Q-Tune DIY Tuner kit

Thanks for the question. We're still looking into international shipments and may have an option available for Canada soon. Currently pre-orders are for US-based addresses only. If/when that changes we will for sure post an update here. Thank you for your patience while we figure this part of things out.
 
Honestly we'd love to ship to everyone. I've shipped pedals to many countries in the past but it's either cheap (and takes 2-4 weeks, very nerve racking), or faster (and much more expensive). Even Canada right now is in the $50 range, ug.

Here's a thread I've been reading through. Seems like shipping prices have gone up a lot in past few post pandemic years.

So I'm open to your suggestions, and I'll ship where ever and how ever you want... as long as you pay for it.
 
Actually, here's an option maybe. Our standard shipping box is 6x4x4". But we could use different packaging and get it into a USPS Small Flat Rate Box. It all could easily fit in there. 125b would fit without the lid attached. 1590 no problem.
6-10 days. It's still $50, but I feel a LOT better about USPS Priority International than First Class or other services that take 2-4 weeks. This one is to Germany, but I suspect most countries in Europe would be similar.
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Actually the Large Video price is the same, and 2" tall. Anyone have VHS anymore:ROFLMAO:
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Freaking hell. I used to get entire guitars shipped for 50$.

I honestly cannot help you much with that, I am currently avoiding dealing with the US market for the exact same reasons. I would say that 50$, however I want you guys to succeed (and me to get my hands on a kit), hurts. On our side, most EU country don't only see the 50$ from shipping. We have to pay VAT + import duty on the lump sum (item + shipping rates) so for let's say 200$ total most of us would be paying upwards of 250€. There are some ways -depending on the country- to dodge part of the tax by declaring that it's electronics under 150€ total value, but it's usually asking for troubles.

Being based in Germany, I usually get electronic component from Digikey or Mouser when above 50€ (no shipping, no taxes), and I order my pedal related stuff from Musikding. Low shipping and a huge list of items to chose from. He has most of the AionFx, PedalPCB etc as kits at a reasonable price. In the long term, dealing with Klaus (from Musikding) is probably your best bet).

For your specific case, I will look into options to send kits as they are from the US. But it might just be more realistic to either not waste time on the outside market for such a small first batch, or go for a "half kit" selling only what could be hard to source (basically everything outside of diodes, resistors and caps) to make sure you go under whatever threshold you could trigger. But that would likely cut into your profits so once again, not sure how realistic.

I do appreciate the effort though, thanks a lot :)
 
Yeah, I feel your pain, the world has changed from 5 years go.
I've thought about a minimal kit, just a PCB and oddities - you get all the rest yourself. I don't know how much we'd charge, we haven't really talked about that option. But if so I'd be more comfortable with USPS First Class to Germany, $29. Maybe after first round of 20.
 
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Rpschultz13 said:
Sorry. If things go well we plan to move to Shopify which will have PayPal. But for now Stripe and its options are best for us as we get started.
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Totally understand. I use the 6 months no interest financing PayPal offers. That’s what I was hoping to do. No worries.
 
Would you be open to selling the PCB by itself, just in case someone makes a disastrous mistake during the build and would like to start back from scratch without having purchase a full kit again?
 
aechcutt said:
Would you be open to selling the PCB by itself, just in case someone makes a disastrous mistake during the build and would like to start back from scratch without having purchase a full kit again?
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While we don't plan to sell the PCB by itself, if something like the above happens... yes, we would sell you a replacement at cost (mainly just shipping). Hopefully it doesn't come to that.:)

This should not be your first pedal kit. But assuming you've built a couple pedals, there is nothing inherently more difficult about Q-tune. The 12-pin JST connector is unique and care must be taken when soldering it to the board and plugging it into the LCD socket. But other than that, it is very similar to any PPCB or Aion kit that you may have built.
 
Rpschultz13 said:
This should not be your first pedal kit. But assuming you've built a couple pedals, there is nothing inherently more difficult about Q-tune. The 12-pin JST connector is unique and care must be taken when soldering it to the board and plugging it into the LCD socket. But other than that, it is very similar to any PPCB or Aion kit that you may have built.
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Rpschultz13 said:
Our build instructions list the difficulty level as INTERMEDIATE, 3 out of 5 stars. Maybe @Robert or @keyth72 could comment on the build difficulty relative to other kits or pedals.
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I'd say Intermediate is a good difficulty rating. The documentation is very good. If you read (re-read) and follow the instructions, and don't rush it, it should be fine. The ribbon cable is a little tricky, I really had to inspect the stranded wire and trim it after soldering, to make sure the strands didn't touch adjacent pads. It's more involved than any of the pedalpcb boards I've done just with number of parts, but I haven't done anything larger than a medium size pedalpcb board.
 
Rpschultz13 said:
Sorry. If things go well we plan to move to Shopify which will have PayPal. But for now Stripe and its options are best for us as we get started.
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All my internet purchases go through PayPal, in fact I can't think of the last time I entered my card details anywhere other than a major payment provider. (I used to work in quantum encryption so I've heard all the chilling stories and it's only going to get worse with AI 'vibe coding')

Beautiful build!
 
Feral Feline said:
Okay okay fair 'nough, @jimilee
There's no escaping SMD, though. It's here, it's part of the hobby now, and will only increase.
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Agreed - the number of manufacturers that are producing THT is dropping and even the size of SMD is dropping. I even bought a magnifying glass/light anglepoise thing for soldering SMD!

Oddly SMD isn't as bad as you think for soldering. The pain is when the device has a large pad for thermal cooling which are typically mounted on large copper ground planes that suck heat. A big 80W chassis iron solves that ;) or if you want to be nifty then a small thermal table.

If DIY companies do offer SMD boards then they'd better offer paste mask options and also sell some heat tables, make one side SMD table and the other side simple soldering if a multi-layer/double sided board.
 
Rpschultz13 said:
Our build instructions list the difficulty level as INTERMEDIATE, 3 out of 5 stars. Maybe @Robert or @keyth72 could comment on the build difficulty relative to other kits or pedals.
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I think intermediate is fair. It has a couple steps that are a little more involved than a typical PedalPCB build, but if you take your time and follow the instructions, it will work.
 
NickKUK said:
Agreed - the number of manufacturers that are producing THT is dropping and even the size of SMD is dropping. I even bought a magnifying glass/light anglepoise thing for soldering SMD!

Oddly SMD isn't as bad as you think for soldering. The pain is when the device has a large pad for thermal cooling which are typically mounted on large copper ground planes that suck heat. A big 80W chassis iron solves that ;) or if you want to be nifty then a small thermal table.

If DIY companies do offer SMD boards then they'd better offer paste mask options and also sell some heat tables, make one side SMD table and the other side simple soldering if a multi-layer/double sided board.
Click to expand...
I’ve done enough SMD to know I don’t like it, that’s for sure. I think through hole will never go away. It’s been said it’s the way of the future for about 7 years now. It has its advantages, that’s for sure, but for the diy community, it will be here a while longer.
 
jimilee said:
I’ve done enough SMD to know I don’t like it, that’s for sure. I think through hole will never go away. It’s been said it’s the way of the future for about 7 years now. It has its advantages, that’s for sure, but for the diy community, it will be here a while longer.
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My sentiments exactly... I've done it enough to know I don't enjoy it.
 
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