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Q-Hack!
08-04-2008, 11:37 AM
I wanted to play around with a PWM and found the site:

http://www.pwmpower.com/davelawtonpwm.html

I ordered a 30 amp kit with voltmeter and LEDs from them on 17 Jun 08. I ordered the kit thinking that it would ship faster than if I ordered something that required them to build it. Ha! Total cost with S/H - $182.96 Paid in full via Google checkout.

On 21 Jun 08 I sent an email requesting info on when I could expect it to ship... No answer.

On 27 Jun 08 I sent another email... The reply I got back stated that I should call them to find out the status of my order.

28 June - 2 July I made several attempts to call (during their duty hours) and got the answering machine. Left a message several times for a call back... No call back ever happened.

3 July Finally got someone on the phone! They stated that my order had a hold on it and asked if I had put a hold on my order ?!? Nope! He said they would ship it out immediately.

8 July Received an email from Google checkout that my item has shipped. It took 5 days from my phone call to finally get it shipped??? Well maybe they are busy, so ok...

16 July My package has arrived... Well sorta... It is missing half the components required to make a PWM. It did include all the capacitors, fixed resistors, and the box it was to be built in. It was missing all but one diode, one of the meters, four potentiometers, the LEDs, and the Mosfet. The kit came with a real nice printed circuit board, but there wasn't any sort of circuit layout to explain where the components were supposed to go on the board. They did include a copy of the d14.pdf that can be found on the internet. This is a basic description of PWMs and in no way should be considered an instruction manual as it doesn't have any instructions of the extra circuits that I bought in this kit (output voltmeter or LEDs.)

16 July Thinking that a phone call would never happen, I sent an email explaining what was missing from the kit.

21 July As luck would have it, I was able to get through on the phone. I explained my situation and directed them to the email I sent... ended up sending it again as they can't see the email sent to sales@pwmpower.com even though that is the email they have on there site as the contact email. They told me they would send out the missing items...

4 Aug I am still waiting... sent an email to tami.kennedy@pwmpower.com (the one I talked to on the phone 21 July) will wait to see if I get a response...

Has anybody ever dealt with this company before? I am considering sending a complaint to the Better Business Burrow.

snapper1d
08-04-2008, 12:24 PM
I have delt with them.I bought the cd video tutorial on how to make one.It came in the mail about a week later.It didnt have everything on it.I emailed them and got an email back from tami kennedy.They shipped another cd that had everything on it.But dont buy it!!! It is the same as the youtube video.It tell nothing on how to build one at all.It is a RIP OFF!!!!!!

stickittoopec
08-04-2008, 04:31 PM
Thanks for the heads up on this company.

codedout
08-04-2008, 05:16 PM
There are a lot of websites out there tha are scams. I am sure some of them like myself have spent many hours searchiig the net for information. All informatioon that is out there for sale is out there for free.

I am working on a PWM with current overrun limit, but it will have a lot of fancy extras that most people wont really want, things such bubbler level sensor and pump driver, generator level sensor and pump driver. I am also considering putting the efie on the same board.

I probably wont have it fiished for a month or so.

kajreklaw
08-06-2008, 09:20 PM
I wanted to play around with a PWM and found the site:

http://www.pwmpower.com/davelawtonpwm.html

I ordered a 30 amp kit with voltmeter and LEDs from them on 17 Jun 08. I ordered the kit thinking that it would ship faster than if I ordered something that required them to build it. Ha! Total cost with S/H - $182.96 Paid in full via Google checkout.
........
........

4 Aug I am still waiting... sent an email to tami.kennedy@pwmpower.com (the one I talked to on the phone 21 July) will wait to see if I get a response...

Has anybody ever dealt with this company before? I am considering sending a complaint to the Better Business Burrow.

dude, post a complaint on their youtube video board so others can see it... they just seemed shady from the video... try zerofossilfuels on youtube.. his 5 part series looks good, i'm no expert but I understand what he's saying.. good luck to you!!!

Omega
08-07-2008, 11:15 PM
Thanks for the info. When they promote themselves so heavily on YouTube, you would think that they have something on the ball. Apparently not.

HHO seems to have attracted some real rip off artists and flakes. We need to know who the good guys are so we can avoid the creeps.

fly
08-09-2008, 07:24 PM
I have checked them out too, and was on the verge of ordering from them, but something did not feel right, so I postponed... I'm glad I did at this point, I still did not get around to order components for a PWM yet, let alone build one, but at least I'm glad I did not get sucked in this scam...

Unfortunately for us, there are a lot of predators online just trying to make a buck on anyone's back. Including HHO "exprimentators" as I call them.

Very early in my searches for info on the HO process, cell building etc. I noticed a tremendous amount of "bogus" site that plianly were in the market to make a quick buck by selling false promises.

So Ya: BUYER BEWARE is the right topic for this thread.

c02cutter
08-11-2008, 10:33 AM
we gots a spammer I see

Painless
08-11-2008, 12:56 PM
Indeed we do... I'll hold him... you hit him.

c02cutter
08-11-2008, 02:47 PM
S-M-A-C-K-!-!-!

I got a crane and ductape, hold him guys!!!

Q-Hack!
08-13-2008, 04:46 PM
we gots a spammer I see

Um, I hope this wasn't directed at me?!?

Update: I received notice from UPS that I have a shipment due in tomorrow from pwmpower.com. I will let you all know how it goes.

kajreklaw
08-13-2008, 11:39 PM
Um, I hope this wasn't directed at me?!?

Update: I received notice from UPS that I have a shipment due in tomorrow from pwmpower.com. I will let you all know how it goes.

who was that directed to??

COMP
08-14-2008, 01:40 AM
:confused::confused:

Painless
08-14-2008, 06:26 AM
who was that directed to??

There was a bunch of spam posts (advertising) in this thread and others, seems they have been removed by the administrators now.

Checkmate240ZT
08-14-2008, 07:36 AM
New to the board and just wanted to give my experience with pwmpower.
Ordered the Dave Lawton PWM on July 16th and per their web site would ship in a couple of days. After several attempts to contact them I finally got through and they said they were behind due to three of the builders were off with the flu for several days and said the unit would ship out by Aug. 5th or 6th. Still no unit on the 12th so I e-mailed them through Google and asked if I should get my money back through my credit card company and have them put on the black list. Still no reply. Called again on the 13th and they said it would ship the next day and I actually received a ship notice through Google that same day. Will be here tomorrow so I will let you know how it works.
Built a smack cell with a few mods and have been running it with a battery charger for around 12 hours on and off as the heat builds I shut it down (2-3 hours on about 10amps. Hope the PWM helps with the heat so I don't have to run it with a cooling device.

Q-Hack!
08-14-2008, 03:59 PM
Update: Got the box today from pwmpower.com... I now have all the components to make the PWM. However, they still didn't send me any sort of instructions on how to put this thing together. The D14.pdf that they sent in the first shipment describes how to put one together using a perforated breadboard. What they sent me was a really nice printed circuit board. I have no idea where some of the components are supposed to go on this board. The 555 IC's are fairly straight froward once I figured out which side of the board and what direction pin one sits. I can guess at some of the capacitors, but the rest???

I do not have a EE degree, but I do have a fairly basic understanding of circuits (satellite communications maintainer). So, I should be able to figure out where the LEDs and the volt meter go in relation to the schematics in the D14.pdf. I have included pics of the PCB in case somebody here has a better idea of how the layout should look.

Dewayne
08-14-2008, 04:26 PM
I would be very careful using this board. IMO none of the traces look like
they will carry 30A's. I would bench test it first and see how hot it gets.
If it gets to hot the traces will lift off the board.

Q-Hack!
08-14-2008, 04:32 PM
As I understand it (from the d14.pdf) the MOSFET is what handles the 30 amps and it doesn't mount to the pcb. I am probably going to mount it to a cpu heat sync or something.

Dewayne
08-14-2008, 06:25 PM
As I understand it (from the d14.pdf) the MOSFET is what handles the 30 amps and it doesn't mount to the pcb. I am probably going to mount it to a cpu heat sync or something.

OH ok......

computerclinic
08-24-2008, 03:03 PM
Im working on a sales catalog of parts and pieces for my website. Mainly im focused on the steel components, but I would like to offer FREE plans and information.

If anyone can send me links to info that deals with the various construction methods, plans, drawings, really good wiki pages, etc... I would certainly appreciate it.

The site is going to have stuff for sale, but I believe that the information should be freely available.

Thanks in advance folks!