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 Squonk3.
Squonk3 #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 Squonk3s. 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 Squonk3’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 Squonk3’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!
These are beautiful, great work you're doing here and in your spare time too! I'm also interested so will be watching this thread with interest for your next update.
