LVB Tracker countdown to Hamvention

Yes, I've been away from the blog for a couple weeks. AND AWAY FROM THE LVBTRACKER BUILDING PROJECT TOO! Which is BAD. There is less than a month till the Dayton Hamvention and need to build at least 40 trackers by then and probably 50.... THAT WILL BE TOUGH. It's amazing how time flies.

Of all the parts used in the construction of the LVB Tracker two I need to build, the lcd cable and the push buttom assembly. First the LCD cable that connects the lcd display to the pcb. This is most tedious because 12 wires need to be cut to different lengths, stripped and idc connectors crimped to each end of the wire. Then they need to be inserted into the connector shells. The last part is easy, fun and doesn't take too long... the hardest part being done first.
I thought I had enough parts to build 90 cables but ran out of wire. Then did some quick math and determined I was about 2000 crimp connectors short. Ordered wire and connectors early last week. The connectors were here fast from Digikey but the wire will not arrive till Monday or Tuesday. I still will build 90 assemblies which will meet our build requirement hopefully till the end of the year. Second, the button assembly. Only one wire is a pain to cut and strip. The remaining 4 are easy. I will also try to build 90 now but in an effort not to fall too far behind in filling current orders I might build 10 or so but will fight that urge depending on how well I can stay in the building groove.





lcd cable assy-->











<---button assy


Now I realize there is probably a different (perhaps better) way of doing probably the lcd cable but whatever you do unless one can be purchased off shelf (that won't make the project look like crap) it will still take a considerable amount of messing around either soldering the wires into perhaps the pcb or the lcd display itself. It's just the messiest part of the project and I would like to get it out of the way now.


Another thing that messed me up this past week was the need to ship out new pics. We're having a problem where the eeprom in the pic gets scrambled. The eeprom stores the calibration settings for the rotor that is connected to the tracker. An un-calibrated tracker is useless so the user needs to either leave the power on so the calibration stays intact or re-calibrate every time the tracker-rotor is power on. We found out several users just left their trackers on. But a few have asked for help with the problem and sending a new programed pics seems to solve the problem. Gould, WA4SXM has looked at the code and after Dayton will have time to work with a compiler. Unfortunately the problem seems to be random and I have not been able to duplicate the problem on the bench. I have seen the problem in production but it's one in every 10-20 pics so it will be a tough bug to catch.



So Monday evening the project was to get the pics programed to ship out. Couldn't find the power distibution box I use to power tracker boards when I flash the pics. Looked for hours. I had just seen it on the bench and it was gone. Before I found it or enough parts to make another, I fell asleep in front of the pc.... That happens a lot both at home and at work. Tuesday I was looking for parts. Most all of the parts I use for power cables were gone. Need to order more. Wednesday... I think I kept falling asleep trying to unload recorded programs on the DVR so I gave up and when to bed. Thursday I found the stuff I needed but took almost an hour to get one pic programmed. Picprog couldn't see the processor. I couldn't get hyperterminal (sucky comm program anyway) to help me prove I had the correct serial cable. It was like the force was against me getting these pics programmed. Found out I had the max232 plugged in backwards. Plugged in another and got one pic programmed but fell asleep in front of the pc trying to get thru about 300 emails. Friday I got all the pics programed and figured I'd go to the post office Saturday morning and get some shipping envelopes to ship them in. Well we ended up spending 2-3 hours at breakfast and I never made it to the post office. SO.... I'm going to take the path of least resistance and just put them in the smallest priority shipping box I have, get the shipping online and just drop the packages off at the post office Monday morning. So with all that I lost the week. It just sucks to be so disorganized and tired. Don't know how I'm gonna get 50 build by Dayton. Maybe we will go on strike and I'll have some unexpected time but no money to goto Dayton. NOT! I'll go on plastic....



One bit of GREAT NEWS. When this whole LVB Tracker saga started just before Dayton Hamvention 2007 I took my 2meter/440 klm beams down because I needed my G5400 rotor for a live display of the lvb tracker boards we were selling at Dayton. At that time I should have just bought a new G5500 rotor for the display. I thought about doing that but something about 600 bucks got in the way. I really should have done that cause the antennas have been down for almost 2 years. I missed the possiblity of working Richard Garriot, Mike Fincke and Charles Simonyi. But again... the GOOD NEWS IS I GOT MY ANTENNAS BACK UP LAST WEEKEND. And have been listening in on AO-51 passes. Still need to get the operating area cleaned up so I can set up the computer I use (mac mini/MacDoppler) set up to run the radio and antennas. Manual antenna tuning is not fun (to me) and the computer does a much better job running the ts-2000(plus it's fun to watch). And I want to also get familiar with using SatPC32 for automatic operations.


