So finally I have an update (I hope you are sitting comfortably
) and a few more pictures. This is a bit lengthy but I hope it keeps you all informed on what is happening and some of my thinking.
I have been very busy over christmas building a new workshop (nothing grand) at home so I now have some proper space to work and things have also been moving along nicely with the Squonk
3.
Squonk
3 #001 has been very well received and all feedback has been very positive. The prototype is still running perfectly, despite my best efforts to upset it!
I have now pretty much completed (just a little polishing to do) #002 in walnut, this one will be passed around for ongoing testing. It should hopefully go out in the next few days so I can start getting some more feedback. It’s not quite perfect and I can just about let it go as no one will ever pay for this one. The walnut was a real pain to work with and one of the boxes exploded in the CNC machine!
A few pics of #002
I have a load of different boxes coming together-spalted beech, rosewood, paduak, purple heart, cocobolo, elm, oak and a few others I can't remember.
I have about 15 wooden bodies to play with but in reality I would only expect 8 of those to come up to a sufficient standard.
We are still refining the processes involved in making these but with each one I am getting better. I am finishing the woods in a variety of ways, depending on what I think will bring the best from each piece. The oak and walnut have both had a wax polish for a slightly matt finish which I felt worked very well with those, the Stabilized Spalted Beech I am working to a deep gloss finish to show off the great figure and nice details-these are looking stunning!
I have 10 back panels cut out, and ready for magnets and polishing.
My better half has a full sewing workshop, and the skills to do these things, so she is making up bags for these to go into. They won’t add a great deal to the price as we can make them here, so it seems like a good idea.
A few of the bags are now ready for the Squonk
3s. I have 3 Different materials available, all 1000 Denier cordura. They are very hard wearing and should protect the mod against minor knocks/scratches. She has made the bags tall enough to allow for a decent sized atty and driptip too. I thought it was important to have a bag for these. I have also had a metal loop fitted to the top of the bag so that a karabiner or similar could be used with it- I use one with mine.
All the Squonk
3’s will be supplied with a bag.
I have a few Eco6 balance chargers and power supplies in stock. These will allow up to 5A charging but the battery will require removal from the box.
I also have some small balance chargers coming which will charge directly through the balance plug on the battery, this way is much easier but also slower.
I was not intending on including the charger with the Squonk3, but they will be available as an option. I am assuming that many folks will have a balance charger and so it would be surplus for some people?
I am interested what you guys think about including, or not, a charger.
I will happily pick up more chargers if required.
If anyone has their own charger that they would like it fitting with the banana plugs for easier charging I would be more than happy to sort that out.
EDIT- I missed the obvious, I can just supply a banana to XT60 adapter, that should fit most chargers.
In the interests of keeping everyone informed I would like to discuss the not so great bits-
Batteries have been, and I suspect continue to be, the biggest pain to source.
I anticipate this will be the main source of any delays, I am still waiting 2 months down the line for more batteries to arrive that fit my small LiPo mods! I currently have enough stock of batteries for the next 4/5 Squonk
3’s (including a spare for each one) and will continue to try and keep a good stock of them in house whenever possible.
There are still 2 minor niggles on the MOD that I have been unable to address and I would be interested to hear anyone thought's/feelings on this-
1. The SX350 boards are pre-set to shut off when the battery voltage drops below 6.4V.
The LiPo battery packs ideally don't want to be discharged lower than 7.0V otherwise there is a risk of damaging the battery.
I have run the batteries right the way down on several occasions without an issue, however, on 1 occasion I ran it down to 6.4V and left it overnight and the next morning the battery would not charge.
I have discussed this issue with YiHi and talked to several other people to try and obtain modified software. Unfortunately this looks like it won't be possible to fix unless I want to buy a lot of units!
It is not a massive issue but will require user's to keep an eye on the display and recharge the battery when down to 7.0V. I will continue working on this though and will be able to update any current chips if a fix becomes available, it should just be a simple USB update.
2. The battery connection/wiring is a little more fiddly than I would like to remove and refit.
I have played around with this a lot, and in the absence of a 'hallelujah' moment, I am sticking to the original design of using banana plug connectors. I am using 4mm gold plated connectors and they do work very well. They are male female set-up to prevent reverse polarity.
Banana plugs were chosen as they take up very little room and are easy to pull apart. I have looked at a lot of different connectors and these are by far the most suitable option for the space, if I made the box bigger I could fit some real fancy connectors in!
It does mean that user's will need to exercise a little care when removing and fitting the battery but nothing more than many RC applications. Once you have done it a few times it is pretty simple.
It will only be necessary to remove the battery if changing packs over or if you wanted to fast charge on a full size charger.
If using one of the small chargers then the battery can be charged via the battery balance plug without removing the battery.
I am really pleased with how they are turning out and how well they work. The niggles are IMHO minor points that won’t detract from the overall performance or use. I just want to be up front and everyone to know what is going on and where the limitations are.
I am working on getting several boxes complete over the next couple of weeks ready for internals, then assuming all the feedback continues to be positive and no issues arise, I will hopefully be looking to open a list in the next month or so. I am not quite certain how this will run yet but I will of course keep you all informed.
Please don’t forget I do another job too and this is my hobby. I love working on these, and I don’t want to remove the pleasure from it. I would be very surprised if I can make more than 1 per week and more likely I will only be able to make 2/3 a month due to my other commitments. So please be patient!
Now the million dollar question I keep getting asked, How much?
I have not got final price totally sorted yet, and I am trying hard to keep it down, but at the moment it looks like (please take this as an estimate, I just want to let you all get a rough idea)-
Squonk3, including carry case, spare bottle and 1 battery pack, will work out around £280
ECO6 charger with power supply around £35
Basic charger with power supply around £20
Spare battery pack around £18
Spare bottle around £4
I will confirm prices before any lists happen.
I hope you will appreciate that I don’t make a huge amount from this, especially considering the amount of time involved.
Thankyou for reading this lot!
