LVB Trackers - Update

Before the latest report on LVB Tracker build I'd like to talk a little about something that happened recently that interrupted build progress.




Did you know the USA IS AT WAR with AFGHANISTAN? Well the Taliban I guess. But we are fighting them in Afghanistan, the war against terrorism. The Russians fought in Afghanistan and gave up after 10 years. Almost 15,000 Russians died with almost 12,000 rendered invalids. The number of Afghans killed - among the regime, mojahedin, and noncombatants - was estimated between 1 and 1.5 million, with tens of thousands of others crippled. In a conventional war we win by killing as many of the enemy as possible. We finally beat the Japanese after dropping 2 atomic bombs on them. But now we are fighting people who don't care about dying... So where am I going???

Well the reality of the Afgan war finally hit home in the last two weeks. A local ham who I have known for about 28 years, Bob Gilbert, KA8JOY's son Gunnery Sargent Robert Gilbert II was injured on March 8th in Afghanistan and died 8 days later on his 28th birthday. This was the Gunny's 2 tour in Afghanistan along with 3 tours in Iraq. That's 5 TOURS INTO A WAR ZONE!!! FOLKS!!! And I'm sure he isn't the only one and many of our fine service men and women are serving multiple tours of duty. This is insane! I was not that close to Bob and I never think I saw his son. Mostly I've talked to Bob on the radio and met him at social events. But when I think of the loss. Sue and I went to the wake. Along with over a thousand other folks. The military both young and old. Patriotism you just don't see until someone dies. Bob lost his wife, the Gunny's mother in 1992 to cancer. Bob and his son were very close after that. One of the first things young Robert did when he got his drivers license was drive to the Marine recruiting office and collected Marine posters that he decorated his room with. Shortly after graduation from High School Robert enlisted in the Marines, he was 18. Robert and his dad when on vacations together on their motorcycles. Every week when Robert was deployed Bob would take a package to the Post Office and talk to the clerk about what he was sending. Now that Robert is gone there will be no vacations together. No sending packages. No Robert! Bob has a daughter who lives on Toledo. So Bob is now alone. This is sad and it has affected me immensely for the last several days. 38 coalition military were lost so far this Month. 38 young, the best we have are dead! 38 families have gone thru what Bob and his family and friends have gone thru! I don't have the answers. But this sure looks like all the past failed wars that we have fought since World War II. Korea, Viet Nam and now Gulf II, Afghanistan/Iraq. Robert was a DAMN GOOD MARINE. One of the youngest to make Gunnery Sargent. I will never forget him or his sacrifice for me and my country. THANK YOU GUNNERY SARGENT ROBERT GILBERT II.



Yesterday, Monday I went to an old friends house to help him with his old 1A telephone system. Ken is a friend who helped me keep the plane airworthy. I also learned from Ken how to do thing right. Not the easy way, the right way. It's always great to work with him in his world. Although Ken always finds a way to make me WORK HARD!

Today, Tuesday was a better day. I'm feeling more like getting on with things. Went to Physical Therapy this morning. In the afternoon finally got to work on the tracker boards. Attached the heat sinks on the 7805's. Did a voltage check, all OK!!! and plugged in the pics. Then after dinner nad after messing around with the computer and listening to several satellite passes and the Tuesday AMSAT net... flashed the pics. SO THE PC BOARDS ARE FINALLY DONE!!!

Tomorrow I start assembly & testing. I shure hope we can ship 20 trackers on Friday!

11:44pm

LVB Trackers - connectors done

Connectors are installed. The dogs now need walked an I need to meet Sue for dinner. Shoulder is talking to me. I may rest tonite. 7805 regulator and heat sink is all that needs to complete the hard core parts install. Voltage check, pic install/flash and USB module install will ultimately finish the board and make it ready for assembly. Friday ship of 10-20 trackers would be awesome.

LVB Trackers - build delays

Sunday brought a few unanticipated delays in an attempt to finish off 20 tracker boards. We decided to run an Ethernet cable at the restaurant from the router out into the dining area where some folks, my wife included, like to work. This could be used until we determine what is interfering with the wireless. That prompted a trip up to Microcenter for parts. In between time I was still able to get the electrolytic caps installed onto the tracker boards. After that I was on the big pc and choked on a worm while trying to find something on the web. Before I was done the pc wouldn't boot. Got it working on a backup hard drive and moved some web files off the infected drive. Then a mad dash to find my tool bag so we could goto the restaurant and run the cable. Arriving at the restaurant the crew was about to leave. Communications problems so we went home.

Today after Sue went to the restaurant to send emails I spent the morning messing with the pc and listening to satellite passes. Got permission from the doctor to drive and went to the restaurant to join Sue for lunch. Gooood chili. Came home and jumped on the tracker boards. I now have the 4 transistors mounted on all 20 boards. Next were gonna do the connectors.

