Important Information Re- Driver Hour Guard CE02 DHG

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

As most people are fully aware the Hour Guard Timer is closely associated with myself, unfortunately after the first batch of 1,000 timers arrived and went out to the customers who had them on advance order, 4 innacuracies were discovered in the software.

I have worked closely up until last Sunday with the software writer having these corrected, and I’m pleased to say that the test file I’ve been testing is now completed.

However, this brings me onto a down side :cry: :cry: :cry:

A Further 1,000 timers arrived last week and each one contains the same faults, I have asked DTS Ltd NOT to sell these until a new PCB has been fitted, however, despite my requests I’ve now been pushed out of the company and even locked out of the Tech Support Website by the Director of Driver Time Solutions Ltd :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

Basically it is my opinion that after a turbulent past 3 months which I will not go into other than saying its Financial Irreugularities, I decided to Part company with DTS Ltd with effect of 7th May as I felt I had fulfilled my obligation of completing the software and I was merely there for Technical support, and I was left with the impression the director intended selling the stock then liquidating the company, which would have resulted in customers being stuck with a faulty timer and no back up service.

Over the past 2 weeks things have really became bad and I finally had to contact North Yorkshire Trading Standards yesterday for advice, moreseo after recieving an email from the supplier, a friend of over 4 years, who supplied me with a letter he recieved attached to an e-mail from the Director saying he should have no further contact with me. :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

The Software has now been corrected, BUT, The PCB’s will not be in the UK until at least 3 to 4 weeks time,

I am making this public statement and respectfully hope the moderators will leave this in place as it does affect TNet members who have purchased the timer since Late Jan 2006, and moreso because I am personally associated with the timer and have no wish to see my reputation damaged because of somebody elses intentions to sell faulty goods.

Its a sad time for me to see the Hour Guard sold in this manner possibly damaging its reputation and the respect it has gained from the thousands of users over the past 5 years, but as one person said to me not so long ago, “Who made me the peoples Guardian” My answer is simple, Nobody has, but as a fellow truck driver I will not stand back and let anyone rip off fellow drivers knowingly, and I will endeavour to preserve my reputation at all costs.

If you own a CE02 Timer, please contact DTS for official confirmation of the date they intend replacing the PCB, as I have been told they will only be replacing the timers by contacting those who bothered to return their warranty card, now if I’m an example, I rarely return them :wink:

2

Bloody hell Davey,you’ve had some rotten luck over the last couple of years.

It’s mighty good of you to post what you’ve posted though,and with your permission,I would like to cut and paste it onto other sites,in order that it may get more coverage.

Ken.

3

Ken i will be more than happy to allow it to be posted, I’ve been [zb] on once to often mate.

I Did offer him the option of signing a free agreement guaranteeing that the sale of the timers would continue for 5 years but this has been refused by him, which strengthens my concerns. Moreso as he claims his solicitors say its not worth the paper its written on, if thats the case why not sign it anyway?

As I’m currently a Bankrupt, this is now being thrown in my face by the Director in a bid to shut me up, but I dont care who knows, at the end of the day I’d rather be an honest bankrupt than a dishonest bankrupt :wink: :wink:

4

Surely trading standards should stop them selling the product as it’s not fit for its purpose?

Why not send the company a letter of sorts with your suspicions about them going into liquidation after selling faulty stock.

If they do go into liquidation then they are surely committing a criminal offence as it was planned.

5

Would it not be possible for you to post the name of the company that makes the hourguards & PCBs, I dont want to send mine back if theirs a chance they may go into liquidation, and lose the lot. I could fit the PCB my self if i could get hold of it.I sent DTS an e-mail this morning to ask whats happening but as yet no reply, I can only think they must be knee deep in e-mails so are slow to respond.If you are leaving on May 7 Davey,could you not sugest to DTS to offer to send replacement PCBs out to customers if they are willing to fit their own.
Anyway this is a great product well done Davey & good luck.

6

At the end of the day I feel personally obliged to ensure that Drivers are not left in the Lurch, I would not see anyone who owns the CE02 stuck, obviously I deal with the Suppliers and would arrange for some pcb’s to be sent to the UK, the down side is that it needs to be paid for.

I have made Trading Standards aware of the situation and they confirm it would be illegal to sell these timers before they are corrected, my concern is an additional 1,000 timers hitting the market not the 1,000 already out there as I am accepting personal responsibility to ensure that they are rectified, the problem being, why should I let him leave me to pick up the bill out of my wages.

I’ve recieved an email from him today which I’ve responded to telling him to think long and hard before replying, and hopefully better news will be available tomorrow.

I just dont want people going out buying the CE02 unaware of whats going on at present
:cry:

7

Davey Driver:
If you own a CE02 Timer, please contact DTS for official confirmation of the date they intend replacing the PCB, as I have been told they will only be replacing the timers by contacting those who bothered to return their warranty card, now if I’m an example, I rarely return them :wink:

Doesnt matter if you have or havent, if the goods were faulty when they were sold the supplier is legally required to fix, replace then refund if it cant be fixed or replaced. All you need is proof of purchase.

8

Davey Driver:
they will only be replacing the timers by contacting those who bothered to return their warranty card, now if I’m an example, I rarely return them :wink:

luckily after the minor problem with the 1st CE02
I went to the trouble of returning said warrenty card

9

i new i should of brought a egg timer :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

10

cheers Davey. i copied it too

11

How long would it take to change the circuit board (start to finish)

12

depablo:
How long would it take to change the circuit board (start to finish)

15 Minutes Max 16 if you need an instruction leaflet to read to be told to remove the screws Lol

In all honesty its a doddle, the only thing you need to watch out for is the reset button rubber pad remaining in place whilst you put the casing back together.

