COP system customer service thread
 

Hello customers,

Updates about the COP systems will be given here. You are also more then welcome to voice your concerns about the product and delivery times here.

Best,
Travis

So Travis,what is the latest?

I am posting in this thread on the advice of one of the moderators.

Long story, so everyone please be patient as I explain the details.

I was extremely excited about B.E.'s COPS kit, so I put my name on the list. Travis told me about the backlog, so I thanked him for that, and he refunded my money. I figured I'd wait until the product was ready and then re-order it. A short time later I changed my mind, and immediately re-ordered it -- I figured it's best to get on the waiting list now, and that sending money would help guarantee my spot, and it also would help me avoid spending the money elsewhere.

A few weeks went by, and as you all know, Travis posted MANY reasons for the delays in shipping the COPS.

Finally I got my COPS one day. They were dead-on-arrival. There was ZERO spark.

I called Travis and he said this surprised him because he tested the unit on an NA before sending it to me. I asked if they'd ever been tested on an NB. Apparently the answer is "no". I offered to send them back. Instead, Travis said to keep them, and that he'd send a replacement control box. I said okay.

He then sent me a whole new kit instead of just the control box. He told me to try the new control box and the new harness too, with the first set of coils. I did that, and my mechanic tried also, but only coils 1&4 sparked -- nothing from 2&3.

By the way, when I say "my mechanic," I don't mean just any neighborhood gearhead. I'm referring to Seth Goodwin at Dealer Alternative. Anyone who's been around Miatas for a few years knows that D.A. is the original Flyin' Miata shop, here in NJ, before they moved west. Seth is the ASE Master Mechanic there and more of a veteran than just about anyone else at Miata turbo kits and such. So there is no question here that the installation attempt was done correctly. Seth also commented on the poor construction of the COPS, and even went the extra mile to try to fix that, but it still didn't work. Also he installed the kit AFTER fixing my car's other issues, so it's not as if something else caused the COPS not to work -- this was a B.E. problem, not a my-car problem.

So, I again informed Travis of the problem. At this point I told him that I can no longer be any sort of testbed, that I sincerely feel bad for his situation, I even more sincerely rooted for him because I wanted the COPS, but that my bottom line now is a simple refund. I told him I'll send both units back immediately via UPS, and I expect a refund, and we'll forget about the whole ugly issue.

Travis wrote back to me and said he can't do that because he doesn't have the money. He gave more excuses about why that's the case, but I don't see any reason to list them here.

I replied to him that since it's the holidays and stuff, I will give him an extra week to come up with my refund, and that while I feel bad for the guy, his excuses aren't my problem. Bottom line is he represented himself as a legitimate business, he accepted my order, but the product didn't work despite his two attempts. I am entitled to a refund.

Since he basically said "no" I raised the issue that I just might have him deal with my attorney instead of me.

He replied:

"Here is the real deal. I told you I don't have the money to repay it right now and I'm working on a loan to pay it back. I put you ahead of 14 other customers because of your griping"

Those other customers aren't my problem.

"You can sue me for the 439 dollars if you want now, and I'll let it go to court and you'll pay thousands in lawyer fees, wait for it to come up on the federal dockett and I'll represent myself where it won't cost me a dime. At the end of the lawsuit I'll pay the 439 dollars in 6 months instead of around January 15th when I expect to be able to get the money."

That's the first time he mentioned any kind of timeframe for paying me.

"While I understand your position I want to also outline how many emails I sent you stating the product was not ready ... You persisted and bought the product anyways."

What!? By accepting customer's money and delivering the product, it's supposed to be ready. Is it Travis' m.o. that he'll send products which he knowingly believes are not "ready" just to shut up a paying customer? In reality, the very act of shipping the product means that he thinks it is ready.

"I recommend products to you that I don't sell to fix your ignition problem, and you still denied those offers"

True, he gave me some car advice. So? That is unrelated to the fact that HIS product didn't work -- and I don't mean "it didn't work to fix my car," ... I mean it LITERALLY did not work.

you may huff and puff, but you understand the customer contract very clearly.

Yes, I do! I don't think Travis does. There was never any "contract", verbal or written or otherwise, that in exchange for my money he'd send me non-working products. Why would he think I want that? He did tell me there would be some delay, which in fact there was, and then he finally sent the product. That means the delay was over, or should have been. Yeesh.

