LVB Tracker - Beautiful Sunday

Like most Sundays this one really started around 11:30. After breakfast Sue took me to the airport to look for something stored in the hanger. I looked for it Saturday and Sue couldnt find it either. One for me:) Back home spent some time mowing up the last of the leaves in the front yard. We are done with leaves for this year. Now we are a go to clean out the gutters, it never ends. It was another nice day so I decided I wanted to go flying again. K8CNN and I have been talking about it for months now and I decided the buck stops today. Called Tom on the phone and we set a time of 14:00 at Medina airport. But before that I needed to help Sue put up 3 white christmas trees in the front yard. But before I got to that she decided to take the dogs for their daily ride in the car. They are nuts until that happens. I can't start cause Sue and I never agree about how these things get set up so I don't do anything with out her approval. If it was up to me they would be in next Wednesdays garbage pick-up... It's not up to me! So she finally came home and WITH LUNCH! Trying to soften me up. So we and the dogs woofed down McDonalds food and proceeded to get the trees up. Now I'm running late and the weather is not staying nice. So off the airport I go. While pre-flighting the plane I called flight service to verify there were no current TFR's (Temporary Flight Restrictions) or in other works... POTUS is not around today! The briefer did mention there was an Airmet for moderate turbulence below 8,000 feet. I sorta figured that due to the strong surface winds out of the west-southwest. Plane ran great and climbed like a rocket with the strong winds almost down the runway. 15 minutes later I was at Medina County airport. Nasty landing as there was a good crosswind and turbulence on final approach, a two bouncer with strong consideration to go around. Loaded up Tom, K8CNN and took off. Tom had never been in a small plane and quickly decided HE LIKED IT! Yay Tom!

Dogs are barking... Did Sue order in supper?
5:42pm

LVB Trackers - Beautiful Saturday

After a normal Saturday morning and a short building session I WENT FLYING! The mostly ignored hobby I have. A good friend wanted to take some aerial pictures of something in Northampton and that is all that it takes. So after 3 weeks of trying I finally got the plane out and went flying. Spend $90 for gas :( So if you are in the NE Ohio and want to go flying somewhere I might be coerced if you buy the gas. Need to fly more!

Testing with the Mac and MacDoppler is going good. In the process of assembling the last 12 trackers (got on on test now). Need 3 cases from the latest shipment of 100 stored in the garage.
More as is happens.
4:05pm

LVB Tracker - Slow Progress

Thanksgiving is over and we had another great dinner with my family at my brother Dan's house. He and his wife Sue do an awesome job entertaining the family making Thanksgiving my most favorite Holiday. Now not to take anything away from my sister Patty. She and her husband Tony also do a fantastic job hosting the family for Christmas but Christmas is my most unfavorite holiday... But I love my sister!!!

With the gooey stuff over we're back in the basement building trackers in between talking on skype and figuring out how to get more voip stuff working on the 147.33 repeater. Along with fighting off James 2e0bmi who would just love me to trash the tracker project to rebuild the 147.33 repeater around the dsp404 controller and do other fun ham radio stuff.

We have 7 trackers built and tested. Currently using MacDoppler on a Mac Mini to test the trackers in real time with tracking software and a Yaesu G5500 az/el rotator. MacDoppler is a GREAT tracking program. Robust but not overdone and Don Agro, VE3VRW provides excellent support. Now if I could only get the FTDI drivers to work correctly.

Just located the last 12 lcd displays. I need 13. Fortunately found one that somehow got displaced so we are go for displays. Just finished drilling out the 2.5mm holes to something english and deburred them. But we have a 12:30 40th anneversary lucheon to go to that I have to stop and get ready for.
11:55am

Back from the luncheon... Finished preping 12 lcd displays. We are now out of lcd displays! Dug out that last cases from the last shipment and we are 3 short. New shipment is in the garage so I will get three from there. Mounted lcd displays in the cases that are immdiately available. Now we're putting the stick-on rubber feet on and installing the grommet as well as the button assembly. Rufus needs a walk so we will break off at this time and do that. A cold and damp 34 degrees outside... this mornings snow has melted even with the cloudy skies, yeah!!!
4:15pm

LVB Trackers - on Twitter

I have been trying to become more active on Twitter. Seems like the thing to do. The iPhone makes it a little easier. Sometimes I'm active, sometimes not.

