3D Printed Eggfinder LCD Case

dshmel said:

Maybe I should have you ship my case to Connor McGrath for component assembly ?

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If you want it shipped to another address please PM the info tonight.

At this time I have one more enclosure available in blue.

I apologize I had every intention to ship tomorrow however I forgot it was Veterans day, so they will be shipped on Thursday.

BLKKROW said:

If you want it shipped to another address please PM the info tonight.

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PM Sent

Tracking information has been PM'ed. If anyone has any issues or concerns please let me know.

Also, I still have 1 Blue Enclosure left.

I think I will soon be printing Black Enclosures as there were a few people that were interested. If you would like to reserve a black enclosure please PM me.

According to the tracking information, the majority of you have received your cases. If anyone has any issues or problems please let me know.

Also, with the Eggfinder products on sale this month I have plans to print another batch of black and white. When the batch completed, I will post on here and I will even include a surprise. So watch closely.

I still have one Blue enclosure in stock.

I would like to see the four 4-40x30mm screws included. I didn't save mine.

I'd like to reserve a white one.

bill2654 said:

I would like to see the four 4-40x30mm screws included. I didn't save mine.

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I apologize that you were expecting the screws to be included. Please look for a PM from me.

H_Rocket said:

I'd like to reserve a white one.

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I will add you to the list, expect a PM when the batch is completed.

I've received mine. I haven't had a chance to work on it yet, but it looks very well thought out. I was particularly impressed by the fact that you had even 3D printed the little stand-offs. You even put numbers on each major part, just to identify them for us.

I'll take a Black one. I tried sending a PM but says I don't have space or something like that. Not sure how to clear space. I cleared cache but that wasn't it?

PM sent for black one. Not sure if it went through, as it doesn't appear in my "sent" folder.

Gattack said:

I'll take a Black one. I tried sending a PM but says I don't have space or something like that. Not sure how to clear space. I cleared cache but that wasn't it?

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PM Sent.

Actually, you are out of space in your PM folder so I was unable to send a message to you. But I can let you know I will mark you down for a black case and you will receive another PM once the batch is completed.

I've cleared the message space. You should be able to message me now.

Got mine. Still assembling the boards. Case looks nice. Thanks.

Banzai88 said:

Got mine. Still assembling the boards. Case looks nice. Thanks.

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You are welcome!

I also noticed today that I am short on rocker switches. I have 5 on hand so I can deliver cases to those that have reserved their case. That means I have 1 more switch for anyone else that reserves.

I have ordered more switches but it my source stated it may not arrive until Christmas. If you still want to reserve a case you are more than welcome, I just don't have a firm time frame for delivery.

Received the yellow case and it's nice and compact for pedestrian recovery use. I have a 1200mah 2S lipo that fits in the handle. Anyone know of a larger pack that fits post it here. Can't never have too much mah! Got the LCD board pretty much assembled last night. Just have to "finalize" the "final" assembly. Have to scope out whether or not there is enough room for board screw terminals for the battery connection and where to put the switch so I can turn on the LCD light for night use.
A little nervous and will have to be careful with torqueing the screws. Thinking about it here, one strips the screw holes, just drill completely through the case, use longer screws and put nuts on.
The flair at the base handle where it connects to the square box seems a bit narrow and the amount of material for the screws to hold the handle to the box seems to be not much. Will see how it holds up with use. Overall I really like not having to engineer the black stock box and I had an extra LCD cable from my first unit I was pleasantly surprised I'm not going to need here. The stock box can hold a pretty large battery if one is going to be away from a charger for a long time but it's a bit awkward to carry over rough terrain. I'm going to use my stock LCD unit at a laptop to record flights using Xastir and the handheld so I can go out and recover the rockets.
Made one mistake on the LCD assembly, I put the terminal for the serial/Bluetooth connection and the two post terminal I use for the flashing mode on the wrong side of the board! Got the "desoldering iron/sucker" out and fixed it. I really like this printed enclosure and we'll see how it holds up with use. If one doesn't want to spend a lot of time dinking with the stock case, this is the one to get.