The only "contract" is what he offers at http://www.boundaryengineering.com/cops.php in exchange for my $439.10 + shipping.

But, since I'm such a nice guy and it's the holidays and all, I decided to make him a new deal: I'd be willing to accept my refund in equal credit for other parts that he sells.

He hasn't yet responded to that offer which I made via PM here. I'm leery of the offer myself because I don't have much faith that his company will be around much longer to honor it.

Anyway, that's all the details of my experience with his "customer service".

OK before this gets out of hand, this thread is for customers to post their concerns and questions and for Travis to respond accordingly.

DO NOT fill it full of peanut gallery bullshit. I've deleted the off topic stuff.

Look Evan here is the deal.

You've cussed me out 2 times now on the phone(that was after you waited about 2 weeks), you've threatened lawsuit several times. You've been bossy, rude, and incosiderate.


I don't know how I could have been more clear to not buy this kit. I've told you atleast 2 times via email they wern't ready. I told you verbally on the phone they wern't ready. I don't know how to tell you any other way they wern't ready.

I told you not to buy my kit. I told you to buy the NGK's if you want to reduce spark blow out by generating a spark using less ionization energy created by the pointyness of the electrodes. Remember that conversation? I speant two hours on the phone with you explaining how different ignition systems that I don't sell will fix your problem so that you would not buy my kit. You bought my kit. Everyone knows that I've had ridiculous issues with this kit. The issues are continuing to compound.

I told everyone I will not be holding the kits over to the new year. Parts are way too sparing, so I am getting a loan to pay everyone back. I'm swallowing a huge amount of money on this deal to remove the customer from the heat, because I've bankrupted myself trying to fix the problem and its just not ready to go yet. I kept telling myself I could quick turn it and move it along, but it didn't happen. So I'm doing the best I can.

Bottom line is you have bullied the process from the very beginning. You did not heed my warnings to not buy my product. You did it anyways against my wishes knowing full well the intimate details and that others had been waiting for months, and now you act as if you were struck by a comet in surprise and awe that things turned out the way they did. What else did you expect?

False. I never cursed at you.

False. I mentioned ONE time that I might have you talk to my lawyer.


False. I've been very patient and flexible considering all of your excuses.



False. But if you truly believe that, then you should not have sold them in any circumstance. Once you take money and ship the product, you are saying "they are ready now."

That's an astounding defense: "Don't blame me. Me, my business, and my product stink."

What ????? Who does business this way ????????????

We all knew about your SUPPLY problem. I'm completely dumbfounded that you decided to ship me the product -- twice! -- yet now you're admitting that you knew all along it wouldn't work. I never "bullied" you into anything and I resent that slander. If you knew the product didn't work, or if you didn't like dealing with me, then you should have refused to send it and refunded my money at that point. I might have thought less of you as a person but at least I would have respected your business integrity. Instead, you're calling me a liar, trying to shift the blame toward me, and admitting that you knowingly took my money and delivered non-working products.

I don't need to say anything else, because you're painting yourself insanely deep into a corner.

However I will NOT back down until I get my money back, some way, somehow. You picked the wrong person to challenge.

I should also hold you responsible for the labor I had to pay my mechanic while he tried to get your product to work.

Look, I don't know if you thought I was joking when I said don't buy my product, but I do tell people that if its not ready. The funny part is that you knew the product had problems because I had already refunded your money once, because I told you they wern't ready yet. THEN YOU BOUGHT THEM A SECOND TIME. Let me clarify this. YOU BOUGHT THEM AGAIN AFTER I REFUNDED YOU TELLING YOU THEY WERE NOT READY. AFTER WE HAD A PHONE CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW THEY WERE NOT READY.

I'm not sure whats going on with the system. Right now, I believe the polyester resin is absorbing moisture and becoming conductive because they run before I pot them as I hardwire them into my car. Probably one of those lessons I haven't stumbled upon yet in electronics design. The design isn't importantant at this point. When they are ready they will be distributed, they aren't ready. They work fine on my car on the adaptronic. They work fine on other cars with the Adaptronic. They work fine sometimes on stock systems evidently. I dunno. I feel bad about it though and thats why I'm taking out a loan to get everyone their money back. I don't want anyone to have a system that works part time.

At any rate don't tell me you didn't understand. You understood exactly, so your intention was to buy the product, irritate the crap out of me until you got the head of the line and get your product. So you can not back down all you want, but here is the chronological time line of this transaction.

