Eggtimer Quantum freezing during test countdown?

The Quantum has a test feature that provides a ten-second countdown for the firing of a test charge. It worked flawlessly for me for over a year, but now something seems wrong, during the countdown the screen display freezes or goes blank for several seconds, sometimes as long as 20 seconds. After a freeze the countdown will continue for a few seconds, then it freezes again. When the countdown finally gets to zero the test charge does fire, but the "ten second countdown" actually lasts over 2 minutes.

Anyone ever experience this? Any fix?

Thanks,
Bill

If you have used the Quantum in flights over the last year, then it is quite possible that it has experienced a few knocks and bumps. I would be checking your solder joints around the whole board, but particularly around the WiFi module. Sounds like you might be experiencing a WiFi connectivity issue, but Cris will probably have a better idea of what the problem is.

Interesting that this came up just now - I have experienced a less severe version of the same problem just this weekend. In my case the 10 second countdown is irregular and probably takes 15 seconds or so. I am planning to try some variables ( different phone for wireless connection) before reflashing the firmware. Guess I should dig out a magnifying glass and do an inspection as well.

If it's a year old then you should probably update the firmware anyway... we've made a few changes.

Voyager1 said:

If you have used the Quantum in flights over the last year, then it is quite possible that it has experienced a few knocks and bumps. I would be checking your solder joints around the whole board, but particularly around the WiFi module. Sounds like you might be experiencing a WiFi connectivity issue, but Cris will probably have a better idea of what the problem is.

Click to expand...

Yes, I would guess the issue is WiFi related. This unit has never had a hard landing and the issue first appeared during bench testing, so I'm more inclined to suspect firmware corruption or a bad component rather than a loose connection, but who knows. I'll try updating the firmware but first need to borrow or purchase a data cable.

This issue resolved itself back in February, but just now I ran a test for Saturday's launch and the same issue is back. Looked over the board with a magnifying glass, no bad joints noted. Guess it's time to get a data cable for a firmware update. Is it safe to fly this weekend? The unit fires as it should on every test when the countdown gets to zero, it's just that the ten second countdown actually lasts for almost 2 minutes.

Wouldn’t trust it myself.

billdz said:

This issue resolved itself back in February, but just now I ran a test for Saturday's launch and the same issue is back. Looked over the board with a magnifying glass, no bad joints noted. Guess it's time to get a data cable for a firmware update. Is it safe to fly this weekend? The unit fires as it should on every test when the countdown gets to zero, it's just that the ten second countdown actually lasts for almost 2 minutes.

Click to expand...

I would suggest touching-up ALL the solder connections to the WiFi component. Also, if you used the resistor lead method for attaching the module to the PCB, make sure that those leads are still going through the holes in the modules and PCB, and that you can see the ends of the leads on both outboard sides. I personally don't like the resistor lead approach, and use these headers instead: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/437-8308000810001101.

Do not ever fly any of the Egg devices unless they perform perfectly with ground testing. I’ve dorked a few of the projects myself and after some failed trouble-shooting, just put them in the junk box. I once salvaged a junk box EggFinder that snapped off the GPS antenna by removing the base and soldered three wires to an outboard GPS chipset that had a circularly polarized antenna. Possibly could deliver better reception performance in a spinning rocket.
I think one of my other failures was getting a solder bridge under the WiFi chip. Unless one has a soldering workstation designed to desolder these chips, it’s a hard mistake to fix. Only thing I can say is be incredibly careful when soldering the WiFi chip to the board and take your time next time.
I’ve got several Egg products to build and am excited about the amateur band TRS. Now if there was only a 70cm band EggFinder with perhaps a little more Rf oooommmph and that would be the cat’s meow.
Retiring July 1st and after a deep house and shop cleaning, I’ll be back to building. Best of future luck!
Kurt Savegnago

Did some further tests, it appears the problem only occurs with one particular phone. All looks good with 2 other phones, normal 10 second countdown. So it seems the issue is the phone not the Quantum, although that's odd because the problem phone has always worked OK with my home network and other wifi networks I have used.

Sometimes OS updates to your handheld devices can have unintended consequences. Both Android and Apple now complain if you try to connect to a WiFi network and it doesn't route to the Internet... you have to tell it that it's OK that you're not on the Internet. If you answer "wrong" it won't connect to that network again until you Forget it and reconnect.

cerving said:

Sometimes OS updates to your handheld devices can have unintended consequences. Both Android and Apple now complain if you try to connect to a WiFi network and it doesn't route to the Internet... you have to tell it that it's OK that you're not on the Internet. If you answer "wrong" it won't connect to that network again until you Forget it and reconnect.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Cris. Yes, on all my phones, when I click to join the Quantum net, I get a message "This network is not connected to the internet, connect anyway?" I click Connect Anyway and get a 5-bar connection on all phones, including the problem phone. I probably have to clear the cache or something.