Hey all,

Anyone working on any projects lately? I'm thinking of ordering a kit, maybe a power supply or a amplfier/radio to put together. Winter is coming right, so we have to be prepared with keeping busy :)

|15/)|07arkman|15 /\|07lmighty|15
|11"No matter where you go, there you are..."

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/08/19 (Windows/32)
* Origin: USS Excelsior BBS * excelsiorbbs.ddns.net:2000 (316:36/53)

Re: projects
By: DarkmanAlmighty to All on Tue Sep 21 2021 09:10 pm

Anyone working on any projects lately? I'm thinking of ordering a kit, maybe a power supply or a amplfier/radio to put together. Winter is coming right, so we have to be prepared with keeping busy :)

I'm thinking about building a small azimuth/elevation (and possibly polarization) rotor for working satellites. There are some options using the arduino, and some options using just parts and custom printed circuit boards.

It'll be my first real electronics project in 20 years (other than building computers)

DaiTengu

... What's the speed of dark?
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On 22 Sep 2021, DaiTengu said the following...

Re: projects
By: DarkmanAlmighty to All on Tue Sep 21 2021 09:10 pm

Anyone working on any projects lately? I'm thinking of ordering a kit maybe a power supply or a amplfier/radio to put together. Winter is c right, so we have to be prepared with keeping busy :)

I'm thinking about building a small azimuth/elevation (and possibly polarization) rotor for working satellites. There are some options
using the arduino, and some options using just parts and custom printed circuit boards.

Hey that sounds pretty cool. Just a guess, would you be using a stepper motor you think? Yeah, I'd say arduino good call. Raspberry pi has a version of that too that probably work.

It'll be my first real electronics project in 20 years (other than building computers)

I've heard of services that let you design the board online and they print off the PCB. Pretty cool. I always wanted to do that. I remember doing that in high school (forget the program) and the graphix dept would make a negative and then we throw it on the UV sensitive PSB and do the etching thing. Quite the process.

I too haven't had any electronics projects in years. I did get a 4 channel relay board for use with the raspberry pi. Was thinking of getting into some automation. Got me thinking now.

|15/)|07arkman|15 /\|07lmighty|15
|11"No matter where you go, there you are..."

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/08/19 (Windows/32)
* Origin: USS Excelsior BBS * excelsiorbbs.ddns.net:2000 (316:36/53)

Re: Re: projects
By: DarkmanAlmighty to DaiTengu on Thu Sep 23 2021 06:51 pm

I'm thinking about building a small azimuth/elevation (and possibly
polarization) rotor for working satellites. There are some options
using the arduino, and some options using just parts and custom
printed circuit boards.

Hey that sounds pretty cool. Just a guess, would you be using a stepper motor you think? Yeah, I'd say arduino good call. Raspberry pi has a version of that too that probably work.

Yeah, 2 stepper motors. If I can find the right diagrams, I may be able to 3d print the enclosure and the gears for it.

It'll be my first real electronics project in 20 years (other than
building computers)

I've heard of services that let you design the board online and they print off the PCB. Pretty cool. I always wanted to do that. I remember doing that in high school (forget the program) and the graphix dept would make a negative and then we throw it on the UV sensitive PSB and do the etching thing. Quite the process.

Yep, there's a few out there, but they usually require you buy 5 copies of the board. Fortunately there' not super expensive, https://oshpark.com is as cheap as $5 per square inch for 3 copies, or $10 per square inch for 4-6 layer boards.

DaiTengu

... Civil engineers do it behind schedule
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* Origin: War Ensemble - warensemble.com - Appleton, WI (1:154/30)

On 21 Sep 2021, DarkmanAlmighty said the following...

Hey all,

Anyone working on any projects lately? I'm thinking of ordering a kit, maybe a power supply or a amplfier/radio to put together. Winter is
coming right, so we have to be prepared with keeping busy :)

I have always meant to take the time to try to learn a bit of electronics,
but like so many other things life gets in the way, being slack, etc. :)
That being said I always enjoy hearing about what types of projects others
are involved in. Have you (or anyone else out there) ever built a computer from a bare board kit?

