Just finished building my Eggtimer

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John Kemker

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Took about two hours. Used my variable-temp soldering iron and a vacuum parts handler that I picked up on eBay for less than $20. As you can see in the photo, it looks a LOT like an aquarium pump, but has two vacuum lines and the parts pickers. Simple to operate, just place your finger over the hole on the side and make sure the part is flat against the tip of the picker. It came with two sizes of pickers, both of which look like syringe needles with flat tips, rather than sharp ones. The A/C line cord is too short and it has NO off switch, just a "low" and "high" vacuum switch. However, for under $20, it's not bad.

Eggtimer powered up and talks on WiFi just fine. Working through the rest of the tests to see if I got it all correct.

2019-10-12.jpg
 
Congratulations! Good tools and patience go a long way in building Eggtimer products... :)
 
Tests complete. My e-matches arrived and I was able to test arm, then test deployment.

Lesson learned: Always connect/turn on the main battery before attaching the e-matches.
 
Do you have a link to your pump and is using a pump better then tweezers. I’m just about to start putting together a eggfinder quantum and I could use all the help I can get.
 
Tests complete. My e-matches arrived and I was able to test arm, then test deployment.

Lesson learned: Always connect/turn on the main battery before attaching the e-matches.

That’s not true for the Quark. What happened?

I did have a Quark that fired one ematch on startup- but it was a bas CPU. I must have cooked it during construction.
 
A good set of tweezers is your best friend when assembling any Eggtimer products. I use a set of Tarno 318SR double-bend stainless steel tweezers that I've had for over 30 years... eBay has somebody selling some.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Handling-Tweezer-With-Elongated-Points-St-St-Tarno-318SR-USA-Made-New/231690725192?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
And the hot-air station I recently purchased came with a couple of tweezers, at least one of them angle-tipped.
 
And the hot-air station I recently purchased came with a couple of tweezers, at least one of them angle-tipped.
How did your hot air station hold up??? If it’s one that you would recommend could you please post the link and the solder paste that you use. I’m anxious to try hot air soldering on my quantum for the smaller components.

Geoff
 
is using a pump better then tweezers.
Personally I prefer tweezers, but vac tools (electric or mechanical) work similarly.

Personally I also prefer the angled-tip tweezers (with reverse-action, self-closing design) and when learning these helped a lot. Pointy tweezers were problematic at the in my early days of SMT work. Tweezer skill is really king for this type of soldering. I now routinely swap hands (tweezer/iron) as needed. With practice this becomes possible, and also the type of tweezers used becomes irrelevant, based on my experiences. YMMV.

FYI, if you get the type of tweezers I use you put your fingers at the crossover point. That way, by rolling your fingertips either way, you can open or close the tweezers and control the pressure on the tips ;).
 
How did your hot air station hold up??? If it’s one that you would recommend could you please post the link and the solder paste that you use. I’m anxious to try hot air soldering on my quantum for the smaller components.

Geoff

Geoff, I'm not sure which unit John bought but I bought one like this & it works well. I've done several projects and it's holding up good.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075TBZ47M/ref=dp_cerb_2

And this is the paste I bought. And it too did the job.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017RSZFQQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Glad you guys can do that...My eyeballs can't cooperate to see the tiny parts. I can't read the designations on them. So for me the best method is Connor McGrath! He does not charge a lot and he tests them out. As for actual testing I created a way to do real test of the unit without the need of expensive equipment. Attach tiny Christmas tree light bulbs (Incandescent type) to the outputs. Arm the unit, (Carefully) drop the unit with battery into the bottom of a GLASS 3, 5 or 7 gallon water bottle. (Don't try a plastic one, it WILL collapse) Hold the hose of a vacuum cleaner over the neck of the bottle. turn on the vac until the vac's rpm stops climbing. (Max vacuum, fan is stalling) Holding the hose firmly, slowly release it from the bottle letting air back in. The drogue channel should fire right away, then a little later the main channel will fire. I used a yellow bulb for drogue and red for mains. since the altimeter is reacting directly with change of air pressure it is a true test. the bonus: you get an altitude reading that corresponds to the efficiency of your vacuum cleaner. Better suction = higher altitude reading. Test a good vac vs a cheap one to see the difference. My slightly tired Electrolux pulled a vacuum equivalent to about 5200'
 
How did your hot air station hold up??? If it’s one that you would recommend could you please post the link and the solder paste that you use. I’m anxious to try hot air soldering on my quantum for the smaller components.

Geoff

I've had good luck with this one. It is certainly not a high end model, and the side bracket broke off pretty soon after I started using it, but it works well as a hot air station.

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/hot-air-rework-soldering-station-csi900+.html
 
Here's the one I bought. Looked through Amazon for price/ratings and read the ratings thoroughly before making the decision. I'm aware that some ratings are inflated, so kept a critical eye on them. All-in-all, I think I got a pretty good value for my money.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X5SFJNR?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

I need to get some practice with it before I tackle the Eggfinder TRS or the LCD GPS module.
 
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