I told you not to buy the product. I suggested other products. I spent my time telling you what other products besides "stuff I sell" will help. I told you not to buy my products (thus the conversation that last for hours about the NGK plugs otherwise I wouldn't have even brought them up if I were trying to trick you.) Then you offhand bought the product. I gave your money back to you and told you they were not ready. Then you bought it a second time after I told you they wern't ready. Then surprise they wern't ready. Thats when you called me up and starting cussing about it being late, and how my customer service is complete crap. All that good stuff. I have email records, paypal records, and verbal conversation stating this is the actual time line and the events that occured.

I mean... I don't know what else to say here Evan. Its clear to me that you were aware there was substantial risk in buying this product. Then when things went really sour you're just going to have to wait about 20 more days to get your money back while I round things together.

False. You told me the parts weren't in stock yet. You didn't mean "not ready" as in "they don't work."

Then you shouldn't have distributed them. Plain and simple.

Hours? False. I remember one conversation that might have last more than 60 minutes, but if it did, that's because we were B.S.-ing about all things Miata.

Still false no matter how many times you say it. I never cursed at you.

False. I was aware there could be a substantial DELAY in your ability to acquire the inventory. I certainly would never have paid you, nor accepted the parts, if there was any doubt that your design actually works. (At the same time, and still today, your web site falsely advertises the product and accepts orders.)

Fine. You didn't say anything about Jan. 15 when we traded PMs earlier today. Then, once I went public with all this, suddenly you offered a specific timeframe. Works for me. I expect to get a check from you on the 15th or some reasonable time thereafter for the mail to be delivered.

Fixed. There was a WAIT not a RISK!

I haven't accepted an order on this product in forever. Everyone I get I return the money for unless I have a solid conversation with the customer about expectation just like I did you. Regardless of whether its up there I still have the final say of who I sell to. It isn't like you buy it and its a binding contract. Its like you buy it, and then I have the right to deny sale and return the money just like any other businessmen does in the world.

You can say my statements are false or misleading, or whatever. You can say I ran and begged for forgiveness after you went public, but thats not right either. I follow through on my business dealings because I'm upfront about them and I take responsibility for my sales. That is the date I've had written for the past week regardless of the outcome of your coil pack.

I'm not scamming anyone here Evan. You won't find another person in the Miata community that sells custom parts for less money. The oil pump gears, the oil pump assemblies, the frame rails, and everything that is retailed on my website is at the lowest price that is allowed by the manufacturer including the adaptronic. If I went any lower I'd be in breach of contract, and even then I'm inching on it because I offer shipping inclued at minimum advertised price.

Regardless of what you think I have hundreds of satisfied customers. I treat every customer with respect and ship them their product as quickly as possible. This is the one bad product I have, and I regret ever getting involved with it. It sounded like a good idea with a good designer to take care of it. When the design turned bad my customers and I were already so deep it was hard to get out. End of story.

Travis, I have been watching the COP GB thread since the beginning. It was clearly obvious that all Evan wanted was a set of working cops, that he paid for. I couldn't believe how patient these guys were being waiting for what 6 months now with no product. I absolutely understand Evan's frustration at this point, he paid for a product and was well aware of an incredibly long wait time and an equally long list of delays. He did not receive a working product, and as far as I know his car works otherwise.

Might I suggest in the future you hesitate to start a group buy or pre-order list until you have an engineered, tested, working solution before offering it to the public. Don't forget the issues people were having with the adaptronic harnesses...they were not PNP when you shipped the first few. Granted you handled it well, but it's also not fair to your customers & the mt.net community.

Braineack,

This is surely my lesson that I've learned. Its my first business, so I'm still learning the ropes. I made a terrible, terrible, business decision with the COP units. Someone could probably write a book about how wrong that business decision was.

I'm not sure what you're refering to with the Adaptronic harnesses though. They were never changed, and have always been plug and play without any issues.

Best,
Travis

I remember cjernigan and neo both having small issues that were fixed without issues.

so, after 12 replies:
- the cops are shipped
- the cops aren't shipped
- the cops work
- the cops don't work
- we get refund, no cops
- we get no refund, no cops

i only read reproaches, no info´s:

So what's the story on these COP kits?
I still see them on the site but are they or are they not available for purchase?