Oh, one other thing. With my stock case, it's a PITA to flash in spite of the room. This box it looks like it will be simply easier to get out of the case in one piece and flash "out in the open". That's another reason I want screw on battery terminals on the board. Disconnect and I can connect another pack if I
have to program it "out of the box":wink:

Kurt Savegnago

Thank you for your comments Kurt!

I put the warning about over torquing in the instructions just to be cautious. The only time I ever ripped off a pad was on a prototype model with a much smaller pad. To prevent that from happening I increased the pad size. I can say that I have removed the 4 screws and replaced them so many times that if you are not one to tinker with your setup it will last for a very long time.

With the design of the PEM nut holding the 2-56 for the handle and case, I highly double that area will fail at anytime. I have attempted to destroy one of these cases with the prototype prints and it takes quite a bit to break any part of the case.

BLKKROW said:

Thank you for your comments Kurt!

I put the warning about over torquing in the instructions just to be cautious. The only time I ever ripped off a pad was on a prototype model with a much smaller pad. To prevent that from happening I increased the pad size. I can say that I have removed the 4 screws and replaced them so many times that if you are not one to tinker with your setup it will last for a very long time.

With the design of the PEM nut holding the 2-56 for the handle and case, I highly double that area will fail at anytime. I have attempted to destroy one of these cases with the prototype prints and it takes quite a bit to break any part of the case.

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I saw the instructions Kyle and heeded them so far with no trouble. Just thinking ahead 'cause stupidhead here has messed up before. It would be easy to drill through and add nuts if one has an accident with mounting the LCD board.

It's not the PEM nuts inside the box that were my concern. It seems the holes in the handle were a little close to the edge. I test fitted and it seems solid but it looks like just a little material is there for the screw head to abut against.
We'll see how it holds up. I might be overreacting and the material can take it.

I destroyed a 38mm Mayhem Rocketry railguide that did use the same material. Now, I stressed it beyond belief and it was "my fault" . How? The stupid rail was dirty, the guides bound up and stupidhead elected to fly anyways. Both halves of the guide were broken, the rocket went Mach 1.25 anyways and hit 8567'. Just some paint chipping on the fins which I was surprised they weren't more damaged.
(A testament to my superior building skills no doubt.:eyeroll:surprised:
Bill Cook gave me a new guide anyways of different material which he shouldn't have done so I bought a couple from AMW. Bottom line is if I used a clean rail, even with the "old" material they probably would have been O.K.

Kurt Savegnago

ksaves2 said:

I saw the instructions Kyle and heeded them so far with no trouble. Just thinking ahead 'cause stupidhead here has messed up before. It would be easy to drill through and add nuts if one has an accident with mounting the LCD board.

It's not the PEM nuts inside the box that were my concern. It seems the holes in the handle were a little close to the edge. I test fitted and it seems solid but it looks like just a little material is there for the screw head to abut against.
We'll see how it holds up. I might be overreacting and the material can take it.

I destroyed a 38mm Mayhem Rocketry railguide that did use the same material. Now, I stressed it beyond belief and it was "my fault" . How? The stupid rail was dirty, the guides bound up and stupidhead elected to fly anyways. Both halves of the guide were broken, the rocket went Mach 1.25 anyways and hit 8567'. Just some paint chipping on the fins which I was surprised they weren't more damaged.
(A testament to my superior building skills no doubt.:eyeroll:surprised:
Bill Cook gave me a new guide anyways of different material which he shouldn't have done so I bought a couple from AMW. Bottom line is if I used a clean rail, even with the "old" material they probably would have been O.K.

Kurt Savegnago

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Oh okay, I see your concern now. Yes the holes are close to the outside of the flange but I have never had an issue. If you just follow the instructions and keep it out of direct sunlight for really long period of times you will be okay. Plus the benefit of 3D printing is if an accident does occur I am here to help you get a new piece.

BLKKROW said:

Oh okay, I see your concern now. Yes the holes are close to the outside of the flange but I have never had an issue. If you just follow the instructions and keep it out of direct sunlight for really long period of times you will be okay. Plus the benefit of 3D printing is if an accident does occur I am here to help you get a new piece.

