The customer did wait for a long time and did ask for a refund in the end. Even though I felt this was not LADO's fault due to the crash I went ahead and gave him a full refund once I received the product back.

What caused the delays? Several months back one of our vendors that supplied the gears for the gear box in our 1/5 Scale Retract Actuator discontinued manufacturing the small fine pitch gears we use. As a result we had to purchase a new CNC lathe to make our own gears. Due to getting the lathe we had to move our shop so we had room and power for it. If any of you have moved a business you know what pain we went through. Also as you can imagine you can't buy this type of equipment just anywhere. We had to order the lathe and wait for delivery, not to mention learn how to use it once it did arrive.

Presently the redesign is done and we are just starting to ship again. The new unit has 25% more power, all ball bearings though the entire gear box and a new encoder that gives better speed regulation despite being much smaller. I am confident from here on in we will be able to ship reliability and have a reliable, scale option for retracts. Our mission at LADO is to bring this technology to the RC market, and I promise you that is our first priority. I hope that you can understand the difficulties in developing a new technology especially when you’re a small company. If anyone has questions or concerns always feel free to call me. Sorry this got so long winded.

Doug
www.lado-tech.com
530-533-4444

saramos

It's a very positive thing to see a manufacturer come online and give a no-nonsense description of what they are going through. I'm not a customer yet, but I'm planning on it.

Scott

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

I'm looking forward to these as well. [sm=thumbup.gif]

But I am discouraged to learn I cannot crash, rip them out of the wings, shred the electronics, and still have them work reliably. Where is the quality these days?? lol...

Luftwaffe60

Thanks Doug for coming on line and explaining what had happened!
I too will be buying your retracts as soon as I can! Just need to check a few dimensional details.
By the way, one of our club members has your electric retracts installed and just loves them. He told me that they are very reliable!! Never had any glitches!!!
He told me that he'd never go back to a mechanical setup!!
Also, in regards to engine noise he toldme that he has no problems whats so ever!

p51mech38

My Feedback: (3)

I've been waiting for input on these. I was just waiting for Doug to settle into his new shop. I do recommend one thing on the 60 size retracts. Could you make them so that you can get scale struts into them instead of just 3/16th's wire. 3/8 struts from Robart or VQ work on most 60 sized planes. I just hate glueing the wire into the strut then only having one little set screw holding it all in. If the scale/sport scale market is what you are after a "strut compatible" retract would be the hot ticket.

lado-tech

Thanks for your support and understanding guys!

Rare Bear Mech - I will be making a slightly wider 60 series retract that will accept a 3/8" strut later this year. We have been holding off untill I get caught up. We have several new products that we will be working in the months to come, including a rotating .60 size retract!

Thanks for the input, its always welcome.

Doug
LADO Tech.

mimoore67

My Feedback: (51)

Doug,

Way to go! I was hoping you would jump and tell you side of the story! I understand the whole ordeal with running a business, as my family has a machine shop here in Michigan! Suppliers can kill you, so to speak!

Good luck with your landing gear! I hope to buy some from you soon!

Are you coming to Toledo again this year?


Michael

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

Lado-tech (Doug)

Let us know when you get everything up and running!

v6goose

Hi Doug/all...

Wow, interesting to see all these 'Ladoites' come out of the woodwork on this especially as I have had trouble finding anyone who wanted to talk about these units.

Not wanting you to put your neck on the chopping block but do you have a revised release date for the new actuators and the GS-2 controller as discussed?

I sent an email back to you to put me on the list for first off the production line for each, but fear my address may be on your block list.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find things to build on the Mustang in lieu of having the Lado units in hand.

Cheers

Goose

christophe31

hi doug,
i've send you an mail for your products.

in fact i needed 3 set of 3 Scale Electric Retract Actuator for 3 jet

2 F18c of extrem jet
1 F15 of feibao

can you do that ? and what you needed for? can they work directly plug in receiver or is it oblige to buy your gear sequencer.
we prefer an item to plug directly in receiver than using sequencer.

best regards.
Christophe, Stephane,Arnaud the french team!!!

christophe31

up

Jeffpro

My Feedback: (1)

I've been running a pair in my H9 Mustang and they've worked flawlessly. They look and sound great and it is *so* nice not having to carry an air pump to the field or clutter the inside of the fuse with air lines.

I've corresponded with Doug several times and he has been extremely helpful, even replacing a controller board for no charge that I shorted out through no fault of his.

I will be buying more of his retracts and can't wait for a set of rotators to go in my H9 P-40. LADO is a fine company to do business with.

lado-tech

Hello christophe31

I saw your email and will respond tomarrow when I am back at the shop. Better to handle this via email then on the forums. But I am sure we can retro those for you. The GS-1 controller is a requirment for the 1/5 scale actuators, but not for the 5/8" actuators. So it just depends on what you need.

Thanks for your intrest.
Doug

kahloq

Interesting. I'll be watching these as they might be an option for the CMP ME-109 when it gets released. I have smaller parkflyer type of electronic retracts(servo-less) from Sonic-Electric. They work quite well.

christophe31

doug , did you forgive me ??? lol...

we need to retract our legs....

lado-tech

Christophe31,

I tryed to email you and the email got kicked back to me. Do you have another email address? Or try sending me another email. In any case I would need pictures of the retracts with some referance like a ruler in the picture. This will give me an idea of what I need to do for the retro fit.

Thanks,
Doug

Whistling Death

Just to let you guys know 60 size retracts that you can retrofit with a 3/8" strut are coming out this year and Doug said that rotating retracts are about a month away. My H9 corsair is going to get a set.

Needless to say I just ordered a set of 60 size retracts today for my upcoming TF or SIG P-51.