New Year, no COP´s :(

So here is the new part in the flesh, this one is actually spooky fish's. Sorry I haven't been around, the holidays really axed my time. I didn't realize I had as many family obligations as I did until I entered into the Holiday time warp.

The new harness is more durable and DEFINITELY more flexible then the last one. This harness removes the connector at the box allowing me to continue production without the extra parts. It also removes about 24 failure points, increases conductivity, and allows me to use the original COP system tie down to the valve cover using a carbon or aluminum plate. The more things I redesign with this system the better it continues to get.

The plan is to get everything ready by the 15th, and if its not ready to just send checks. I'm still working on the loan to get the money back. As it stands at this point each COP system costs me about 600 dollars to complete with materials, and so forth. So a lot of things need to change with the system so that its cheaper for me to make before it can become a sale item once more.

Best,
Travis

That's a nice looking product Travis. I really dig the housing.
I have 2 suggestions for you though, and they're related.
>offer the unit w/o any circuitry for dwell reduction. Face it; everyone who "needs" this product for the most part is running some sort of standalone with the ability to set dwell on a 2d or even 3d map.
>offer a jumper system so that the folks with standalones can run easily run sequential instead of wasted spark

Why are the length's to each connector the same? Wouldn't you want it scaling from 1 to 4 so that you dont have extra wiring?

I inquired about the cop system and Travis was very direct about them not being available. I see that he has had issues with him so i do appreciate the honesty not selling me the product. I have done prior business with him and had no problems with transactions or his service. I still would be interested in his cop system if he does get it in working order from prior experiences with Travis.

I need to get that plate here so you can see it in action. Basically 2,3,4 have an attachment from the far side, and 1 has an attachment from the side closest to the system. The COP box sits on the last two valve cover bolts on the left hand side closest to the flywheel as your looking at the motor. The reason they wrap around is because its so close to the COP box mounting point that you have to have the connection go from the other side. If you move the physical box farther out the cable length from the stock harness to the COP box gets stretched. So this is a good solution to both problems while reducing assembly time, and allowing the user to have a harness thats really flexible.

I think those are good ideas. I was planning on ditching the dwell circuitry because I noticed nearly every customer had a standalone. I do like the jumper though, just not sure how to implement it just yet. I need to think about it some more, and how to set up the circuit board.

Best,
Travis

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/att...1-cimg0202.jpg
Minez! Minez! Minez!
I can haz quickly now?

Looks good, can't wait to get the product here!

Jumper settings would be fine because i want the option to switch back to the OEM ECU,when i have the yearly smog test...

we have to save NEO!! and then we have to fire the EMP!

LOL that's exactlly what crossed my mind!

<shakes head. I love this forum.

So Travis,
Ive been interested in these COPs since you first announced them.
What is the realistic expectations you currently have for them? Will they be available within the next 3 months? 6 months? never? Do you think you will be increasing the price?

some news after 10 stop days?

Tomorrow is January 15 -- the date Travis promised for issuing my refund. We'll see.

Of course I still believe in the idea of COPS, but I did not sign up to give his business a $450 R&D loan!!!!!!!

you are right, especially when we didn´t receive more updates :drool:

Anything?

I'm working on some units here, goal is to get 5 done this weekend. I'm working on getting a loan back from my graduate studies to cover the COPS. That hasn't been disbursed yet though. I'm still waiting on it. I'm back studying towards my Ph.D. again so my time is being cut on a little bit.

I'll keep you guys posted, and probably updated Monday with a report on whats going on.

Congrats on going back to school. Just curious, where are you going, and what are you studying?

I'm at Indiana University Southeast/Purdue University joint campus filling some of my prereq's for Biomechanical Engineering at IUPUI. Taking Biocatabolism and molecular transport along with Quantum chemistry 2 with differential equations. Yum!

COP system progress has been good, and I have a holiday on Monday so thats another day towards the cause.

Just so you guys know I've got 2 more done, and the other 3 are coming. Hopefully by the end of today.

Good work. I hope USPS brings mine here soon.

did you included the dwell circuitry now?

Looks like things are starting to turn around.

Are these still going to run with the stock ECU?

Travis said he'd have my refund for the non-working COPS by Jan. 15. Ten days have passed. No refund arrived.

If his company had a fraction of the orders he claims for other products, then cash flow shouldn't be a problem. Instead, he's still supposedly seeking a loan to cover it. Sounds very fishy to me. All I know for sure is I've been duped into giving him a $440 loan. He also still hasn't offered any evidence that the product was successfully tested on an NB before delivery, and he's still advertising it as an available finished product on his web site.

