People -- don't complain that I don't give straight answers... How do you get more straight than this?

The new stencils will be in on Monday, and production will resume then. THAT MEANS PRODUCTION WILL RESUME ON MONDAY.

For those of you who need further clarification... That means that we will start building Monster Max controllers again on Monday.

If that isn't clear enough for you -- here's some more details.

On Monday, about 9:00am, UPS will deliver a pair of MMM stencils. A stencil (in the electronics world) is a large piece of nickel plated stainless steel, about .006" thick, stretched tight into a 29" x 29" tubular aluminum frame. The thin sheet of stainless has apertures cut out of it with a laser, and is used for putting solder onto a circuit board. The solder is printed onto the circuit board using a machine called a "stencil printer." Our stencil printer is a Dek Horizon printer. You can click on the link below to get more information about the Dek Horizon stencil printer:
http://www.dek.com/web.nsf/us/product_horizon

Our machine operator, Shawn Messmer, will load the Horizon printer with the solder stencil for the top side of the Monster Max first. He will then load solder paste (which is a paste made of microscopic solder balls suspended in flux), and start production.

After the solder is printed on the circuit boards, they then move out of the Dek Horizon (by conveyor), and into our Universal Instruments Advantis Lightning (AC-30L). Our Advantis AC-30L is our chip shooter, and will place about 32,000 parts per hour onto the MMM circuit boards.

After leaving the Advantis Lightning AC-30L, the board will move by conveyor to our Advantis FlexJET AX-72. The Advantis FlexJET is a little slower than the Advantis Lightning, but can place larger, more difficult parts. This type of machine is usually called a "flexible placer", where the AC-30L is called a "chip shooter."
To see more information about the Universal Instruments Advantis, visit this link below:

http://www4.uic.com/wcms/WCMS2.nsf/i...oducts_18.html

After leaving the Universal Instruments Advantis AX-72, the MMM boards will move through the reflow oven, a Heller 1707EXL. The reflow oven solders the board (all at one time!) by raising the temperature of the board slowly until all of the solder paste (stenciled on by the DEK printer!) melts, or reflows. To see more information about the Heller 1707EXL reflow oven, visit the link below:

http://www.hellerindustries.com/h1700EXL.htm

After reflow, the boards cool for about an hour. Then it is off to the inspection station, where we employ a MIRTEC 5 camera automatic optical inspection machine, which checks all the parts and solder joints to be sure everything is perfect after assembly.

To see more about our Mirtec 5 camera AOI, please see below:

http://www.mirtecusa.com/desktop3.html

Once all is checked and found to be OK, the MMM will then move into soldering, where our soldering technicials will add the switches and receiver connector (with love, of course!)

Then the boards move on to final assembly, where they are placed in cases and stickers are added to the case.

Next, the nearly complete MMM move into functional testing -- where each and every MMM is calibrated, and tested with loads of up to 100A. During functional testing, the output waveforms, throttle response, and cutoff voltage settings are all throughly tested.

After passing functional testing, the MMM move to finishing and packaging, where they are carefully placed into a box along with a CD, cable and Castle Link.

Then the MMM are moved into stock, where they will await final packing and shipping.

Hope you found that interesting!

Patrick

Ahhh, you should have been contacted already if you got one of the MMMs...

So if you haven't heard anything, you probably aren't getting one of the early batch.

We ran into a problem with one of the stencils, which required a LOT of handwork to rework, so we just built a few MMM 'til we could get the new stencil.

Interesting and funny. Guess people can't say you dont give information anymore. :)

Thanks for keeping us up to date.


Patrick does mike know how may v2 she will be getting?

If he does then we can ask Mike when all of us pre order folks will get ours. I am in the 2nd batch of pre orders ....

Patrick, this is to your detailed post!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

That was great! I am impressed you even took the time to dignify the whiney people with a response but that one took the cake.

The way some of these people go on about CC you would have thought you personally came over to their house and slapped their mom around.

I for one am thankful for your participation in these threads and your willingness to be so up front with everyone.

Can we get the UPS code :) jk

CC is probably one of the only companies I know of that even gives updates on production of existing products or even future products. So I think even if CC was being vague with their statements (which they never have been) they would have every right to because they could be like every other company and just give a announcement and release date. I personally commend CC for being so informative. Thats the reason why CC is one of the premier RC electronics companies and will be for years to come.

Thanks for the VERY detailed info Patrick!!!:rules:

What day were they going to resume production ? :gasp: :na: thanks for the update !!

Gotta say you've stuffed around 100lbs of onions and garlics into our mouths. We won't open our mouths for a while now.

Thanks alot, Pat!

Thanks for the update
 

You know we're all a bunch of addicts here. Thanks for keeping us in the loop!:yipi:

Thank you Patrick. Off to the LHS's to find an MM to void warranty on then :D

WOW that was intense.

i got it in the mail today:party:
but.....

it didnt go so good :no:
opened up the box and took everything out and relized i was missing the castle link stuff, so o well i can get by without it for now.
get everything soddered up plug everything in to calibrate to radio turn the switch,and the fan dosent work:oh: with my first one the fan kicked on as soon as i flipped the switch. i dont know if that changed with v2 or not but my fan dosent work at all. also it had the orignal case with the female bullets soddered onto the board and males on one end of the wire which i like more than having the wires soddered onto the board directly.

i dont know if i should run it without the fan working or not but i just bench tested it with the wheels of the ground and i stripped my tranny gears again:intello: so i gotta tear it apart anyways

Forgot to mention -- the fan is under processor control on V2 -- so it only runs when required. So don't expect it to run at startup when it is cool.

