BTstim

[phoopha]

Has anyone had any success to getting messages answered when emailing BTstim?

I have sent a couple of messages, enquiring about the BTstim Elite, but not had any response from them. It's starting to make me wonder whether they're worth bothering with if they don't seem to respond to emails.

[throwawayacct]

The site is run by one dude, and he's the same one building/finishing stim units. He also travels to conventions and the like, has a long term health issue IIRC, and is the default webmaster for socialstim.org since the other one is AWOL. Dude's also in his 60's and you can expect isn't too quick with emails.

Patience is key, but if you're just asking something that can be found in various forum discussions, he's probably put you at the bottom of the pile.

What do you need to know? I have an older BTStim unit and have done some repairs/replacements on it.

[ostermanblue2]

The site is run by one dude, and he's the same one building/finishing stim units. He also travels to conventions and the like, has a long term health issue IIRC, and is the default webmaster for socialstim.org since the other one is AWOL. Dude's also in his 60's and you can expect isn't too quick with emails.

Patience is key, but if you're just asking something that can be found in various forum discussions, he's probably put you at the bottom of the pile.

What do you need to know? I have an older BTStim unit and have done some repairs/replacements on it.

Err not OP but since you say you've done repairs on these, maybe I can ask for your help then? I've emailed the BTStim dude about this, but so far no reply.

The little nut that holds one of the aux cable inlets popped off on my second or third use of the device. I tried fishing it out with tweezers and reattaching, but it won't stay on. The cord seems to be stretched to the max because it always slips back inside too. My workaround is to have made that inlet the permanent home of a 4mm to 8mm adapter and use a 4mm jack on the one side, but that's obviously less than ideal. Any clues/ideas for how to fix this?

20200307_200702.jpg (290.27 KiB) Viewed 1780 times

20200307_200720.jpg (349.89 KiB) Viewed 1780 times

[phoopha]

The site is run by one dude, and he's the same one building/finishing stim units. He also travels to conventions and the like, has a long term health issue IIRC, and is the default webmaster for socialstim.org since the other one is AWOL. Dude's also in his 60's and you can expect isn't too quick with emails.

Patience is key, but if you're just asking something that can be found in various forum discussions, he's probably put you at the bottom of the pile.

What do you need to know? I have an older BTStim unit and have done some repairs/replacements on it.

Hmm.... If it's essentially a one man operation that would suggest customer support isn't like to be too great, especially if he's building the units, etc...

I was trying to find out if they had a UK retailer/supplier, as I was considering the BTstim Elite. However, now I'm wondering whether I might be better getting the ET312B?

[throwawayacct]

The site is run by one dude, and he's the same one building/finishing stim units. He also travels to conventions and the like, has a long term health issue IIRC, and is the default webmaster for socialstim.org since the other one is AWOL. Dude's also in his 60's and you can expect isn't too quick with emails.

Patience is key, but if you're just asking something that can be found in various forum discussions, he's probably put you at the bottom of the pile.

What do you need to know? I have an older BTStim unit and have done some repairs/replacements on it.

Err not OP but since you say you've done repairs on these, maybe I can ask for your help then? I've emailed the BTStim dude about this, but so far no reply.

The little nut that holds one of the aux cable inlets popped off on my second or third use of the device. I tried fishing it out with tweezers and reattaching, but it won't stay on. The cord seems to be stretched to the max because it always slips back inside too. My workaround is to have made that inlet the permanent home of a 4mm to 8mm adapter and use a 4mm jack on the one side, but that's obviously less than ideal. Any clues/ideas for how to fix this?

20200307_200702.jpg
20200307_200720.jpg

Oof, that looks like the retainer nut for the 3.5mm aux out, yes? On the bottom of the unit, use a tiny flathead screwdriver and pull the rubber "plugs" in the feet. The front 2 legs/feet will just gently twist and pull out. Underneath these 4 points you'll see a #1 Philips head screw...that holds the whole thing together.

Inside, there are some boards with various components on them, just make sure to keep them lined up properly when you put everything back...it's a pain. If the piece that the retaining ring is supposed to hold, is stripped or broken, then try sourcing it online somewhere and get handy with a soldering iron, should only be a few bucks for a new part. Otherwise, if it's not stripped, chances are it just worked loose over time, so reassemble and try again. Loctite blue is handy stuff.

My issue was first the knobs went to shit promptly, and when it was getting shipped back/forth for repair, one of the rivets holding a transformer part, popped loose and left it rattling around. So I decided I was pretty much DIY from that point on since it wasn't worth shipping around. The aux-in cable wore through the insulation from where it came out the back, and the pin itself lost an insulator ring - so I replaced that too.

[Stimmer0815]

Has anyone had any success to getting messages answered when emailing BTstim?

I have sent a couple of messages, enquiring about the BTstim Elite, but not had any response from them. It's starting to make me wonder whether they're worth bothering with if they don't seem to respond to emails.

I tried to order an BT-Stim Elite in March 2020.
I send a lot of E-Mails and tried to get contact to BigTip, but i got no response.
Luckily i paid with PayPal and could open a new case. So i got my money back in the end because he also did not respond to Payapal.

But now i am wondering if this is because of Corona or other cases. It is not Ok to run the website, make people pay an very high amount for his devices and and then you dont get response and you dont get your device....
If i had not paid with Paypal 450€ are gone.

[Electro]

If I had an order in with Paypal or my credit card, I'd get in contact with the company and ask for reversing the charges due to not receiving your order, getting no updates or responses to request for order status from the seller.

To summarize, BigTip is very sick, but it's not Coronavirus. There is more information on Socialstim from someone who knows him, but for privacy I'm not about to put more information here than that.

[throwawayacct]

If I had an order in with Paypal or my credit card, I'd get in contact with the company and ask for reversing the charges due to not receiving your order, getting no updates or responses to request for order status from the seller.

To summarize, BigTip is very sick, but it's not Coronavirus. There is more information on Socialstim from someone who knows him, but for privacy I'm not about to put more information here than that.

One of the last projects he was working on IIRC was to outsource box production so he wouldn't be the bottleneck and be able to meet demand. But that was last Fall. Knowing what I know about finding qualified production facilities and having to get things to standards, it takes a hell of a lot more than a few phone calls and emails - I would bet the whole thing is on hold for quite some time.