LVB Trackers - Saturday progress

If you have read past posts you'd know that Saturday is about a 4-6 hour work opportunity. Today was about 4 hours worth.

Installed the 6 ceramic caps, 4.0 mhz crystal and 10 k pot on 20 boards. Might not sound like much but some these parts have to be tacked then soldered. After dinner started on the 9 electrolytics. Got them installed on 10 boards and my arm says its time for a rest.

Tomorrow we'll finish the electrolytics on the last 10 boards. Then install the connectors, 4 transistors and the 7805. 7805 heatsink then flux cleaning. Hopefully we'll have time to voltage test, install and flash the pic. Getting that done tomorrow would be awesome... 20 boards finished!!!

Got a broke laptop that needs to be reloaded. That can be done from my recliner upstairs.

Good Night1

LVB Trackers - Good News!

In January when I first saw the orthopedic surgeon he said I could do bench work with my hands as long as the left arm stayed in the sling. One week after surgery I saw him again and he again said I could do bench work. The next day I tried and after about 40 minutes my shoulder got sore enough for me to stop. Not enough to take a pain pill but I didn't want to take it that far either. This past Tuesday was my first appointment for PT. The PT folks were real happy with the range of movement and gave me some homework. Since I felt so good after PT on Tuesday I thought I'd try some bench work again. March is almost over and we need to get caught up and focus on the build for Dayton. I got to find a way to get trackers built. So I went downstairs and finished putting the R17 resistor (wire strap) on. That went well so I D3. Wednesday installed R13-R16 then formed about 185 1N4148 diodes then installed D1-D2, D4-D7. All this work had negligible affect on my left arm. So after dinner I tacked on all the IC sockets. I wasn't ready to solder 1360 connections so I went upstairs to watch the CAVS game. Today after PT I came downstairs and started the soldering marathon. I'm glad to say that is done. I'm building 20 boards which is about 10 too many. Work and work and work and you never seem to finish. But now that my arm seems to handle the bench work as the doctor said it would I'M ON A ROLL !!!! I think by Sunday night I might have 20 boards done. GOOD NEWS!!!

Oh yes... 55 DAYS TILL DAYTON - LESS THAN TWO MONTHS... YES!!!

LVB Trackers - surgery successful!

The surgery went extremely well. The hospital staff was excellent. The only problem is the result is I can't use my left arm for many many weeks. This will all but stop Tracker production. My wife doesn't think I should worry about it but the situation only gets worse if I let it. I got a lot of stuff done in preparation but it's next to impossible to assemble with one hand. Perhaps once I get started Sue will change her mind and help. Started 20 pc boards but didn't make as much progress on them as I hoped. Pain in my shoulder is minimal so that won't be an issue. The doctor said I could use my hand but with the arm in a sling movement is very limited. Got a web project from the restaurant so that will be Saturdays project.

If you live in the Akron area and am an excellent builder and would like to volunteer some time to AMSAT, let me know!

LVB Tracker - morning update

Another weekend is behind us... The Olympics are over, downer... In two days I'll be going to the hospital for outpatient surgery. I'LL BE GLAD WHEN THAT IS OVER. And when it is I won't be able to type with both hands for a while. But I can manage with the iPhone and one finger.

Anyway we are up early... My nose was stuffed up so that means breathing thru my mouth. I use a bipap machine and even with the humidifier turned up full blast my mouth still gets a little dry... throat too! So I had a nagging cough which eventually caused me to take off the mask. And since I'm anticipating a journey to surgery I am a bit on edge. Just like when anticipating a flying trip. Not on the airlines but on my own plane. Now that I'm older I ponder too much on the what if's and it's enough to just make me nuts... So I got up and came downstairs to stuff parts on LVB Tracker boards, update Twitter and this blog. Also need to get a MAX232 ready to ship to a LVB Tracker customer... I hate shipping.

The good news is I have 20+ button assemblies built. 20 LCD cables built. And yesterday prepared 20 LCD displays. Oh yes, 20+ din cables crimped. All the little nasty nagging sub projects are done and all is needed is to build up some printed circuit boards. Then assembly and testing can begin. I'm hoping to somehow do that after surgery. I might have to break down and get some help. I think Michael my 14 year old neighbor might be interested. I know he likes to flash pics. I might hafta bribe him with some computer hardware or something.

I decided to try to build 20 trackers. 10 would have been more comfortable. Building 20 sub assemblies (those mentioned above) didn't seem to go too bad but building 20 printed circuit boards seems to be a nightmare. You never seem to finish anything. There's always another board that needs a part or something. Start running out of room to put them. 10 is a much manageable amount. But a few days ago Martha from the AMSAT office emailed me saying she still had 15 orders waiting. I just shipped 6 last week. I could have gotten by building 10... do the math! But then there always seems to be more orders slithering in and I'm always behind. I dunno... I might push out 10 quick... I dunno...

Got to go and prepare a MAX232 to ship!

6:52am