Project 444...

M0RVB April 13, 2019

...the slowly ongoing saga. Typical. I wired up the 50-way D connector and connected it all up and ... nothing. On checking voltages half was missing, i.e. -80 was there but no +80. The barretter was open circuit on one side. Huh.

A new barretter arrived via eBay and so I now have the PSU fully working. A quick check of the 444 showed it to be no better than before, which I'd expected but I really wanted the correct power supply to verify that. So I connected up the TDMS to send data to the 444 and with the keys set to SMSMS it reliably prints Y - pity that should be R! Fiddling with switch combinations is equally confusing.

So, progress, of sorts. However, the TDMS itself needs work yet because the circular trace is far from a circle, or indeed not even close to anything which might be imagined to be circular.

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M0RVB October 5, 2023

Yet another project...

Note to self... stop collecting bits for projects and start building instead! Just in, this PCB and chip for the TARPN NinoTNC. Described as a multi-speed, multi-protocol USB-KISS packet radio interface this comes as a very nicely made PCB and PIC plus a bill of parts complete with Mouser part numbers and a spreadsheet that loads into Mouser to make a complete order. This will be a fun build. The TARPN website also has full ordering and step by step construction details. Neat!

M0RVB June 29, 2022

Projects...

I seem to have a lot of stalled projects currently. And then I got a kit of parts to build another Minitiouner... so I did that, and still have the same number of stalled projects! Oh well... The build went as well as the first one I constructed, very easy to put together and test. When connected to the Windows PC the test software all runs fine. This will go into the box I had for the previous Minitiouner the board of which is now inside the (stalled!) Portsdown.

M0RVB March 14, 2022

Projects, projects...

So, my projects remain stalled... no idea where the time goes! I seem to be amassing bits for projects but they are just piling up. Thus far the Portsdown is still needing filters and PAs. I have a VLNA for 23cm to build. I need to move the QO100 dish from the back of the garage onto the house wall so I can mount a PA and transverter setup close enough to the shack to be able to use a transceiver, and finally get onto the wideband transverter using the Portsdown. I have dishes for higher microwave bands, a 10GHz SSPA, a 2.4GHz PA and more microwave bits coming soon including a bandpass filter for 23cm and some microwave relays. Now the weather is improving hopefully I can make some progress. I need to get a mobile tower so I can do various pointing around the house (surprisingly I am actually qualified to build these things!) which will make it easier to move the QO100 dish as well as finally getting some antennas outside. But house DIY comes first, all else is secondary... Check back this time in, umm, maybe 2025!