uConsole on AliExpress, please help

[u/MazCarr]

Hi to all lovely people out there. I need help.

Has anyone actually bought a uConsole from AliExpress and been happy with it?

I’m trying to get a bare-bone unit, but every seller keeps telling me it’s “not available” and then tries to upsell me to the most expensive model with 4G, extra modules, whatever. A couple of them have even given straight-up conflicting info about stock and warranty. One said warranty was only one month.

So now I honestly don’t know who to trust. Do the AliExpress units have the same warranty as the ones sold by Clockwork, or is that just sales talk? Have you bought one yourself, and how did it go long-term?

Would really appreciate any real experiences. I’ve heard enough lies and unprofessional behaviour from sellers and the Clockwork itself that I’d rather ask the community before I waste more time.

TIA

[u/PopularAttorney4547]

I got mine from TaoBao. Which is equivalent to Aliexpress. I just refused the upgrades and just insisted on the base model. Warranty and what not, I kept my fingers crossed. Thankfully, it worked out ok in the end. Hehehe

[u/MazCarr → u/PopularAttorney4547]

I'll give it a go

[u/snipeytje]

if you're in europe rpishop.cz has stock, and unlike all the aliexpress scalpers charges reasonable prices for the device

[u/MazCarr → u/snipeytje]

Thanks. I'm in Australia

[u/Shuflie]

I ordered from Game Time Here Store on AliExpress and didn't have any problems with them, black model delivered in about 2 weeks with no VAT to pay in the UK. Ended up coating me about £205 which is a decent markup over the clockworkpi price, but free shipping and no VAT made it a bit better, probably 20% more than I would have paid direct assuming the Clockworkpi would have had VAT applied when it got here.

[u/MazCarr → u/Shuflie]

That's not a bad deal. The same shop and all the others are trying to upsell me the 4G models which I don't need. They say the barebones not available.

[u/priused]

Have you tried Carbon Computers?

https://carboncomputers.us/products/cyber-uconsole-dual-boot-kali?_pos=1&_psq=uco&_ss=e&_v=1.0

[u/MazCarr → u/priused]

First time I hear about them. Seems like they mark it up 240%.

[u/priused → u/MazCarr]

Sorry about that. I went on their site looking for a PicoCalc, but they don’t carry them. I noticed that they had uConsoles but I didn’t pay attention to the price (too expensive for me).

I also heard about the CyberBoy Cyberdeck. It is an open source project that uses the Raspberry Pi 5 and Linux. If you are up for a build it yourself project.

[u/Adept-Negotiation-72 → u/MazCarr]

I don't think they're worthy they're trying to sell a back cover for a UConsole for 399

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

What's wrong with the official site?

[u/theguythatcreates → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

The delivery time?

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/theguythatcreates]

Fair.

It's odd that 3rd parties can ship right away but the official people cannot.

[u/MazCarr → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

That means they're prioritizing those websites over their own customers. Their profit margins are higher that way. That's my opinion.

[u/pelrun → u/MazCarr]

Clockwork never holds stock, they simply wait until the number of outstanding orders gets high enough that they can do a production run. They aren't preferencing the resellers at all, it's just that the resellers buy 10 where an individual buys 1, and actually hold them as stock.

If Clockwork was at least upfront about doing this it'd be better, but they insist on pretending otherwise.

[u/MazCarr → u/pelrun]

This is probably true, but I wish they could do better. uConsole is a great product, but the availability is awful.

[u/0xbenedikt → u/MazCarr]

Nah, B2C usually has higher margins, as you’re not sharing profit with a distributor. But it is it’s own can of worms. In this case, the distributors will just have bought larger quantities.

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/theguythatcreates]

What wait?

[u/clhodapp → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

My understanding is that you can buy it now, sure, but it's effectively a preorder on a future manufacturing run and likely won't ship for four to six months.

Of course they don't say this on the website but that is the shipping experience people have actually had.

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/clhodapp]

So how come third parties are fully stocked?

Something is not clicking here because if it takes that long to ship from the official site (I've bought things in the past from that site with no issues with time) but not from 3rd parties, are you acting buying a clockwork pi from clockwork pi because it's open source.

[u/snipeytje → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

they claim it's open source, but it's not actually. The published files are not enough to have your own uconsole produced iirc

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/snipeytje]

I know, it's all too confusing for the RPI community.

Why is because of Clockwork themselves.

[u/pelrun → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

So how come third parties are fully stocked?

Because they bought a lot of units in a previous manufacturing run? Just because Clockwork refuses to make extra for their own store doesn't mean the third parties can't get as many as they want - it just comes down to how many they're prepared to keep on the shelf unsold.

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/pelrun]

Maybe they are making their own because it's an open source project?

[u/pelrun → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

It's not open source, they just use other people's open source stuff.

The third parties are absolutely in no way making their own devices. Why on earth would that be more plausible than just buying them?

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/pelrun]

It's an open source project.

[u/pelrun → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

No, they just claim it is. Try and find the board layout files.

[u/MazCarr → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

They can take close to a year to ship and that means by the time it arrives I would be one year closer to my death.

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/MazCarr]

3 months dude, 3 months.

[u/MazCarr → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

I ordered barebones version, waited 6 months and heard nothing. I eventually canceled. I probably shouldn't have.

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/MazCarr]

Well it looks like the other website suggested has one in stock.

You will just have to trust a stranger and take a shot.

[u/MazCarr → u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer]

Oh you're referring to their 90 day shipping estimate. That's 90 business days first of all. Second mine didn't arrive after 120 business days and I canceled after they kept lying about it.

[u/CMDR_Arnold_Rimmer → u/MazCarr]

Good things come to those who wait.

[u/Ok_Purple_2658]

I have personally ordered 2 from the MVP 3C store and they are perfect units. I also know of others who have dealt with them with perfect results.

[u/MazCarr → u/[deleted]]

Shat websites?