Another bit of GREAT NEWS.... I WENT FLYING ON SATURDAY ! ! ! ! Second time this year I had the plane out. Avgas is still almost 4 bucks a gallon. That's almost 40 bucks an hour for fuel while flying. Takes the top off the fun. Anyway, the annual inspection was completed and I needed to do a test flight. This weekends weather forecast indicated rain for Sunday and Monday. Saturday the weather was great so I decided to be a responsible pilot/owner and get out the airport and 'get'r done'. So out at the airport I had some things to unload from the truck... things that needed stored in the hanger... and guess what!... there were two L-band and S-band antennas just waiting to be taken home and installed. So they were loaded into the truck along with a box of RG-6 for the L-Band down converter output. While doing that Tim taxied up to the next door hanger in his Cozy http://www.cozyaircraft.com/gallery.html Haven't seen him since last fall. It's funny how no matter how nice the weather is at home it's always worse at the airport. At least the winds...
While at the run-up pad at the end or runway 19 I was watching several Kent State planes landing. They were getting their butts kicked by the crosswind. One of the pilots did a go-around and I thought he was going to buy the farm. His upwind wing was awefully low to the ground and the nose got uncomfortably high... hanging it all on the prop. It's amazing how well the Cessna will fly. But he kept it all going and did much better on the second landing. I was beginning to wonder if I should be trying to fly with the crosswind this strong. I fly a taildragger which can be a handfull in a crosswind. The crosswind didn't seem to be that bad... I had seen and flown in worse. Course I've had about 40 minutes flying since the trip to Oshkosh last July flying once last January. But I have always done well after long bouts without flying. When Sue was sick I didn't fly for a 2 years. Did my BFR in a Skyhawk (tricycle gear) and then a few months later jumped in my '170 (conventional gear-all I've flown in the last 28 years) and did real good... felt real comfortable. So I tried not to let the situation scare me or rouine my confidence (hopefully not over-confidence) and just do all the things needed to do for a crosswind takeoff and give it a go. Well... I think the taildragger has so much going for it.... There was no problem with the ground run on the runway. The plane wasn't too difficult to keep on the center line of the runway. Didn't require too much upwind wing down control and you don't want to bury the wing either... I've seen too many pilots (from Kent State) just use, in my opinion, too much upwind wing down forces in a crosswind. Seems like they don't get a feel to use what is necessary to keep things under control.... Anyway after liftoff a noticable crab was needed to stay on runway heading and it seemed to me the crosswinds were much stronger at altitude. Better than on the ground ! ! So I flew out to my brother-in-laws house about 10 mins away... and back to the airport. NOW FOR THE LANDING!!!!!! Winds at altitude (2000ft msl) were reasonably bumpy and a noticeable crosswind from the southwest. Kent State planes were following me into the pattern so I didn't want to hog the runway making them go around... The pressure was on.... Turning on to final the crosswind didn't seem to be too bad. Didn't need much of any cross control to keep things straight till just out of the flair and not that much. The flare was just right and when the rubber met the road we just stayed there... no bouncing or loss of directional control. I even added a little power in a tail up fast taxi to get down the runway to the taxiway. But just before getting there the burble off the trees made things get a little squirly so got the tail down and slowed down and turned off onto the taxiway. I even thought that perhaps I should try another but thougt that it might be best to not push it. The only way to make a beautiful day better is a good plane ride. How's that for a verbose story. My teachers used that word verbose a lot with red pencil across my papers. Guess I never learned. Now if I could learn to do it well. Are you asleep yet?


While writing this I realized the local hamfest is on today. Between email and doing this blog I've wasted too much time today already. Will stay at home!



I have 20 bare pcb's left so with the rest of the day I'm gonna get as many parts on them as I can. The wire might be here tomorrow which is a day off and if so I'g like to get the lcd cable assy's done if the planets all line up!



My wife just came downstairs wanting to know how many boards I got done. Got to love her!



Getting to work... 12:55pm