Hik Stella sq50

[purplepig]

Good evening all- have had the above scope now for a year or so, when I first got it I couldn’t rate it highly enough, though did have a few dramas after not putting on standby and the button shifting the zero Setting whilst carrying with a sling. But I soon got the hang of that.
However having seen the various firmware upgrades I downloaded them as the app suggested. The scope through each firmware upgrade has got substantially less effective, the image is definitely not as good or defined as it was initially, and the reticles have all changed with you now being forced to have a Red Cross hair in the middle of each reticle which disappears on target and you are unable to change the colour. It is extremely disappointing as the scope initially was fantastic.
Is anyone else having the same issues with the firmware upgrades? and is there a way of downloading or returning the unit back to its original running setting. It will be interesting to see if anyone has complained to them though I can’t find a post online anywhere.

 

[mealiejimmy]

My understanding is that it is not possible for the user to put the scope back to an earlier version of the firmware

Cheers

Bruce

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

Good evening all- have had the above scope now for a year or so, when I first got it I couldn’t rate it highly enough, though did have a few dramas after not putting on standby and the button shifting the zero Setting whilst carrying with a sling. But I soon got the hang of that.
However having seen the various firmware upgrades I downloaded them as the app suggested. The scope through each firmware upgrade has got substantially less effective, the image is definitely not as good or defined as it was initially, and the reticles have all changed with you now being forced to have a Red Cross hair in the middle of each reticle which disappears on target and you are unable to change the colour. It is extremely disappointing as the scope initially was fantastic.
Is anyone else having the same issues with the firmware upgrades? and is there a way of downloading or returning the unit back to its original running setting. It will be interesting to see if anyone has complained to them though I can’t find a post online anywhere.

HikMicro would need to do this themselves directly, that's if they allow a rollback.,..

 

[Ttocs]

I have exactly the same issue. I bought a Thunder TQ50 just over a year ago. Shortly after purchasing it I “upgraded” to the latest firmware to discover, as you did, a red central cross had been added to the reticle that is all but invisible when using black hot. I emailed Hick - waste of time due to the language barrier. I also spoke to Simon at Elite Optical several times + many emails and, at his request, photographs illustrating the issue. Unfortunately, the upshot was there’s nothing that can be done unless Hick come up with some new firmware that solves the problem (I’d have thought an option to change the colour of the centre of the reticle would have been relatively straight forward; yellow would be ideal). I last corresponded with Simon around May last year and I’m not aware of any progress.

I’m left feeling more than disappointed; the cost of the scope was not insignificant and because the central cross can’t be seen, when it’s over a black hot target, I’ve never mounted the scope on a rifle - it’s a very expensive paper weight (I’d be embarrassed selling it on as it’s useless as a rifle scope unless someone who, unlike everyone I know, uses white hot bought it).

I would liken the experience to buying a Porsche then, having had the Porsche garage service your new sports car, find it’s been restricted to a maximum speed of 20mph and they say there’s nothing they can do about it but they’ll feed back your issue to the Porsche service centre in Germany.

It’s a real shame; if it were only possible to reinstall the original firmware.

N

 

[tarponhead]

This is why I’m sticking to an illuminated reticle, as the most electronics on my scopes, until the thermal Tech race slows down. You guys paid serious money for your Tech, so I hope the manufacturers or your suppliers are helpful in resolving your issues - in another software change perhaps. I gave back my EV recently - another triumph of hope and marketing over real-world experience.

 

[Mungo]

I have exactly the same issue. I bought a Thunder TQ50 just over a year ago. Shortly after purchasing it I “upgraded” to the latest firmware to discover, as you did, a red central cross had been added to the reticle that is all but invisible when using black hot. I emailed Hick - waste of time due to the language barrier. I also spoke to Simon at Elite Optical several times + many emails and, at his request, photographs illustrating the issue. Unfortunately, the upshot was there’s nothing that can be done unless Hick come up with some new firmware that solves the problem (I’d have thought an option to change the colour of the centre of the reticle would have been relatively straight forward; yellow would be ideal). I last corresponded with Simon around May last year and I’m not aware of any progress.

I’m left feeling more than disappointed; the cost of the scope was not insignificant and because the central cross can’t be seen, when it’s over a black hot target, I’ve never mounted the scope on a rifle - it’s a very expensive paper weight (I’d be embarrassed selling it on as it’s useless as a rifle scope unless someone who, unlike everyone I know, uses white hot bought it).

I would liken the experience to buying a Porsche then, having had the Porsche garage service your new sports car, find it’s been restricted to a maximum speed of 20mph and they say there’s nothing they can do about it but they’ll feed back your issue to the Porsche service centre in Germany.

It’s a real shame; if it were only possible to reinstall the original firmware.

N

I have avoided do any updates since I bought mine for this very reason.

However, a friend who has one says the latest update has fixed a lot of this. When did you last update?

 

[Ttocs]

I updated again about 2 months ago hoping it’d resolve the reticle issue. No such luck; it did however resolve the issue of the device starting in white hot then swapping to the selected black hot after a further 5 seconds - that was good but the scope’s still no use as a rifle scope which is what I’d spent several thousand pounds on. Never mind, spending £2500 on a new toy is just pocket money isn’t it and we can all afford to just throw it in a cupboard and forget about it.
N

 

[Mungo]

I updated again about 2 months ago hoping it’d resolve the reticle issue. No such luck; it did however resolve the issue of the device starting in white hot then swapping to the selected black hot after a further 5 seconds - that was good but the scope’s still no use as a rifle scope which is what I’d spent several thousand pounds on. Never mind, spending £2500 on a new toy is just pocket money isn’t it and we can all afford to just throw it in a cupboard and forget about it.
N

I think there’s been a more recent update, and this has (allegedly) fixed most of the issues.

But I was lucky to have been made aware of the problems when I bought mine, so never updated it, and it works beautifully. I love it!

 

[cutty sark]

Had to send my stellar sq50 back to get work done on it a fortnight ago, was destroying pixels after each shot fired at an alarming rate, obviously the repair centre couldn’t fix it as received a new unit in its place, it has the latest firmware upgrade and the red cross is still there, I personally don’t have a problem with it as I use the green cross hairs on either white hot or black hot depending on the ground I’m working on, a bit of a ball ache sending it back but turnaround very prompt.
Said before, I’m impressed with the scope and within the price range it’s better than most, and haven’t noticed image quality getting poorer at all.
I see the control button has been shifted to the top turret on the new model out now, much better sense.

 

[Rake Aboot]

Can someone do a quick rundown of what the actual issue is after the update
Not updated mine since I got it .

Doesn’t default to red x hairs ?
Can you then change said x hairs ?

Thanks

 

[Ttocs]

The new firmware provides a count down to refresh, which is useful. On the downside, a red central cross has been added to the reticles which can’t be seen against a black hot target; see image below. From memory, these are the two most significant changes that come to mind.
N
N

 

[purplepig]

HikMicro would need to do this themselves directly, that's if they allow a

 

[purplepig]

Does anybody else think they actual image quality is worse?

 

[purplepig]

A

 

[philong]

I had a problem with my sq50..I contacted hik via the app and luckily I had vids from day 1 up to the time it played up.. they collected via courier and fixed it....still going strong today.