Unsuspecting security camera
) deviation from the spectrum analyzer posts, I’ve spent a little time working on repairing a security camera I’ve been hanging onto for a while. I’ve been toying with the idea of installing it near the radio control flying field as someone in the club knows the owner of a nearby business.
IF Amplifier cooling down
I’ve decided to hold off posting spectrum analyzer modules until they’re complete. I’ve been collecting tons of pictures along the way, so hopefully the post for each module will be interesting and visually appealing. With that in mind, I can’t post about any of the modules with the exception of this one. Read more…
IMPORTANT!! – I’ve made a special page for my construction and testing of the spectrum analyzer. It’s available on the navigation bar below the blog title banner, or here.
A while back I bought a spectrum analyzer kit. It can display waveforms in the frequency domain from 0 to 1000 Mhz. I haven’t worked on it for a while, but I’ve decided to start working on it again. If you’re interested in more information, there is a webpage for the analyzer by the guy who designed it, and there’s a Yahoo group, also. If you’re really-really interested there is a group buy open (until the 28th of march 2010) here. Anyway, I’m sure it’s of limited use to my usual readers (thanks, friends & family! [oh who am I kidding, most of my family doesn't read this ]), but it may be useful to others working on the kit. I’ll post the “annotated” CAD images for each board here, and add images of the completed boards when I finish them. Who knows, it may be interesting for someone. Also, I’ll include my thoughts and observations while building these boards. Finally, not all the boards that come with the kit include annotated layouts, so I’ll have to dig around and figure out what they do and what to put on them Read more…
Comparing antennas
I’ve finished building the first (and my first) Yagi antenna for the Kadet video downlink. I mentioned in the first video post that a new, and better, antenna would help greatly. Read more…
I’ve been developing a RF transceiver for use with my Kadet. I really like these Micrel RadioWire modules, but they basically must be reflow soldered. They’re also about $16/ea. in single unit quantities, so I want to make sure that the carrier PCB works before I solder on the module (I’ve made that mistake already!). With that in mind, I had to figure out how to solder the module on after all the other components were installed. This means hand soldering. Looking on the datasheet, they say that it can be done, using solder paste. So, here’s documentation of my attempt.
PCB ready for module
I find myself posting something someone else did again. I found this via Hack-a-Day, and it is an astonishingly well-done documentary about the culture that I value, and for which this blog is related. Enjoy.
I added a serial port to my wireless router so it could monitor the weather. I know, why does a router care what the weather is like? Well, it doesn’t, but I do. Actually, I want to add a weather widget to this blog and also upload it to weather underground (not the one with Bill Ayers ). << Correction! I’ve finished the weather station, and I’m not using the netgear router or weather underground. See this post for details. >> I haven’t finished any of that yet, but it came in handy later when I bricked it!
Read more…
Soldering Surface Mount Devices (SMD) can be challenging work, especially with the no-lead (legs, not pb) parts that are so popular with device manufactures these days. A useful and surprisingly easy solution is “Reflow” soldering. Reflow is when you use a paste of solder to hold down parts while the board is heated in an oven. During heating, the solder melts and surface tension makes the parts align themselves in a much more uniform way than is possible with an iron. I’ve got more information about the toaster here, including a controller I made for it.