Eggtimer Rocketry - Outstanding Customer Service!

[patelldp]

Cris at Eggtimer offers incredible customer support. My order was missing an item (USB cable), which I informed him of on Friday, October 14th. I received the cable today, October 17th.

Thank you for the awesome service, and I urge everyone to buy with confidence!

 

[AcidPaintball]

Lucky... I never got my missing parts.

 

[rharshberger]

Cris has excellent customer service and I will be buying from him again. So far its been 3 Quarks and a TRS and more to come. Its a good thing he includes a extra part for some of the smallest parts because I managed to lose 2 of one piece and was able to go to my parts box and pull out one from a previous kit.

 

[cerving]

Lucky... I never got my missing parts.

I'm not aware of any parts that never got out, PM me and we can discuss this. I HAVE had a few times where I was out of a part and had to wait until it came in, but I have an email queue that I use specifically for outgoing parts and I generally don't let it go for more than a few days.

 

[AcidPaintball]

this was back in march and to be honest after I sent another email and never got a reply I gave up.

 

[cerving]

I went through my emails from March and couldn't find it... please PM me.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

I only ordered once from Chris, a Quark. Had some issues but Chris rectified it qiickly. Then I got it too hot with the soldering iron anyway. Only reason I haven't ordered again is because I don't feel like ruining another kit trying to build it

 

[ksaves2]

I only ordered once from Chris, a Quark. Had some issues but Chris rectified it qiickly. Then I got it too hot with the soldering iron anyway. Only reason I haven't ordered again is because I don't feel like ruining another kit trying to build it

15 watt pen. When building a Quantum, put the tape under the Wifi chip and try not to slather solder underneath the chip. I had one go awry and I think that did it. The voltage regulator got hotter than heck and the unit would lock up. I wrote it off and three others I've built since then are fine. I have "cooked" several of Cris projects including a couple of Quarks at various times thinking they were goners but they worked perfectly for me. I can swallow something like that.

As an aside, I was epoxying the large capacitor to the board on a "brand new" Raven III. Stupidhead decided to use a spring clamp to maintain contact with the board and epoxy. I moved it on my bench and the clamp slipped and smacked the board.
The next day when bench testing, the Raven would reset with the slightest torsion on the board!! Dang! Since I didn't try to bench test initially before I tried to do the epoxy thing, I cannot honestly say I was given a defective unit. I kept it
and ate the cost. I fried an Easy Mega by connecting up a battery wrong. I had tested successfully before but I should have used a "checklist"!!! To their credit, Keith gave me a price break on a replacement. I very much appreciated that
as they didn't have to do it since it was my fault entirely.

Kurt "I always use a checklist now with complex electronics"

 

[Charles_McG]

I think my pen is the 23W Weller. But I plug it into a variac and dial up the temp that makes me happy with how it flows. About 95V, if I recall correctly.

 

[ttabbal]

15 watt pen.

For a better experience, use a temperature controlled soldering station with a really fine tip. It doesn't even have to be expensive.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/soldering-station-with-adjustable-heat-range-us-warehouse.html

Those are pretty nice, particularly for the price. And they use common Hako tips, so you can get all sorts of shapes and sizes on ebay. I think the pack of 10 or so I bought cost about $8. The one it comes with is OK for something like the EggTimer products, but I like the angled type better for SMT work.


As for EggTimer service, I was quite happy. I found my kit was missing one value of resistor. I emailed, he immediately replied and said he would ship some out to me. I got them a few days later. Best packaged resistors I've ever received, even including Digikey and Mouser.

I haven't even installed my Quantum in a rocket and I'm already planning to order at least one more. The build was fun, just layed back soldering. To be fair though, I have extensive SMT rework experience. The parts used in these are downright huge to me.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

The iron I used was 20 watt I think. On the bench tests the drogue channel worked, but the main didn't. Been soldering since I was 12 or so, but been wearing glasses since I was 5 and the Quark really tested my eyes, even with a magnifier. I have since acquired a SMD rework station with a fine tip iron. If Santa brings a good magnifier, I will try another eggtimer product.

 

[ttabbal]

If you have a channel not working for continuity, resolder the opto-isolator. Not sure which one, but I'm sure Mr Eggtimer can let you know. That seems to be the most likely to have soldering issues.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

Yeah that's what the problem was. I had a bridge between two pins. When I tried to fix it, the board got too hot and had some damage. It didn't do anything after that. I never bothered to contact Chris because it was clearly my fault and I wasn't out much cash.

 

[DanielLW]

I recently ordered an EggFinder, and must say I'm impressed with EggTimer Rocketry so far! Very quick E-mail responses, and got shipping confirmations and tracking numbers within a day. Polar opposite of a certain other rocketry vendor that I have filed a PayPal claim against.

The TX/RX went together without any issues. I tested it with the included 1/4 wave antenna and got a signal from 1.5 miles away. (I put the TX in the window of a tall building) I'm sure I could have gotten more distance, but I couldn't physically get further away at the time. I have an assembly video coming once I finally get a chance to fly it.