Preliminary Testing - Eggtimer Rocketry Eggtimer Quark Assembly Manual

Preliminary Testing

Take the "pigtail" for the battery you are using, and compare it to your battery. Identify which
lead is "+" and which lead is "-"... normally, the "+" lead is RED and the "-" lead is BLACK.
IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT AT ALL, USE A DVM TO TEST IT WITH THE BATTERY
BEFORE YOU MOUNT IT TO THE BOARD. The Quark is polarity-protected so it shouldn't
be damaged if you connect the battery backwards, but it's better not to do it anyway.
We use JST connectors for almost all of our LiPo batteries. They're polarized so theoretically
you can't connect the battery backwards. We say "theoretically" because some of the cheap
ones aren't molded very precisely and it IS possible to insert them backwards, particularly
since these connectors require a little bit of force to insert (and remove!) anyway. To help
prevent against this, we take a black Sharpie marker and color the black side of both the pigtail
and the battery connectors so that we have an easy reference: Match up the black stripes and
you're good.
Strip about 1/8" from each lead of the pigtail, and tin the leads. Solder the "+" lead to the TOP
side of the pad marked "+". Similarly, solder the "-" lead to the BOTTOM side of the pad
marked "-".
Connect your battery to the pigtail. You should immediately hear a 1-second beep, and after a
few seconds you should hear the "last apogee" beeps. Since it's just been programmed, it will
beep 6-5-5-3-4. After another 15 seconds, you should hear four beeps, followed by a pause,
then five beeps followed by a pause, with this sequence repeating for as long as you have the
battery connected. This is telling you that neither of the deployment channels has continuity,
which isn't surprising considering that there's nothing connected to them yet.
If you get this far, congratulations! At this point, you need to get out the Eggtimer Quark
User's Guide, and perform the baro and deployment tests. Once everything passes, you're
ready to mount it in your rocket at start enjoying the advantages of electronic deployments.