Mine came in from GearBest, paid $29.99 total on a presale deal. (Apparently some folks expect presale items to ship as quickly as any other item. It’s a PRESALE! Gonna take longer! Otherwise, pay a little (or a lot) more to get it sooner.) GB "shipped" mine on 1-10-15 same as some of the other vendors I’ve seen (VaporTek was one). But GB took a
full 30 days to get it to me. Now, for
ME that is not a problem but for those wanting their gratification in a timelier manner, I’d suggest buying elsewhere. Me, I’ll just sit back and wait… and spend what I saved on more gear. As for negative GB feedback, there are people leaving neg. FB for problems that don’t even exist- one loon whining because they aren’t receiving the item I time for Christmas- when Christmas was still weeks away! I call BS on 90% of it- and I call the same BS on 90% of the
positive FB. Don’t rightly know what to think about people thinking they have to threaten GB w/neg. FB to get a refund- I mean, really? But what I DO know-
empirically, not anecdotally- is I bought three- separate- items so far from GB, paid less for them than anywhere else by a significant margin and everything’s here and in good shape. As for the GB haters- maybe actually try them before condemning them.
I was surprised at Cloupor’s packaging. It's actually done quite good considering this isn't a 'premium' brand. There's a plastic 'warranty card' under the shrink wrap along w/a scratch-off sticker w/authenticity code. The box has a foam lined lid and the bottom shaped compartments for the charger, mod and extras has a velour feel to it. There are some screws and four extra door magnets packaged inside of what looks like a small ring box and they include a soft bag w/drawstrings to stow it in.
But that all means nada if the mod is junk. So far I cannot find much wrong w/mine. I fired it at 30w for 15 seconds as Cloupor directs to check for a bad chip and it passed. The resistance agrees within a few hundredths of an ohm to my meter. Door fits tight, magnets do their job although w/enough sideways pressure you can make the door move. The enclosure’s solidly built. Not wild about the ‘adjustable’ 510, the pin’s RH threaded. Some attys fit flush, but most don't. I have plans for swapping it out anyway (along w/the 510 in my DNA 30 clone) but for most people this will be an issue. The 510 threads are tight at least, no wobbling. Attys overhang towards the side w/the buttons but for me that's a "so what" thing. Buttons are squared off and not as ‘clicky’ as some of the rounded tactile switches I've felt, but that's not something that is bothersome one way or the other. Not used to the screen being on the same side as the buttons, I will see how this works over time. At least the display is square to the window. The wake-up delay is too brief to be bothersome to me, the 2 min. before sleep is longer than my DNA 30 clone but it never bothered me anyway.
The exposed negative battery terminal looks okay; soldering is good, wires are rather small but same as other 30w mods I've seen. Haven't pulled the cover to see what it looks like there but I suspect there'll be the usual hot glue mess like some other cheap mods.
Open class slot car cobalt motor tip: If there’s debris on the door magnets, use a piece of “magnet putty” (aka poster putty, prolly already have some in the kitchen drawer) to remove it. Pressing the sticky putty onto the magnet traps the particles and removes them for good instead of just temporarily wiping them to the side of the magnet. Two second job, leaves no sticky residue. A bit of this putty (or harder clay) judiciously placed will keep the door from sliding around if that’s a problem.