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Nooooooooo problemo. Buy it people if you don't want to have to machine a stock EggFinder LCD case.

Well....... If you want the room to carry a zillion mah battery pack, you'll have to machine the stock black case yourself.:wink: I will say, I needed an extension for the antenna jack and a ribbon cable extension for the LED display which admittantly are easy to find on ebay and the links are here on TRF.

Kurt Savegnago

Soooooooooooooo....................... Just about done. Engineered a hole for a switch for the lower left side to
actuate the LCD light for night use. Am making every connection so the device can be disconnected from the
case easily as opposed to my first one. Pictures to follow. Kurt

For those looking for a way to compliment their new Eggfinder LCD receiver, I currently have one blue unit for sale. $35.00 plus $3.00 shipping get it into your hands.

Also, I am still waiting for more rocker switches and the white/black filament. The holiday messed up shipping so I apologize for the delay.

Both units together. The front open shows all the work and extras. Click for enlargement. 2100mah battery, toggle switch on top of the black case for backlight, locking toggle for on/off on the large "logoed unit" that's LCD1.



Open back of LCD 2. I knew the owner of a computer shop who had a mound of junked computer cases. Let me tear out wires and hardware. Wished I would have saved more. The plug at the top with the blue/white wires goes to the locking toggle on the lower left side of the case (seen with the lcd facing). I soldered a two pin right angle terminal block to the board so I could plug-in the locking toggle to turn the light on and off. The Blue terminals are for the momentary programming switch and the green terminals are for the battery power. Chargetail placed before the black powerswitch Kyle provides in the second photo. With the switch off, can connect battery charger to charge without juice going to the unit.



This shows the battery connector and the charging pigtail. This is the mainboard.
I'm still awaiting the arrival of the Bluetooth module so I'll have to figure out how to get
that in there and make it detachable so's to maintain the ability to attach the serial cable to a laptop for programming and updating the firmware if something comes up in the future.
I put a two pin terminal on the reset pads so I can use a shorting block more easily.

Some caveats: I didn't use the spacers as the unit is pretty rigid and I didn't want to struggle with lining them up. Perhaps, I'll lay down some "sticky stuff type" adhesive and try later after I get the bluetooth installed.

I didn't used the provided lugs for the black on/off switch and simply soldered the wires to the switch and the
JST connectors slide through the hole.

With the locking toggle switch, I had to lightly sand the board and the piezo case in order for the board to clear the switch body. I had a plain toggle switch that has a very stiff spring that had a narrower body which would have worked without sanding. I just had to clear a few
"thousandths" of an inch material and the board press fits perfectly with the locking toggle.
I didn't use an RP-SMA connector 'cause I have a stack of SMA connectors lying around like used on Ham radio H/T's. I keep an adapter in my rangebox though in case someone would
want to borrow my patch antenna for their receiver that has an RP-SMA connector on it!


That fiberglass pole is actually an outdoor antenna for a first generation wireless telephone from the early '80's. The top of the "antenna" was the black rubber tip and the bottom where the PL259 connector for connection to the wireless phone is where the Patch Antenna is located!

I've been able to fit a 1200mah 2S lipo in the handle. If anyone has a line on something with more capacity that'll
fit, post a link to the battery. I'm always open for "more horsepower"!

Why two units? Well the EggFinder and the ET TRS units don't have unboard memory to save positions and I have a way to save the incoming packets to a tracking program. I can leave a laptop in the SUV with a magmount omni antenna (or use the patch) and then use the yellow unit bonded to an Android device to go after the rocket after landing.

Kurt Savegnago

Last Picture:



Just so happened the B/T module came today. Had to horse around with it, trim and shorten the leads. I used a swatch of servo tape on the board to give some insulation and velcro to
place the module on the board. Works fine and that's it for this project.

Only thing I could conceivably see to improve this case would be a provision to apply a wrist strap to it. Might be the material couldn't handle it though. Not delrin.

Kurt Savegnago

Thank you for your pictures Kurt! I am glad to see that you can fit a lot more inside of the case then just the kit parts.

I have mine setup with a Bluetooth module and have been using it for a while with no issues. Also, when I am out hunting rockets by myself I put the handle of the unit into my back pocket with the antenna going up my back. This allows me to use my free hands to look on my phone.

