Timer Repairs
Magic Timer Repairs
Before sending a timer to Magic Timers always confirm the correct address to send the damaged timer with Magic Timer first – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Sending it to the wrong address will significantly delay repair. Sometimes we are travelling and may want the timer to be sent to a different address, maybe in a different country.
Magic Timers can also be repaired by Igor Vivchar who has a skilled technician who is familiar with assembly and repair of Magic Timers. When sending timers for repair we are subject to the whims of the various International postal services; we do not have control over these services and we do have other commitments that mean the repair needs to be scheduled. This means that sending Magic Timers a timer to repair and wanting it back in 2 weeks for an important contest will probably never happen. Given that international post can take 3 weeks each way (sometimes even longer, unfortunately!) an estimate of 2 months is more realistic than 2 weeks.
Sometimes problems with timers are configuration or step up problems that can be fixed without sending the timer to Magic Timers. That is another reason why you should always contact Magic Timers before sending the timer.
It is very important to tell Magic Timers what you think is wrong or the difficulty you might be having. Do not say ”I just want the timer checked”. If the problem is bad enough to send the timer away, you must tell Magic Timers what the problem is. Magic Timers wants to make sure that your problem has been fixed before the timer is sent back; this cannot be done if you don’t tell magic Timer what the problem is.
Timers can still be sent to Magic Timers for repair. An analysis will be made of the timer. This analysis is always helped by a description of the problem and a probable cause of the problem. If the timer can be repaired quickly it will be done, otherwise it will not be repaired and the timer owner will be offered for purchase a replacement timer at 75% of the current standard timer price. That offer must be taken within 30 days of receiving it. The damaged timer will not be returned. The customer pays the shipping cost.
If the timer can be repaired, under most circumstances the cost of the repair will be less than $20, not counting shipping so to reduce delays we will do the repair if it is under $20 without first contacting you. So if you send the timer to be repaired, it is on the understanding that you could be charged up to $20 for the repair plus any applicable shipping charges.
We have done an analysis of the time taken to repair a timer that does not have a simple problem and it takes 5 times longer than to assemble a new timer and the repaired timer, while it functions, may not be up to the level of new timer. In addition many of the timers are over 10 years old and over that time, while the timer looks the same we have made a number of improvements to the timer hardware, firmware and functionality. To include these improvements at the time of a repair is not practical. Some of the repairs such as patching circuit board traces introduce a potential level of unreliability that is not desirable for the FAI Free Flight sportsman.
Sometimes we may start the repair of a timer, including the removal of components, only to find that there is more damage and the timer cannot be fixed. Under these circumstances there is no charge for the work done but the removed components will not be put back on the timer board.
Just Check the Timer.
When Magic Timers are made, quality new parts are used from the best suppliers. After assembly the timers are subjected to an independent pre-delivery check. This verifies that the assembly is done and all functions, servos, programming and RDT connections, buzzer, etc. work. One reason we know the timers are good is that in addition to the checks, we know all the parts are good and have not been damaged or abused. Once the timer is out of our hands and used by a customer we cannot tell if the timer has been subjected to some severe invisible electrical or mechanical stress.
If you ask us to “Just check the timer” we can subject the timer to our pre-delivery test. This will verify that all major functions and parts work. But it cannot verify that one of the components has not been subjected to an electrical or mechanical stress that might not show up during a pre-delivery test but that could cause difficulties under some stressful conditions.