13

Just curious

If anyone needs a hand fitting the PCB and is passing the Livingston area, give me a shout and I will fit it for you (foc).

Thats a lot of PCB’s, should keep folk busy for a few weeks :slight_smile:

14

Davey, how does the fault manifest itself? What is it’s nature? :question:

I’m asking because if some of the drivers’ hours is being incorrectly recorded, they need to know so they can allow for that when they are working out their time…and if not, they need reassurance that the product they are using will keep them legal. :bulb:

We need to talk, have an idea / cunning plan…give me a bell on the usual number either over the weekend or next week, mate. (on the vino tonight so good for nowt :blush: :blush: :blush: :wink: )

We’re still you’re friends and we’re still here. Call me. :wink:

15

Thanks Lucy but unfortunately I lost my Mobile on New Years eve which contained all the numbers, please text your number to me 07976399091

The Faults are as Follows:

  1. 6 hr period counts POA as well as Other Work and Drive, therefore incorrectly advises 30 minute break is due

  2. After split shift rest of 2hrs 45 mins during day, timer still makes you take 9 hrs rest before allowing you to end daily rest.

  3. Driving period from last day of previous week is carrying over to following week, so if you drove for 5 hrs Friday, when you start Monday it shows weekly drive as 5 hrs

  4. POA for Mon carries over to Tues, Tues adds to Wed, Wed adds to Thurs etc, so instead of giving daily total its giving weekly total resulting in shift being stretched into an excess of 16 hrs in the data download.

A Low battery warning and Charging Indicator has been included in the re-write

These are silly errors but, basically are faults which have now been rectified and as such all timers need correcting, that is my main concern.

I’ve decided the best thing to do is to walk away from DTS regardless, a Proposal was put to him at Tea Time today asking for everything to be resolved today (I could not connect to the internet all day) till he contacted Orange to reinstate the Data Pack service after he decided to cancel that yesterday :unamused: :unamused: :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

He has assured me that he is going to be keeping DTS going, and all timers will have the PCB’s repaired by him or an Agent, we now just need to thrash out the finer details of my departure from DTS.

At this point all of my cards will be held close to my Chest :wink: :wink:

All problems can be viewed at www.dts-limited.co.uk/forums

Please feel free to ask questions and see what answers you get with regards to advice about the timers, it will be interesting to see what answers users are given :wink: :wink:

16

I bought one of the new timers.But after reading on here they are not working properly i havnt used it,as i thought i could send it back and get an updated version when they arrived.

So what do i do with it now.I’ll be no good at fitting the part that needs updating,it’ll just end up in bits.

If anbody wants to buy it off me just let me know.its virtually unused and ive got all the stuff that it came with and box.all in as new condition.

If not any advice to get it working properly.

cheers

tony b

17

depablo:
Surely trading standards should stop them selling the product as it’s not fit for its purpose?

Bill gates has done that for years …

Bad news with the times and the story behind it …
Good luck for the future anyway .

18

tonyb…:
I bought one of the new timers.But after reading on here they are not working properly i havnt used it,as i thought i could send it back and get an updated version when they arrived.

So what do i do with it now.I’ll be no good at fitting the part that needs updating,it’ll just end up in bits.

If anbody wants to buy it off me just let me know.its virtually unused and ive got all the stuff that it came with and box.all in as new condition.

If not any advice to get it working properly.

cheers

tony b

Tony I can only sincerely apologise, however, DTS are adamant they are replacing the PCB’s and as far as I can gather he is having to employ somebody to do it on his behalf.

Fitting the PCB is honestly very straight forward, as long as you are aware of the pads on the base of the buttons and line them up correctly, remembering that there is a one on the rear of the PCB for the Reset button.

The complicated bit is the testing of the PCB and the EEPROM if they simply stick a battery in and the screen fires up it does not mean everything is okay, there is a button press sequence which tests the eeprom and states specifically eeprom ok or eeprom fail, then of course there is testing that the buttons work ok and that the software is glich free, if you dont know how to work the timer how do you know if its ok?.

DTS had the 1,000 faulty timers collected today so no doubt they will probably be in the shops next week :unamused:

19

Davey Driver:
2) After split shift rest of 2hrs 45 mins during day, timer still makes you take 9 hrs rest before allowing you to end daily rest.:

Typo in there Davey? Should that not read 3hrs 45mins. 2hrs 45 mins would indeed need a 9 hour rest.

20

Davey Driver:

tonyb…:
I bought one of the new timers.But after reading on here they are not working properly i havnt used it,as i thought i could send it back and get an updated version when they arrived.

So what do i do with it now.I’ll be no good at fitting the part that needs updating,it’ll just end up in bits.

If anbody wants to buy it off me just let me know.its virtually unused and ive got all the stuff that it came with and box.all in as new condition.

If not any advice to get it working properly.

cheers

tony b

Hi Davey.

I know mine is one of the faulty ones.When i first had it.I was doing a bit of poa,So i did some driving and work.Then had it on poa.But after 6 hours it beeped saying that i needed a break.Which i thought was strage.as poa shouldnt keep the shift time ticking away.

Also i presume it was one of the first batch,as ive had timers off you before,and i had been contacted by later saying that i could buy one of the new timers once they had arrived.

I’m sorry to hear about the way that you have been treated.
My original timer is still in good use.And because its rare we do any poa.I havnt much need for the new style timer anyway.

Cheers

Tony b