BLKKROW said:

Thank you for your pictures Kurt! I am glad to see that you can fit a lot more inside of the case then just the kit parts.

I have mine setup with a Bluetooth module and have been using it for a while with no issues. Also, when I am out hunting rockets by myself I put the handle of the unit into my back pocket with the antenna going up my back. This allows me to use my free hands to look on my phone.

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I have my Nexus 7 2013 in a box with a thumbhole for one handed use. The black cased LCD receiver can sit there too. The other hand
I carry a 900Mhz yagi antenna for ground tracking. I'll track with a duck or a mag mount Omni antenna during the flight and switch out
to the Yagi for triapsing to the downed rocket. Since the rocket is not "moving" by then (unless someone picked it up!) I find I can reacquire the signal from a farther way out. Even before I can see it on the ground. I've tested that by just reacquiring the beeps, removing the Yagi cable and reattaching the duck. No signal. Reattach the Yagi and signal with final resting place received.

Also when on the fringe of reception, can get an idea of the rocket orientation. If one holds the Yagi horizontal to the ground and you get a signal, rocket might be lying transversely to you. If one holds the Yagi so the elements are vertical, ie. up and down, hoo boy might be hanging upside down in a tree or the tracker is lying facing away from you on the ground. If it's lying on the ground at an angle to your postion, the strongest signal might be with the yagi elements at say a 45 degree angle from vertical or horizontal orientation with the ground.

Since one is not using an attenuator like with RDF, this only works at the fringe of reception with the Yagi. The distance is acting as the attenuator.

It's not recommended to use a Yagi for flight because the beam is so narrow at the 900Mhz. Might not be able to aim it accurately to maintain the downlink. Maybe someone could test this thesis out someday with two receivers side by side. This is not as much of a problem with the other tracking bands used for RDF. Of course, since the last position is locked in the device, once one gets a little closer the datalink will be re-established eventually. I just added some fun and games to see what would happen. Although.............It is reassuring to hear that signal coming in again as soon as possible!:wink:

Kurt

Update for Black Friday/Cyber Monday:

I finally got more filament and the enclosures have begun printing a few days ago. Also, today the extra 30 switches I ordered have been delivered from China! Due to the good news and the holiday season. I want to run a Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sales on these units for anyone who ordered more Eggfinder gear this season.

I will be offering FREE SHIPPING to anyone who pre-orders a case! This includes for people who PM'ed me sharing their interest.

I am attempting to get these units out in the next 2 weeks. But please understand I am one person with one 3D printer and I will try to accommodate anyone who needs their unit by a certain date.

What does this mean? It means you spend $35.00 on an enclosure that has everything you need to setup your Eggfinder LCD to track your rockets! You will not need to make the payment until your unit is ready, just send me a PM letting me know you would like to purchase a unit and let me know what color you are interested in.

This sale will run for one week, so PM soon!

Great sale Kyle! I went thru a lot of trouble putting my first unit together and finding a case I liked. Your case is super easy to assemble and looks very nice. One thing I would like would be a belt clip or a hook for lanyard.

I say go for it people if you want a slide-in solution for the EF LCD. I did figure out how to place the spacers on the two boards so they'd stay in place while putting the screws in. I use a little dab of silicone sealer like that used to seal shower stalls and such on the LCD board and let sit face down overnite. The Silicone sealer gets tacky to hold the blue board spacers in place. I take the push button out of the case, lay the LCD down in it, with the handle unattached sight through to bottom hole to plug it all in. I then attach the handle and wire everything up like shown in the photos of the yellow case above.

Yeah, I'll have to do it all again as I discovered a glitch in my LCD display. It will mysteriously go blank for no reason. I've jiggled it and messed with the connector. The positions still come across the log screen on GPS Rocket Locator on my Nexus 7 2013. Cris is going to send me a new LCD with header and I'll try that. Once it goes blank, it doesn't come back on until I turn it off and recycle. Then it will stay on for awhile and go out again after a varying period of time. All the while it still sends vailid packets across the B/T/serial link. Kurt Savegnago

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