Some people here on MT apparently are happy with their Adaptronic computers from his company. As for his COPS, I offer a different four-letter word: SCAM.

I'll consider rescinding that assertion if he ever shows sign of being a legitimate businessman. (Oddly, his defense so far has been, "What do you expect? Didn't I mention that I'm NOT a businessman?")

He can start by paying the money he owes me.

Evan,

I'm still waiting on the loan. As for my money issues, just to give you an idea of how much I made last year. I legally don't have to file for taxes this year. I made about 2000 dollars worth of sales this week. Just enough to pay off one COP order. As a matter of fact I borrowed money for groceries last week because I wasn't going to be able to eat. The bigger question is: What am I going to do with a 150 ignition coils @ 54 dollars a piece? <shrug

Lets hope I can get the rest of these units knocked out, and no I still have not taken a single order on the COP system since the last time we talked. I've told 3 people not to order as a matter of fact. I'm currently working on a website revamp on a large scale and just haven't implemented everything yet. By the way it would be very weird for someone like me to go as far as I do for customers in writing responses and solving problems in one sector of my business and then completely neglect another. That's a bipolar level I'm not comfortable with, and doesn't at all resemble whats going on.

Travis, you won't get any sympathy from me. We all have shit in our lives. Wanna hear mine? Some kid postured himself as a credible vendor, screwed me for $440, and thinks I'm going to let that slide.

Whose COP system did you think I was talking about paying for? You're seriously too high strung man. I just sent the refund.

Refund received via PayPal.

I may indeed be high-strung. At least I'm credible.

To everyone else: I suggest NOT buying Travis' product(s) until he proves their reliability and gets his business in order.

By the way, isn't this how pyramid / Ponzi schemes work -- get enough investors to pay off the initially bilked people, then get more investors to pay off the previous investors, until you're eventually caught or run out of dough?

I just have to ask the question of what it really matters. I've been pretty reflective lately. I took a considerable risk to bring the community something that is definitively better. I did it on a margin that was very small, predicting success as I did with other products (the oil pump assemblies were born the very same way). Had people design it for me. Paid my dues (all of last years salary that this job provided) Some parts of it failed. In 30 years no one is going to remember this. Getting worked up about stuff you can't change isn't worth it. I got you the money as fast as I could even ahead of the loan that is still not here yet. I'll be in CT at the machine shop that manufactures the pumps soon, maybe I could buy you a beer for your trouble and we could talk about it.

I can't get too wrapped up in this stuff either way. Instead, I will continue to focus on helping customers the best I can with the products I can provide at the best prices possible. I will focus on making the COP systems right so that customers that are still in this get their parts as soon as possible. I will still innovate and create new products, but adjust my business model accordingly to never sell a product I don't have on the shelf. No matter how long the community has to wait for me to build up the money to release something I won't put anyone else at risk like I did here. If I haven't said it enough I'll say it once more. I am truly sorry to anyone who has been negatively effected. I can't say it enough.

I can only speak for myself, but I bought a few of Travis' products and he shipped them in a reasonable time frame. I would for sure do business with you again Travis. Also, I know a there are a few guys that feel they went through the ringer waiting for their COPs and then refunds, but it speaks volumes that you are trying to make amends and IMO that shows you care about your business and customers.

Best of luck Travis - keep workin, we'll keep buying...

There's nothing wrong with taking orders for a product that isn't in stock. The problem started when you took orders for a product that wasn't developed and tested.

1. Raise money. 2. Make product. 3. Sell product. 4. Support product. 5. Profit. Only steps three and four should be visible to customers. Updates here and there are appreciated, but keep your business and excuses to yourself. Nobody wants to hear them. Inside details are one thing if you're big and successful like Bell or FM.

Crash Davis speaking to Nuke LaLoosh in "Bull Durham" -- "Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press'll think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob."

This is long, if you can't see by the post, but here it is.

I've been at owning a business for 7 years now. 5 of those years were mostly geared towards the real gear up of operating a business for the last two. I had to learn HTML, PHP, Server interface, Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Political Science, Organized Business, Game theory, Computers, Salesmanship, Materials procurement, Contract Law, The legal system, Contracting and organizing labor, Capitalization, and that list doesn't even begin to actually account for the full list. Now many of those particular sections of information are full on careers, and you would expect a person to need 5+ years to perform efficiently in any one of them. I'm on year 7 split between them, so yes there are parts I am very poor on still. There are going to be things I'm bad at but I have to continue learning and more importantly experiencing.