I always find ham shack pictures interesting as well, especially the folks
with limited space. It never ceases to amaze me how someone can fit their
gear around a water heater, etc. It's like model railroad layouts built wherever there is space. It's amazing how creative people can get with
limited space.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (316:36/40)

I have always meant to take the time to try to learn a bit of
electronics, but like so many other things life gets in the way, being slack, etc. :) That being said I always enjoy hearing about what types of projects others are involved in. Have you (or anyone else out there) ever built a computer from a bare board kit?

Yes, I hear that... always an interest to me but yeah other things get in the way. Actually, funny you should mention. So last year, I bought some test equipment and was all set to learn and diagnose broken Commodore 64s. Didn't get around to it. I did start but will probably revisit that this coming fall/winter time. My aim is to understand the basics of what chip does and identify some issues. I have a board where I narrowed down to 3 chips, of which I will have to see about ordering replacements. Not that I need another working computer but.. it's learning right.

I have not built a computer from a bare board kit. I know that there is a someone that manufactures Commodore boards, just add chips and parts kinda thing which sounds interesting to do.

I always find ham shack pictures interesting as well, especially the
folks with limited space. It never ceases to amaze me how someone can
fit their gear around a water heater, etc. It's like model railroad layouts built wherever there is space. It's amazing how creative people can get with limited space.

I've seen a few pics. Really crammed in thats for sure. And yes, model railroads. Good use of space. I suppose when your that passionate, you really go all in.

|15/)|07arkman|15 /\|07lmighty|15
|11"No matter where you go, there you are..."

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/08/19 (Windows/32)
* Origin: USS Excelsior BBS * excelsiorbbs.ddns.net:2000 (316:36/53)

Re: projects
By: DarkmanAlmighty to All on Tue Sep 21 2021 09:10 pm

Anyone working on any projects lately? I'm thinking of ordering a kit, maybe a power supply or a amplfier/radio to put together. Winter is coming right, so we have to be prepared with keeping busy :)

Recently I bought a Raspberry Pi 4, and I found out about Zynthian, an open-source music synthesizer project that runs on Raspberry Pi. I bought one of their hardware kits and put it together with the Raspberry Pi:
https://www.zynthian.org
And installing the software was easy too. It's a pretty cool synthesizer module.

Nightfox
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On 18 May 2022, Nightfox said the following...

Re: projects
By: DarkmanAlmighty to All on Tue Sep 21 2021 09:10 pm

Anyone working on any projects lately? I'm thinking of ordering a kit maybe a power supply or a amplfier/radio to put together. Winter is c right, so we have to be prepared with keeping busy :)

Recently I bought a Raspberry Pi 4, and I found out about Zynthian, an open-source music synthesizer project that runs on Raspberry Pi. I
bought one of their hardware kits and put it together with the
Raspberry Pi: https://www.zynthian.org
And installing the software was easy too. It's a pretty cool
synthesizer module.

Nightfox

That's great! How do you like it so far.. I finally decided on a kit then I had to wait to get it. I now have a Pi Pico that I'm learning with. The kit comes with 14 projects, I'm about halfway now.

The ultimate goal is to set up an automated growing greenhouse. I need to have it in place for February to start growing some tomatoes and cucumber seeds. Thinking to have a soil moisture monitor with a pump for water and a light.

|15/)|07arkman|15 /\|07lmighty|15
|11"No matter where you go, there you are..."

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/08/19 (Windows/32)
* Origin: USS Excelsior BBS * excelsiorbbs.ddns.net:2000 (316:36/53)

Re: Re: projects
By: DarkmanAlmighty to Nightfox on Thu Nov 03 2022 07:41 am

Recently I bought a Raspberry Pi 4, and I found out about Zynthian,
an open-source music synthesizer project that runs on Raspberry Pi.
I bought one of their hardware kits and put it together with the
Raspberry Pi: https://www.zynthian.org

That's great! How do you like it so far.. I finally decided on a kit then

It's pretty cool. I haven't played with it much yet, but so far I think it's pretty fun.

I had to wait to get it. I now have a Pi Pico that I'm learning with. The kit comes with 14 projects, I'm about halfway now.

The ultimate goal is to set up an automated growing greenhouse. I need to have it in place for February to start growing some tomatoes and cucumber seeds. Thinking to have a soil moisture monitor with a pump for water and a light.

That sounds cool. I just started growing some tomato plants a few weeks ago, but that's all I have as far as that. :)

Nightfox
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