Whew! Eggfinder WiFi Switch

[davdue]

Built my first eggfinder kit today. Spent 3 hours this afternoon. My old eyes were going buggy even with a magnifier. But have success it powers up! Whoo Hoo!

 

[ActingLikeAKid]

I've found two things immensely helpful with egg* products:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UCODIA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
and
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstay...esk-Lamp/49333225?variantFieldId=actual_color

You can get both for well under $20 and your eyes will thank you.
I think if I build another egg product, I'll spring for one of those "third hand" circuit board holders.

 

[OverTheTop]

I have done A LOT of SMT soldering. Good tweezers and technique are king. I only need magnification when I inspect luckily.

Not sure about the utility of the third hand things. If it works, go for it

Now you just need to convince everyone else who is scared of soldering these that they should have a go.

 

[mad4hws]

My daughter and I started soldering up the same kit last night. Will take a couple of evenings to get through as we are not well versed with the soldering iron (yet).

 

[T-Rex]

I have done an Eggtimer rev C and Rev D build with a third hand w/ magnifier https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RB38X8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I like the third hand, but I think the magnifier leaves a lot to be desired. I think the head band style that davdue linked to is a better option.

Still have 1 more of each to assemble, then maybe I will go after an eggfinder. I'll probably scrap my Stahl soldering iron and buy the Weller as well.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

Look at the circuit board holders with clamps and springs rather than a third hand with clips. Works better for me.

Amazon has em around 12 bucks I think, search for circuit board holder. I use a desktop magnifier with a light built in as well. I'm still trying to get the courage to try my hands, and eyes, with another Quark. I toasted my first try but I am better prepared this time and will attempt hot air and paste.

 

[ttabbal]

The holders designed for PCBs are probably a lot easier on the boards. Clips/Clamps can damage the traces if you aren't careful or the clips are too strong. I just tape them down to my bench. Seems to work well and I always have masking tape around.

Paste reflow is probably easier, particularly if you have a stencil. Combined with hotplate/hot air/toaster oven, it works well. Though I find that a fine tip temp controlled iron works just fine for eggtimer stuff. They don't use the really small parts or fine pitch ICs, and the number of passives is small enough that it's not a big deal.

 

[soopirV]

I second the recommendation to go with a clamp-style fixture instead of aligator clips. I use a panavise for PCB, and like it, but will look into the piece from MikeyD since it looks to hold much larger boards (the panavise is fine for egg-style products, but is ~$40?)

 

[michigander]

good lighting helps too , I have like below but got on sale for around $30.00

https://www.joann.com/ottlite-high-...refv1=Ottlite Lighting&prefv2=Product&start=1

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

For my first Quark I tried the alligator clip style holder and that got frustrating rather quickly. Ended up taping it down, so much better. But for the Eggtimer with through hole components, the one in the picture works great. You can flip the board without removing it from the holder. The board is held in place with tension from the springs.

 

[ActingLikeAKid]

I have done A LOT of SMT soldering. Good tweezers and technique are king. I only need magnification when I inspect luckily.

Not sure about the utility of the third hand things. If it works, go for it

Now you just need to convince everyone else who is scared of soldering these that they should have a go.

I tried a Quantum last summer and screwed something up... troubleshooting it is way down on my to-do list.
Before I tackled the Eggfinder, I made a few projects from Amazon (Sparkfun and Vellman make some good ones) to get practice. That helped a lot.

 

[OverTheTop]

Paste reflow is probably easier, particularly if you have a stencil.

I have tried both methods and normal hand soldering is mostly the easiest, by a long way, for me, even for the fine-pitch and small chip (0402) components. Other people love the paste method. Whatever works.

I need magnification to assemble 0402, but anything larger is just done by eye. Inspections with x10 is mandatory whatever method you use to assemble.

With the Egg products, be especially careful with soldering the optocouplers on products that use them. They really do need extra attention during inspection to make sure the joints on them are reliable. It is just a consequence of the lead-style of the package.

 

[paulm]

I recently built the eggfinder mini. The worst was the tiny resistors! Used a third hand in bright sun light and clamping tweezers. Did not work the first time, had to inspect/redo a couple joints. Perfect afterwords. Just a side note, coordinates should be entered into Google Maps navigation as xx xx xx.xx, note the spaces, dots and lack of commas.

 

[N0QBH]

Some no clean flux in a pen is real handy when building surface mount kits.
Built a couple of Quarks with great results.

One of them ended up in a lake for a few minutes before a fishing boat scooped it up.
We were all amazed that it was till beeping out the altitude (1209') soaking wet.
Got it dried out and the Quark tests ok, altho I'll never use it for ejection duty.
Might make a good altimeter for experiments etc.
If you can solder, Eggtimer is the way to go.

 

[OverTheTop]

Used a third hand in bright sun light and clamping tweezers.

Have you discovered the right way to use the clamping tweezers? I am assuming you mean the ones that have a crossover and spring shut. If you hold them with index finger and thumb at the crossover point you get to open or assist the closing by rolling the position of your fingers. Works a treat!