I've built a bunch of Eggtimer products, mostly Eggfinder TX units, and a few Eggfinder RX's, and some Eggtimer Quantums, Wifi switches, and a scattering of most of his other products. I'm always pleasantly surprised when they work. Not all of them did without some help from Cris. This thread is about one of those builds.
This build included a new Voice module, a GPS module and an older version (Rev B2) of the RX LCD. I managed to put all this stuff into the new Black Aero "Pro" case. I'm not gonna do a step by step build thread, but I will talk about some of the decisions I made and problems I had while building it.
First, I didn't add the bluetooth module (HC-06) because my old Android phone quit supporting bluetooth, and I prefer to input the GPS coordinates into the "Gaia GPS" mapping program, it has better satellite maps anyway, and is an app on my iPhone, which I prefer to the Android. There is a spot for the bluetooth module in the new Pro case, and I'm really impressed with the way everything fits in there. It's still the most challenging build I have done with Eggtimer products.
So, last week I warmed up by building another Eggfinder TX, tested it and everything worked fine. Then I got in the Voice module and built it and the GPS module. It had been quite a while since my last RX LCD build, but I still have two that are fully operational, one is in an earlier version of the Black Aero case, and another I didn't build, it was a gift from Cris back when I was a beta tester for his original Eggfinder.
Building Eggtimer products requires you to be able to understand the instructions and perform soldering skills at a fairly high level, at least in my opinion. My soldering skills were developed in the Marine corps, back in 1970 or so, and I really can't remember a lot about that time in my life, so skill wise, I'm probably somewhere between mediocre and average. After I had built a couple dozen Eggfinder transmitters, I started thinking I was good enough to shortcut some of the excellent instructions Cris has written, and that's when I started having problems. Now I'm back to following them exactly as they are written. Still occasionally have a problem, but it's usually my lack of understanding that causes it.
When I built the Voice module, one of the options was to mount the phono plug receptacle on the board or on the case, I decided that case mounting would make it easier to plug an earbud or phono cable to the PA system into it if it was accessible outside the case. I used a JST-XH plug to connect the module to the plug, so that I could separate the top of the case from the bottom, where all of the boards were mounted.
This is the bottom half of the Pro case, with the RX LCD board, Voice module and GPS module below it.
In the above pic, the voice module is partially under the GPS module, with a red JST connector over it, and the JST-XH plug above it connected to the phono plug mounted in the upper part of the case. At the bottom of the case (on the left) is a 3-way switch that turns the RX on or switches the unit to the charge position, allowing you to charge the battery without opening the case. On the right is the button that you use to program the RX and select different functions. Here is a picture of the other side of the case, where the molex plug and backlight switch are located:
I modified the case to hold the phono plug outlet and filed out a slot next to the backlight switch so I could run another set of wires out to program frequencies into the EF TX. On several occasions, I have had to change my operating frequency at a launch, and this allows me to do that easily.
I also modified the top of the case so I could see the lcd on the GPS module that indicates acquisition of GPS signal.
The position of this hole was marked on the inside of the case when it was printed.
I melted this hole with a soldering iron and covered it with a piece of scotch tape.
The main problem I had with this build was updating the RX with the latest software, and the details of that ordeal were worked out between Cris and Sharon, my wife. I think it had something to do with an old cable we were using and a driver that needed to be added to make everything work, but software and programming are NOT part of my skill set. Hopefully, Cris will add some more notes to his LCD Eggfinder flash update instructions to help others get past that problem.
The other issue I had was discovered when I did the final assembly. I had everything working, it was talking and receiving from the TX, getting good data, and I could reprogram my frequencies for both the RX and TX. When I put it all together, the backlight switch connectors broke the ground wire connection to the RX, which was located right below the backlight switch connections. I disconnected the switch and removed the wires to the backlight, now everything works but the backlight. I'm OK with that, but I'm sure that if I fiddled with it a bit more, I could re-attach that switch and make the backlight work too.
Hope this thread helps someone with their build, I'm really looking forward to using this at my next launch.
This build included a new Voice module, a GPS module and an older version (Rev B2) of the RX LCD. I managed to put all this stuff into the new Black Aero "Pro" case. I'm not gonna do a step by step build thread, but I will talk about some of the decisions I made and problems I had while building it.
First, I didn't add the bluetooth module (HC-06) because my old Android phone quit supporting bluetooth, and I prefer to input the GPS coordinates into the "Gaia GPS" mapping program, it has better satellite maps anyway, and is an app on my iPhone, which I prefer to the Android. There is a spot for the bluetooth module in the new Pro case, and I'm really impressed with the way everything fits in there. It's still the most challenging build I have done with Eggtimer products.
So, last week I warmed up by building another Eggfinder TX, tested it and everything worked fine. Then I got in the Voice module and built it and the GPS module. It had been quite a while since my last RX LCD build, but I still have two that are fully operational, one is in an earlier version of the Black Aero case, and another I didn't build, it was a gift from Cris back when I was a beta tester for his original Eggfinder.
Building Eggtimer products requires you to be able to understand the instructions and perform soldering skills at a fairly high level, at least in my opinion. My soldering skills were developed in the Marine corps, back in 1970 or so, and I really can't remember a lot about that time in my life, so skill wise, I'm probably somewhere between mediocre and average. After I had built a couple dozen Eggfinder transmitters, I started thinking I was good enough to shortcut some of the excellent instructions Cris has written, and that's when I started having problems. Now I'm back to following them exactly as they are written. Still occasionally have a problem, but it's usually my lack of understanding that causes it.
When I built the Voice module, one of the options was to mount the phono plug receptacle on the board or on the case, I decided that case mounting would make it easier to plug an earbud or phono cable to the PA system into it if it was accessible outside the case. I used a JST-XH plug to connect the module to the plug, so that I could separate the top of the case from the bottom, where all of the boards were mounted.
This is the bottom half of the Pro case, with the RX LCD board, Voice module and GPS module below it.
In the above pic, the voice module is partially under the GPS module, with a red JST connector over it, and the JST-XH plug above it connected to the phono plug mounted in the upper part of the case. At the bottom of the case (on the left) is a 3-way switch that turns the RX on or switches the unit to the charge position, allowing you to charge the battery without opening the case. On the right is the button that you use to program the RX and select different functions. Here is a picture of the other side of the case, where the molex plug and backlight switch are located:
I modified the case to hold the phono plug outlet and filed out a slot next to the backlight switch so I could run another set of wires out to program frequencies into the EF TX. On several occasions, I have had to change my operating frequency at a launch, and this allows me to do that easily.
I also modified the top of the case so I could see the lcd on the GPS module that indicates acquisition of GPS signal.
The position of this hole was marked on the inside of the case when it was printed.
I melted this hole with a soldering iron and covered it with a piece of scotch tape.
The main problem I had with this build was updating the RX with the latest software, and the details of that ordeal were worked out between Cris and Sharon, my wife. I think it had something to do with an old cable we were using and a driver that needed to be added to make everything work, but software and programming are NOT part of my skill set. Hopefully, Cris will add some more notes to his LCD Eggfinder flash update instructions to help others get past that problem.
The other issue I had was discovered when I did the final assembly. I had everything working, it was talking and receiving from the TX, getting good data, and I could reprogram my frequencies for both the RX and TX. When I put it all together, the backlight switch connectors broke the ground wire connection to the RX, which was located right below the backlight switch connections. I disconnected the switch and removed the wires to the backlight, now everything works but the backlight. I'm OK with that, but I'm sure that if I fiddled with it a bit more, I could re-attach that switch and make the backlight work too.
Hope this thread helps someone with their build, I'm really looking forward to using this at my next launch.