Just finished plugging USB modules into 20 tracker boards. Hope to have an assembled Tracker on test by lunch. Updates here and/or Twitter.
11:10am
LVB Tracker boards ready for assembly. I forgot we have a lunch engagement with retired phone company friends so further tracker assembly will be delayed by another social activity.
11:40am

Finally got a tracker built and went to connect it to the pc that I have been using for tracker testing and demonstrating for 4 years now. This machine has always worked. Just before taking it to Dayton 4 years ago to use to demonstrate SatPC32 I loaded XP on a new harddrive to have a fresh OS to use. Then when the trackers came along used it to test them. This machine always worked best especially with the FTDI USB port on the tracker. No other machine that I have would work as reliably as this one.... until today. FOR SOME REASON I DECIDED TO UPGRADE SATPC32 TO 12.8a BIG MISTAKE. It runs fine to the serial port on the tracker but the usb just sits there. I have fresh built pc's that wouldnt work well with that USB port. There seems to be an issue with the FTDI drivers and the SDX dde server. SDX works fine with the serial port every time but it doesnt seem to like that FTDI virtual com port driver. Yes I upgraded to the latest version. So I decided to try other tracking programs. Nova has problems, Orbitron needs Wispdde which isn't really available online, gotta buy it from AMSAT. I did find an older version but the whole thing crashed. As far as I'm concerned there are only two tracking programs for desktops that are worth a hoot: SatPC32 for PC and MacDoppler of the Mac. And guess what we're gonna try next... MacDoppler. And I didn't like the way it worked with the FTDI usb either. Works for a while then just quits! I HAVE NEVER LIKED USB!
11:00pm

MacDoppler works, course, its a Mac... But I need to figure out why it updates the position so much... too much.
11:14pm

LVB Tracker - Another Go At It

After several demands on my free time it is the weekend, Sunday. I am in the basement and will start flashing the pics of 21 boards (one is broke, no time to fix) and start assembly and testing. I am off till the Monday after Thanksgiving which might seem like a long time but still there are many events sheduled for this time. Tracker building will be a shoe-in event. Sorry for the broken record. I you feel you have the time to take over this successful project send me an email myoung@neo.rr.com at this point in my life I'd turn this great project over to the first person who wants it. Until then we will continue building till the demand drops off. Remember... Anytime I'm doing something for someone, I'm ignoring someone else who needs my time!
12:14pm

Flashed the first PIC on the first board... Took 45 minutes... minor shack cleanup to make the process easier... installed max232 backwards... discovered the PIC was installed backwards... and the cable was plugged into the wrong com port on the test pc... Now that cable has been used for the last several builds... how did it get into the wrong com port? I hope the rest of the day goes better. Weather is great outside. Should be raking the last of the leaves as the trees are all but done loosing them and I've been trying for the last 3 weekends to get the plane out. Havent flown since September. Sucks to be me... BUT.......... IT COULD BE MUCH WORSE!
1:06pm

LVB Tracker - Frustration!

Well I have finally overloaded my ass. Too much to do. Too many folks to talk to and help... or try. I typically spend 95% of my time at home in the basement. Sue and I get home, she goes upstairs I go to the basement where there is a plethora of things to do. The latest thing is talking on Skype... Yep, skype. Mostly with old friends locally and new ones in the UK. It's a blast. All the fun of ham radio without the work.

We have also had to help my Mom with some health issues. Now one of the dogs is sick and the leaves now need to be dealt with. But that will be over with in a few weeks.

I started building 11 tracker boards about a month ago. Then added nine more for a total of twenty. There's probably orders at the AMSAT office for that many. 100 tracker cases arrived too. That was sort of depressing but I told Gould Smith I'd build them until the interest dies off. Too many projects spawned on Skype has eaten into prime building time. Last night I ran out of flux remover. It's always something!

Now I'm in a situation where if I focus my time on any one thing I am depriving someone else of my time or something my time produces. I don't work fast but can get a lot done if not interrupted.

Just now my wife hinted about possibly spending the evening upstairs. The DVR is almost full! And she could use some help with the sick doggie.

So I guess the trackers will need to wait another day and my skype friends will do fine without me. Now if I can only accept my decision.

Hopefully in a few years it won't matter.

LVB Tracker - PROGRESS

Progress is slow but there is progress. Saturday I was able to finish stuffing 20 printed circuit boards. Sunday we will clean off the flux, test for good power, load and flash the pics. If I can get that done then there is hope. Monday I think we'll start assembly and get some trackers on test. More lcd displays will need to be built up. After which we can focus on assembly and testing.

Also working on a RC-96 for James, 2E0BMI. Will probably order a new eeprom from The ACC GUY in Cincinnati. It will have all the factory default programming values. This will save a lot of time testing the unit that has unknown programming from its previous owner. The controller seems to work for the most part but without knowing how it was programmed its hard to determine if any problems are hardware or programming. Also considering building the Tone Panel board that will allow CTCSS decode. Problem is the CTCSS chips are manufacture discontinued and those that are left can mostly only be purchased in high quantities and probably for big bucks.

Can it ever be easy?

Too many things to do! Going to bed.

3:17am

LVB Tracker - will I ever have time?

OK we got breakfast done. Grocery shopping done. Helped the neighbor with an eBay listing and tried to help another friend with Outlook Express and at&t Yahoo Mail. The last being impossible to do. We were on the phone an hour and he will hafta call at&t yahoo mail support. Hope he speaks Bangladesh. I really think I'd like to go flying. The weather has cleared up real nice... I dunno. Also missed the Massillon Hamfest. Oh well... I'd feel better if I could make progress on the trackers so her we go!
2:28pm