I'm sure this will be obvious to most, but I'm in spite of my age a real n00b when it comes to building anything electronic, a joy it is too!
When you use the wire cutters to cut one pin off, you may get a surprise -- the single piece takes off at high speed in a random direction and for a considerable distance. Fortunately due to a very clean smooth floor, I was able to locate it at a distance of some 3,457 mm from launch site.
I'm impressed that I found it. You may very well not be so lucky.

I'm impressed by your 4 place accuracy in measuring the pin flight distance. I just let mine fly and then vacuum the area once a year whether it needs it or not.

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hans Summers
Sent: 27 October 2017 13:54
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [QRPLabs] QCX Build Step 3.47 - NEWBIES be careful

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Hi Hans,

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You seem to be getting a lot of flak at the moment.

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I’d just like to say that I, probably like many others, really appreciate what you’ve done. Yes I had to wait a short while for my kit. When it arrived I was very pleased with the quality of parts. I’ve not built mine yet due to other commitments but locally I know three people who have and they are all very pleased with the result.

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Keep up the good work.

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Martin

G0PJO

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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hans Summers
Sent: 27 October 2017 13:54
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [QRPLabs] QCX Build Step 3.47 - NEWBIES be careful

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Hi Alex

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Will start mine in a week or so, pity that so many are finding bugs with their kits

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The QCX is a very complex system, in terms of all the firmware; and the hardware is not trivial either. I think it is normal that with a new product like this, there are some minor issues which did not show up in the lab, but are discovered in the real world when hundreds more people start assembling and operating the kits. But these issues ARE being resolved, and even the resolution process itself is very interesting and educational.?

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Once I worked for a big UK bank managing a team designing exotic derivatives pricing software. A massively complex system! When new people joined the team it took a good 6 months for them to properly find their way around and start to actually make themselves useful. Of course we had lots of challenges, and bugs arose which DID get through all our code reviews, testing, and care... no matter how hard we tried.?

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One day I had a message from the head of trading, something to the effect of "come and see me at my desk, right NOW" but a lot less polite. I went. He wasn't happy. His voice was pretty loud. He said Hans, this software is broken in this this and that way [I forget the details], how come you let bugs like this into my system? I replied, because bugs are a GOOD THING. Now he was starting to get a very red face and standing up and starting to splutter. I realised it might not have been the best time to philosophize. But I continued regardless.?

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I explained: if we were to try to ensure that you never ever have a bug, we would need to spend 100x more resources to test everything. It means more people. And since nobody wants to work in my team for love, it means more money. Worse than that, it also will take a lot more time to do anything. Right now, we can calculate your new idea faster than any other bank. That means you get to make a lot of money because you are always ahead of the pack, you always get the customers first. We aren't trying to be NASA and we aren't trying to be the military (though let's face it, even with their massive budgets and long development times, they STILL suffer bugs!). Everything is a trade-off, always remember that. In this case, it's a trade-off between number of bugs, and amount of resources, time and money gets poured into testing. So, since this is a commercial operation (not NASA or the military), we try to take a pragmatic approach - a reasonable amount of testing and care that will catch as many bugs as we can, but at the same time deliver high value: lots of functionality and at a low cost, and fast as we can. (I'm still talking about the bank, here).?

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Now I paused for breath and was expecting that in my brief pause to harvest from oxygen from the atmosphere, I would most likely be getting my head blown off in a hail of fire-breathing wrath from the head trader. But in fact, he had been listening, and he saw the logic, and the red colour had gone from his face. He sat down. He said Ok. Just go and fix it. So that was that - and after that we had better respect between us.?

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So why I mention all this is because the same thing applies here. It's pretty hard to avoid every possible bug in any system, and you just do the best you can. It is all a trade-off. It applies to QRP Labs kits just as it did in that big bank.

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What we have here in the QCX is a unique product full of innovation, that costs 1/3 what anything with remotely similar performance has cost previously. If I had prepared and sent out 10's of kits to beta-testers, an gone through multiple iterations of perfecting every minor issue they could find, then test builds again, blah blah, it could not have been done for $49. And worse still, it would have taken a lot longer. I already spent 6 months on the QCX project, from February 2017 when the RSGB email came asking for YOTA summer camp buildathon kit proposals, to 21st August 2017 when the kit went on general sale. 6 months where some of the time I went for long periods sleeping 5 hours a night, getting up hours before my family, trying to find every possible moment to work on it. By the end of that, I felt intellectually and emotionally exhausted, and only just about feel I am recovering now. If it had been something that had taken longer, it probably would not have happened at all!

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So I'm just saying - in the context - we have a trade-off going on here too. QCX firmware and hardware has had some minor issues here and there which did not show up in the lab or in testing. But they ARE minor, and resolving them is itself quite interesting and educational! So don't worry about it :-)

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73 Hans G0UPL

My version of VK5EEE's story has to with surface mount components.
I'm getting more familiar with the techniques, but in one case while
holding a small SMD resistor with tweezers and getting it exactly
positioned it popped off into the ether and off my workbench. I had
a sense it landed on the floor, a textured vinyl wood colored
"lino," and it was the only one of that value I had in the kit. So,
time to get on my hands and knees and search for it.

I spent the better part of an hour trying to locate it and swept
the floor several times expanding the search area as I went. But no
luck finding the resistor. I went back to work on the project
figuring I'd have to order a replacement and wait.

But as I sat down to begin work again I glanced down at my shirt
and to my surprise I saw the resistor clinging to it held there by
electrostatic charge! I couldn't believe my luck; it had hung on
through all my machinations trying to hunt it down.

Thanks for the heads-up on step 3.47, I'm forewarned :-)

Al Holt

I find the simplest way to control “flying pins” is to position your side cutter on the pin and simply place a fingertip on the pin to be cut. This dampens the “spring” effect and the will just fall. In some cases this may require a “third hand” pcb holder for convenience but most time our two human ones will suffice.?
Pete WK8S