You are correct that in your model there are 5 basic steps. Actually performing those steps is the most complicated part of business, and many of those steps requires probabilistic and risk taking analysis. From how to budget your time, and pay off versus cost there are rational actor models playing out in each section. I think this is more prevalent with my company then with a lot of others because I take on the harder projects. Anyone can resell parts that require little technical support, but who wants to design a superior product and test it?

This particular business model had 3 phases attached. The first phase of upfront capital investment and development I did independent of everyone. I spent all the money on designing the enclosures doing the prototypes, paying for PCB prototypes, components, everything else out of pocket to design the part. We paid engineer(s) of the electrical sort to get everything taken care of. I put the unit on my car it ran for 3 days fine. So I sent it back and he said he wanted to tweak things. My car is the most difficult of all the models to actually run because it requires a tach signal. Later cars only require the pulses for the ignition system. This meant all the years above this are going to operate fine because they only require a portion of the unit that was tested on my vehicle. At this time the market was beating down my door to have the product. People nagged me and nagged me. I received a PM a day about the product, and many more emails in its anticipation. Finally I asked straight up to Alex if he thought we would be ready to go in 2 weeks. Could we fill orders then? He said yes and he would have the orders shipped. The test was complete on my car. The rest of the tragedy was written is basically written history somewhere else on the forum.

So entered the second phase. How do we finance this and make this affordable to people. They have the option of the Toyota COPS system which is 1/4th the cost. I have the market on my side in developing products that are reliable. I have excellent customer support, so people will know that I can pull this off. My product is a premium product that produces a much better spark. Consider this the credit for building the actual components. So I told people, we are offering the units at a reduced cost if you pitch in money now to help finance the building of the units. People then did purchase the product. The money flooded in, and the money flooded immediately out to purchase the parts to build the units. We weren't scheduled to make any money on the COP systems until we hit 20 units we never at anyone one time even reached this number of orders.

Now the third phase hit which is delivery. But, Alex fails to produce a working system all the sudden. I can't get his designs to run on my cars, I can't get them to run on other people’s cars. What do we do? We have to keep the money invested so that I can spend all the money I make on other products in rectifying the situation. So I keep paying out money on design after design from my other sales until the market starts to turn on me.

Now enter the never predicted stage 4 and 5. Alex goes his own away, so the principle designer is gone. Me, the person that was never supposed to touch a solder gun, a piece of wire, or design a circuit board has to pick up the entire project and try to manufacture them personally. If you knew how much I did not like working on electronics, and how much I love mechanical you'd realize what a big step in trying help the customers this was. This has to be done while I manage this more than full time business. All the money that was originally paid by customers is gone and then some. Orders start to come back for refunds. This creates a 2 fold problem. I already spent the businesses savings in trying to fix the problem with Alex. He left. I can't forge ahead and test my own designs to fill current orders without any capital to work with and sales are slowing down because of seasonal variance. So this whole situation has the possibility of collapsing because there is no money, all the money is now invested in parts and design. So now I am forced into one tiny path. I have to be confident that I can fill the orders by myself, and the only risky step to take is to offer others to join into the group buy to just fill the people that left in hopes that I will forge through this and fix the problem. This mitigates the most risk for the most amount of people even though its a risk for all. Otherwise everyone loses their money, and the company reaches insolvency. There are no smiles and no remediation in that situation.

So enter stage 5 our current stage. Sales have picked back up, and as a result I'm slowly both shipping and refunding people to dig the company back out of the this hole.

The current design I sent you actually works fine. The problem I believe is with ESD. I've tested these different types multiple times, and they work on my car. Basically we have 4 igniters in a box wired directly to triggers and grounding the pulses coming off of the coils. This isn't a complicated system and is pretty full proof from a design perspective. All components significantly exceed the ratings that they need to have. The only thing is that IGBT's are very susceptible to ESD damage. This is true particularly when the pins are not grounded to anything. Considering the cold weather up there and conditions its likely a static voltage just took out the IGBT's on the inside. This is particularly true because you said only half the ignition worked on the second unit I sent you, and the 1,4 and 2,3 are isolated. So its probably 1/2 the board was just taken out. The first design that you were sent was also completely different from previous designs. I wasn't happy with that design in the end because I didn't like the harness, they were hard to make, and the finished product wasn't that great looking.

