Some more silly projects

[Jack Crow]

Hi all,
Was off line for a while with a failed hot end.
The people at PBHQ were happy to take my money and promptly ship me out a new Ubis 13 S
It went in just fine.

I am real pleased with the way it's working.
Heats up quick and so far has been amazingly consistent.

Upon further reading, it seems a fan cooling system is recommended.
Got one design from 'Thingverse' and discovered it needed a 30mm fan.
Did not have one.

Was able to get a 25mm fan from the office and worked out this housing using the dud hot end as a model.
It should fit behind the hot end blowing forward and still leave plenty of room for the original fan nozzle and position sensor.
Going to try and 'scarf up' some solid state light (LED) assemblies from the office and get them mounted as well for some down looking light.

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It uses 2-56 screws and when it tight up to the printed housing, moves a surprising amount of air.
Will install it onto the printer this weekend.

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Enough of that.

This project is a follow on to the other boxes made for things on the work bench.
One of my projects of the past is to make what we in ham radio call APRS radios.
To simplify, it's a way of combining GPS data, and VHF radio.
The effect is a fairly good and inexpensive form of vehicle tracking.
I don't know if I can post links to this web site. If you look up http://www.aprs.fi and work the map to your area, perhaps you will see some operators near by.
If you punch in KA2ZEV-8 that is the unique call sign for my car. I don't get around much.

The mobile stations for the most part just transmit data.
The base units receive the data transmissions and foward them on to people like APRS.fi for the rest of us to use.

Like printing, there are a bunch of little adjustments, some radio tweeks, some data adjustments, to make the new system work it's best.
I need to use my service monitor to generate the signals in a controlled way, and simulate the data packets, this blue Byonics box sends genuine packets to the signal generator.

The prior mounting was velcro and foam tape, so this is a vast improvement.
It's rugged, very sturdy, and is mounted to the wooden plank with two hefty screws.
It is not going anyplace.

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Last item.
Some time back I posted about these multi color light things.
A modern 'do nothing box'.
Ive taken to calling them pucks lately.

My DDS has a professional interest in 3d printing since it's replacing a lot of prior expensive hand labor making replacement teeth.

So I brought the light along to this mornings appointment.
He liked it so much he wants one for his kid's room.
A worthy project.

Right now I am printing a 100mm puck that will hold 21 of these multi color LED.
There is a top printed in a semi transparent plastic, with the LED's.
A base that feeds the power wire into the housing.
Printed the base in black, and now working on the top part of the puck.
Will post some photos before it's delivered.

Using the small sample unit in my bathroom as a night light.
It's weird but soothing.
Hard to describe.
Easy to look at.

That is the news from Virginia Beach.
Hope your all well.
Jack Crow aka Radio Mike

[Mooselake]

The local club has an APRS digipeater on top of my barn, but it's too far out to show up on aprs.fi very often.

Kirk

[Jack Crow]

Kirk
Ain't that slick.
Been using APRS since I got back from the mid east.
Had a small business going building dedicated aprs radios from commercial sets, mostly midland SY1's and XTR's.
Shoot me an email and I can send you some photo article links on how it's done.

All kinds of stories.

Hope it helps.
Jack Crow aka Radio Mike

[Mooselake]

After 12 years the mobile still isn't connected to the NMO mount installed right after purchasing the 2006 Vibe. Don't want to rush into these things.

The power supply, TNC, and radio are sitting upstairs on the barn floor, with a plastic garbage can to keep the cats off it them, connected to a ringo ranger on the roof

DigipeaterAntenna.png

[Jack Crow]

Kirk,
Life keeps us from our projects.
Most of us have about 30 more useful things we can do before we get to the things we want.
It's a fact of life we missed hearing about in high school.

Made a command decision some years ago to say 'screw it' and have some fun no matter what the world expects from me.

Anyhow, your photo looks like fun. I could adapt to country life real well if offered the chance.

This weekends projects.
Have a major job interview coming up.
I need to make more money, working where Im at is not the path to a thick checkbook.
Professional organ donation is a diminishing returns kind of thing.
Tired of the internal echos.

Need to fix the programming of the ham radios in my car.
I run converted commercial since it's cheap and highly rugged.
These are all 'trunk mount' radios, so it's a simple matter of pulling the 'drawers' and bringing them into the shop.

Have an extra control head on the desk and can spot check them with the service monitor while Im at it.
Have Midland XTR's on 2 and UHF. Have a Syntech 1 on either 6 or 10m FM

Need to update their programs as well.
After they have been 'off' for a while they forget the last channel used.

So I usually set it to 52 or 52.525mhz.
(My little trick is when possible have the channel number relate to the frequency some how. Takes up less gray matter keeping it all straight.)
When the radio resets, it comes back on to the lowest channel number.
Then I have to manually change the channel back to 52.
Pain in the buns.
So these radios are going to have a duplicate channel in them.
So on channel 00, it will also be 52.525 and on the 10FM 00 will be 29.60mhz as well as channel 60.
No more bumping the selector each time I start the car.

Just for clarity I can plug in one radio only.
So it's either a 6m or if I change out the draw, it can be a 10M radio.
I lack the know how to get two radios to share one control head. These may have been too old for that.
)
10FM in the car is fun when the band is open.

Just a heads up, did you know there are some 'farm only' channels at the bottom end of VHF Low Band?
31 or 33mhz that if licenced you can use nationally. Might come in handy for the business.
A bud had some in Texas.

Hope it helps.
Jack Crow in Virginia Beach.

[Mooselake]

Despite knowing everything we're really not ready for the important facts of life in high school

We're giving away the last farm animal tomorrow, our horse, to a family with several kids and other equines, with visitation rights. We're going to walk her the 7 or 8 miles from here to there - she's only been ridden a few times in the last 8 years. Didn't even make hay this year, for the first time in 30 years, although it's on next years schedule. Converting half the barn to a wood/CNC shop, the half on the antenna side, still carrying out the very poor shape old concrete floor in a drywall bucket (think google fit underestimates the calories consumed The garage-like addition is the equipment/metal shop currently packed full of stuff, and the next excavation, to be followed by the Fiero Renovation Project. For grins studing aircrete - cement, dishwashing soap, and cement - could be just the thing for the CNC concrete printer although leaning more towards the same drywall bucket and related mixing drill attachment. Gosh, wonder why things don't seem to get done

Kirk