Patrick

Patrick, Thanks for all the detailed info. I'm in the electronics MFG business & can tell you guys all that stuff in Patrick’s posts costs big bucks to buy & maintain. I would like to give a "hats off" to CC for doing all that stuff "in house". Many makers of electronics have all that stuff done at an outside vendor (assembly houses usually over seas). If that was the case with CC he would not be able to tell us when they would be done. Not to metion the fact that CC is putting Americans to work rather than saving a couple of bucks by having there products assembled in Malaysia or the P.I.
Thanks Again.

Nice !!!

How many ma does the fan draw?

Ouch punch a guy when he down 2 MMMs!Dont get me going on Missouri now.Or is that southern Iowa.Cant wait I am so impatient sorry for being a pain no disrespect intended:whistle:

just ran a whole 8000 mah pack thru it in a very tight area with minimal light and all went well. only got the mmm up to 130 and the fan didnt come on yet. i would have some pics of it and maybe a small vid but i left my camera up at a buddies camp. im going there tomarrow for a party so ill have some up sunday

Patrick,
As much as your long post was meant to put people in their place(which was awesome, by the way) ...I actually found it very interesting/informative. :smile:

Not to set you off again...
...but at what temperature does the fan turn on?

I only ask because I know running w/o the fan voids the warranty.

But if the fan fails, someone may mistake that for "it's not that hot":neutral:

I, for one, would feel better about having a definitive temperature to refer to in terms of heat and fan failure monitoring.:rules:

thank you in advance,
Jarrad

Yes. It was very __________.

Please choose one or all of the following adjectives: Informative, enlightening, reassuring, interesting, fulfilling, awesome.

If all goes well with the V2's I plan on buying one. Or two. :whistle:

More information that would have been helpful would be things like:

How many are being produced a day
How many replacements need to be delivered

This way people who have pre-orders or who have yet to order might have a realistic timeframe of when to expect them to be available.

Thanx Jarrad, I'm glad you found it interesting and informative. I really did mean it that way -- I hoped some people would find it interesting to know how we build controllers, what these "Stencil" things are that we keep talking about, and what processes and equipment are involved. It really is a pretty cool to see all the stuff up and running...

Well, I don't know how many can be produced in a day yet -- ask me again in a week.

We have about 75 replacements on the books right now, I believe.

Wow - thanks for the detailed information.

So Castle Bullets are no longer included in V2? :whistle:

Cheers,
Wolfgang

That has been there since they put the MMM page up

lol, that is pretty straight

Good details Patrick. Thank you for taking the time to post that up. :)

Thanks for taking the time to explain the process.:party::party:The equipment links were cool also

I just want to say thanks to CC for all the help they have done on this site, keeping everyone informed on what has been going on.

I for one, ordered a MMM directly from them, and they will never hear a peep out of me asking when it will be sent. I know they are working as fast as they can, and constantly bugging them wouldn't help out it get out the door any faster.


Patrick - it is sort of funny, your post about all the machines you use. I work for a company that pretty much uses all the same machines. Stencils, Paste Machines, Pick n Place machines, Reflow ovens, so I do understand everything that you have had to do. And I understand how problems can arise and screw things over so to speak.

-Cory

Your on.. No Bata test does not count (PLEASE). Lets get real..

I'll take that bet!! not the full $500.00 sorry but i'll bet you full price of the ESC that Mike at RCM will not receive and send out his second / first full order of the original ESC that where paid for in May.. I'm part of the first original order and will happily pay you if it gets here and it works by 08/13/08.

Here is my email confirmation that I prepaid in May / on the first order. I'll send you confirmation if and when I receive the MMM, if it's past the 13th you owe me, if not I owe you!..

It's that simple..

Do we have deal (??)


Order ID: 10008774
Customer Details:
Shaun

Shipping Method: Priority Mail (With Insurance)
--------------------------
Product ID: mambamonsteresc
Product Name: Castle Creations Mamba Monster controller
Quantity: 1
Unit Price: $170.00
--------------------------
Order Total : $170.00
Shipping : $6.30
Discounts : $25.00
Grand Total : $151.30



P.S to CC.. (For What it’s worth from a California native) / GREEN…..
Whenever this is someone who wears mink coats, there is always someone who will though blood on it, whenever there is a smog polluter there is someone who will reports you, wherever there is the little man getting the short end of the stick (not told the truth) by a corporation we will be there are there calling your bluff ever step of the way..


Thank you for your time and regardless what you think, I am truly looking forward to receiving the product I paid for months ago, I'm just sorry it took Soooooo long to (possibly / TBD) get it right…

Shaun….

P.S.S.
Yes I am a Pain in the ASS.. Someone has to be!

fingers crossed the new stencil is good!

I'm not sure if this has been answered elsewhere (if it has, I apologize), but perhaps Patrick could comment on this...is the V2 going to come with motor wires soldered to the ESC or will it now come with bullet connectors?

It comes with bullet connectors. Patrick said the soldered wires were only a temporary solution because the connectors didn't make it in time for production or something like that :)

Bullet connectors.

Edit: dang, you beat me to it man!

Man, SunnyHouTx, I've seen your Rustler "Speed Bullet" on YouTube and I'm surprised someone beat you to the reply!!!

Actually, I'm amazed at the lightning fast reply of both posts! Thanks! I have one other question, but I don't want to sidetrack this thread...I'll PM you Sunny...

Ha hah! Awaiting your PM.

Hey Patrick,
Its been 1 week since you posted this, so I figured...I'll ask.

How many Monsters were made this week? :neutral: :mdr:

Thanks in advance,
~jarrad

More importantly, how many were shipped? :whistle:

I have a feeling that something went sour. I would also think if some were shipped he would of posted up right away. That is my speculation. Hope I am wrong.