If you find problem with my logic in why I made the business decisions I have made there is a simple solution to not do business with me. I done what my logic at the time lead me to believe was the right decision. I had every probable evidence to believe at each step I was mitigating customer risk. That was my standing as I was going through the model.

In hind sight, what I've learned is that the actual production level product was not in stock for me to test. The prototype level was, and it worked but what does that mean if that's not exactly what you’re selling? I actually asked him to test the 5 he sent out that were defective before he sent them. Alex said he didn't have time, and that should have been the warning light that something was wrong. The actual working units that were a part of the manufacturing run were not delivered to me so that I could personally test them. That was my error, I believed someone when they said they had it under control and they could deliver. Instead I should of said ship me your production run, we'll do one last test of all of them, I'll build up the money to make the production run of parts, then we'll take orders.

Now as far as how I treat people and what I tell them that is different from other businesses. People who get involved with me I treat them like friends. I don't believe in a business model like Walmart ever where you’re just another pain in the neck. One of the things that set me apart from other businesses is that I answer the phone on Saturday and Sunday. I answer my phone at 11PM when a customer has a problem. I don't have a list of how many dollars a conversation is worth to me either, and I try very hard to understand the customer’s needs and I openly recommend other companies products if I think that's what’s going to help them the most. When people ask why something happened I tell them how it is. You accused me of hording everyone's money and living fat off the hog when all I've been trying to do this entire time is to keep customers fiscally isolated from my own fiscal debacle. In the end I believe I have succeeded, because I really see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some feelings were hurt, but no one is going to go without a product or a refund. 2 Months ago, I couldn’t have told you I had the either the strength to make that happen, or the ability. Now, yes I can say that with great confidence.

I don't have time to read all that. But in the time it took you to write it (and the cumulative time you took to write your myriad excuses), you could have done some real work instead.

Well, I'm at school on a break. So I don't have access to my soldering equipment or wiring equipment. Therefore I thought I would do some customer relations. That's primarily for people who are still involved in the buy, not just you. It was work, one of the many things I have to do to own a business is give updates and assist with products. By the way it only took about a half hour. I respond to about 50 emails a day. Writing is pretty quick now a days.

I've been watching this whole thing closely as well, deciding not to jump on the original group buy since my car wasn't ready for the COP's yet anyway and I was happy to pay a few dollars more to wait for the product to get over any teething issues.

Travis, what do you expect the future for this product to be? I'm sure there are more people like me around who are happy to pay for a good product, but have been waiting until that product is proven. Do you expect to eventually carry this as a regular stocked item?

+1

Yes, that's the intended idea. When I'll completely unbury myself, I don't know, but its likely that when some new circuit boards arrive things will move even more quickly. I'm not at all happy with my V2.0 design, and the V3.0 design will have the capability to wire upto the Toyota COP system or the weapon-X system. One with drivers soldered on and one without going directly to the Toyota COPs. So there will be a diversification in products. The WeaponX system will go up in cost, and the Toyota COPs system will probably be in the low 300's with everything provided. That a way there are plug and play budget and full race solutions available.

Neither product will be sold or released until its on the shelf, and paid for though. So you might want to be prepared to wait a little while everything irons itself out or find an alternative solution.

bump,waiting for answer?

did you shipped already something?

A little off topic, but does this hiccup affect getting the new diode for the Adaptronic in anyway?

Anyone who has dealt with Travis knows he is one of the best vendors out there. He is very involved with the community he is helping develop.

"Anyone"...? You sure aren't speaking for me and the others who got jerked around with this COPS system.

Hello Virus,

Sorry about your delay on the answer. The dwell reduction has been yanked for simplicity and durability.

No, the diode modification is absolutely nothing compared to building a COP unit. It only takes a couple minutes to do and is very straightforward.

Best,
Travis

is it possible to usw the cop´s together with your dwell-reducer?

some other news? shipment to the netherlands and austria? :lockd:

So the COPS wont work with the factory ecu anymore?

My understanding is yes they will work but it may effect the long term reliability (the same way it does with Toyota cops without dwell reduction) but if you own an early NB you will be use to coil pack failures anyway so you will be no worse off

someone get his COPS already?
I am still waiting... :crx: