LVB Trackers - Dayton build stalled

Wednesday night during the tracker build I had to go into a box to get some grommets. I hate looking for parts but it's part of the process. A box that was partially filled with junk had been in my way all day was there again. Not thinking and a bit stressed I used by bad arm to move the box out of the way in a not so gentle motion. And my arm talked (screamed) back to me immediately (ouch!). Pain was not too bad so I finished a couple trackers and quit for the evening... Around 9pm.

Thursday was my day to be with Mom. Today, Friday was physical therapy day in the morning and web site work in the afternoon and next an overnighter at Mom's

so the tracker project is on hold.

LVB Tracker - 15 days till Dayton Hamvention

Camped out at Mom's last night. While watching the CAVS beat the Bulls I completed more of the tasks required to get the pcb's ready. Performed the voltage check, installed and flashed the pics and flashed 12 more pics to have on hand.

This morning as always there ONE MORE THING to do... that was installing the USB module. After that was done... ONE MORE THING... had to attach the heatsink to the 7805 voltage regulator. Was trying to get small form factor 6-32 nuts but they wont get in till next week... I want to be well into testing and packing trackers by then. But the pc boards are ready for assembly... BUT... there is ONE MORE THING I need to do before I can start... I'll show you that in a bit! 2:17pm

OK so I had ONE MORE THING to do before going into the assembly process... here's the story.... bear in mind I am self diagnosed with OCD.

Above shows the black din cable entering from the back of the tracker enclosure fanning out to 8 colored wires terminated into a black amp idc connector. Notice the white tie wrap that is used as a strain relief where the cable comes into the case. If the tracker is installed and never moved this strain relief will do its job no problem. But what happens of the cable is twisted? If twisted enough it could wrap the 8 individual wires up enough to pull the connector out! I know chances are slim but I have found a solution.I simply added a second tie wrap that is bolted down to one of the board mounting screws. If you can twist the din cable now and you do disconnect the connector... you doing more with this thing than tracking satellites.
So the ONE MORE THING I hafta do is cut 30 tie wraps to length and punch a hole in one end. Its just one more nasty little process that is in the way. So now I need to get on with it. 4:18pm
Got them cut and it only took about 1/2 hour. But there is ONE MORE THING I just thought of. Gonna get that now... 4:48pm
Had to cut some shrink tubing for the din cables... But now WE ARE READY TO START ASSEMBLY!!!! 5:00pm

LVB Trackers - 16 days till Dayton

As I write this in 16 days, 6 minutes the doors to the Hara Arena will be opened for the start of Hamvention 2010. As an inside exhibit volunteer I will be there around 7am. I love being there early watching last minute prep and seeing the place fill up in less than a minute. Checkout the Hamvention 2010 website http://www.hamvention.org/ for details.

Above we see 30 Matrix Orbital lcd displays that have just been unpacked. Today after my physical therapy (PT) session I will process these displays. One of the jobs I just hate. The holes need to be drilled out and deburred (the part I hate) and an idc connector needs to be soldered on (part I like). Fortunately this is the last sub-assembly I need to process. After the pics on the pc boards are flashed I CAN FINALLY START ASSEMBLY AND TESTING. And if I don't slack off I might get done before the day I leave for Dayton!

Got to go! 9:09am

My Mom came home from the hospital today. She is doing real good at her home but my brother, sister and I are going to camp out at her house 24/7 for a several days or so and see how she does.

In the meantime I did get the lcd displays drilled, de-burred and the connectors soldered on. I was going to take a bunch of stuff to Mom's and start mounting parts on the chassis but I think instead I'll take the pcb's with me and complete them. Voltage test, pic mounting and flashing.
Got to get stuff ready. Getting closer... 73's 5:54PM

LVB Tracker - 17 days till Dayton Hamvention

HERE THEY ARE!!! Just finished soldering parts on 30 pc boards. They're not totally finished but a big part of the work is done. Next... cleaning, heat sink install, pic install, pic flash and usb module install. Hopefully that will get done buy dinner time...

Good news... yesterday I got a phone call from Jim, WB8AZP. he asked me "can't you hear me?" Then I saw him on my computer screen on skype. For some reason after tripping a circuit breaker starting a vacuum cleaner the speakers on my big pc quit. Did all the quick things, cycle power, check connections and computer setting still nothing. Just what I needed. Skype is almost as important as the phone or radios for voice and video messaging here in the shack. NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS... Last thing I did yesterday was power off the speaker system. Subwoofer was still warm so I knew it was getting power. This morning I switched it back on and POP! A good pop. On boot up the speakers were working and a skype test call worked fine... Very good news since it would have taken a bit of time and effort to solve the speaker problem.

Less than 3 weeks till Dayton!

Back to work... 12:21pm

LVB Trackers - 18 days till the Dayton Hamvention

The above picture shows yesterdays effort of building 10 tracker boards (background)and the bare circuit boards (foreground)I hope to finish today. That will get us the 30 boards needed for the Dayton Hamvention build. Last evening while visiting my Mom I finished crimping the din cables. The only sub-assembly that is not done is the LCD displays. Those will get done tomorrow. Then its onto assembling and testing trackers.

Its 1220pm and all the family stuff is done so I have the entire afternoon to build boards. Then its off to visit Mom and I will finish when I get back... Every time I do this I find little things that save time in the process. So I will drop the b.s. here and get to it! 12:22pm

LVB Tracker - 20 days till Dayton Hamvention

Starting another Saturday blog. Are'nt you lucky! Hey, is are'nt a word?

This past Wednesday I built 10 pc boards. They're not totally finished yet. The heatsink needs to be attached to the 7805 and the flux needs to be cleaned off the boards. Then voltage testing, pic installation and flashing and finally USB module installation.



Today after breakfast if Sue doesn't wisk me off to the store, I'll start another 10 pc boards. As I mentioned previously, 10 boards is perhaps the perfect number to build. Parts get mounted quickly and change often and you feel like you're getting somewhere. The process is motivating.
So I think for now we will build boards in groups of 10. Goal for Hamvention is 30 trackers. Compared to last year I am in better shape but I will probably work on this build up till the day of departure. Almost a repeat of last years nightmare!

My Mom is still in the hospital and I visit her every evening. Last night I took din cables with me and crimped the 8 crimp sockets on after trimming the wire ends. My sister brings her knitting, I bring my electronics. Next I think we will bring in case bottoms and process them. I have to utilize every bit of time as possible. Tonight I'm bringing in a finished tracker... Mom is curious about what this thing is that I'm building.

Nuff said... Sue is waiting in to car for the breakfast run to the Crooked River Grill.... 9:24am

LVB Tracker - Button Assy Complete

It's 4:00am and I am finished building 81 button assemblies seen above. I don't like staying up late like this but it's the only time life's interruptions can't take me away from this work. Plus I wanted to get ALL the button assemblies needed for the rest of the build done now while I have extra time.

I'm shocked and perhaps panicked that there are only 23 days till the Dayton Hamvention. Tomorrow I'll start on building up some printed circuit boards.

So much to do and so little time!

4:05am Good Morning!

LVB Tracker - Unplanned event

My Mom has taken ill. My brother, sister and I will be spending a lot of time with her until she gains back her strength. So time spent on building trackers will be more difficult to come by. I did take some of the work with me to Moms this evening but wasn't there long enough to get into it.

Today I marked all the wires used for the button assemblies. Next they get stripped then I can get on with actually building the assemblies. The LCD cables took almost a week to complete with many interruptions and demands on my time. The button assemblies shouldn't take that long... At least I hope not.

28 days till Dayton Hamvention!

More as it happens! 10:01pm

LVB Tracker - LCD Cable finished

94 LCD Cables are finally finished. Last Wednesday I started cutting 600 ft of wire into 1128 little white wires. Thursday was goof off day! Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday those wires were stripped and the AMP crimp connector contacts were applied. At 1:30 pm today I started assembling the cable assemblies. There were skype interruptions, dinner and taking care of the pets and the assembly was completed around 11pm.

Tomorrow I need to help my wife Sue with a computer problem so start-up of the button assembly will be delayed. The wires are cut but they need to be marked and stripped. Soldered to the switches then crimp connectors applied. There are only 5 wires involved. Their prep is slightly more involved but I hope to be finished by Friday or so. Also have doctors appointment.

In 10 minutes there will be 29 days till the Dayton Hamvention!

Going to bed! 11:50pm

LVB Tracker - LCD Cable progress

I've completed the nasty part of building LCD cable assemblies... the stripping and crimping of 1128 little white wires. Above the wires and 94 connector shells can be seen ready to assemble.

Sue and I need to pick up her car from the tire store. Rufus wants his afternoon walk and we need to deal with dinner. The assembly part is fun so I will look forward to getting that done this evening. Also looking forward to starting on the button assemblies tomorrow, Tuesday April 13th.

There are 31 days till the Dayton Hamvention!
4:50pm

LVB Trackers - Saturday Update

Making good progress building 94 LCD cable assemblies for the LVB Tracker project. This is more than what is needed to finish the build. Hope to have that complete by Sunday night. Currently in the middle of stripping and crimping.

For updates search for wb8cxo on twitter... I'm boring my followers with the build status.

There are still 33 days till the Dayton Hamvention!!!! :)
3:22pm

The above pic shows the finished cut and crimped wires that make up the LCD cable assembly.
The cardboard tray on the top are the finished wires where the leftmost sections were finished today... Over 800 were processed today. The cardboard tray on the bottom contain the remaining 940 that remain to be stripped and crimped. Hope to finish tomorrow but since I blistered my hand today dunno how much will get done. It could be worse.

Catch wb8cxo on twitter for up to the minute build updates.
9:49pm

LVB Tracker - 33 days till Dayton

Good thing I check the countdown clock for Dayton. I keep thinking I have plenty of time and the guy on the right shoulder reminds me "no you don't"

We have 33 days till Dayton Hamvention!

This morning I had Physical Therapy. So the morning, for the most part, was shot! Got home around 11:30 and came downstairs to the radio man cave to see what was going on. The mac mini comes on in the morning and starts tracking satellites and there's always a little email to look at. I could smell something cooking and soon Sue was down with grilled cheese sandwiches. She is so good and the first casualty of the LVB Tracker project. So thank her, not me!!!

After lunch I really wanted to get to work on trackers but had one obstacle that I really needed to get done. A tracker user in Australia was getting the dreaded EEProm message when powering up his tracker. We don't know what causes it and a new pic usually fixes the problem. So I really needed to get a pic flashed and sent out. Due to my own stupidity this took 3 trips to the Post Office and about 2 hours time. But I got the pic out and was able to get to work on trackers about 3:30pm. An hour later the Rufus wanted his walk and not too long after that dinner at the Crooked River Grill. I am currently doing the dirty work. Building LCD cables and button assemblies. All the wires were cut on Wednesday. Thursday ended up being a goof off day. Today, Friday I began stripping and crimping contacts onto the 1104 wires cut on Wednesday. Usually I do one process until it's done then do the next process. In February when I built 20 lcd cables I did the stripping for one size wire (of 11 sizes) then crimped the contacts on. I sorta broke up the monotony of this job and every time I'm faced with it it's harder to do. So this afternoon I stripped the first 94 wires and then crimped on the contacts. Then I had a thought... How do I know all the wires that were cut correctly? Would be a bummer to crimp 94 wires, of any group, 188 expensive contacts applied only to find out the wires wouldn't fit. So I stripped and crimped one sample of each size wire then built an assembly.... worked great. But you never know. So during the CAVS game I was able to finish crimping the first group then started the next group and finished it after the CAVS lost... So that is 376 stripping functions followed by 376 crimping functions. I wonder if this will cause carpel tunnel syndrome? 752 hand movements, whatever you call it... I should at least end up with strong hand muscles. My left shoulder seems no worse for the wear.... We'll see what happens after the weekend. Hoping to have 94 lcd cables completed by Sunday evening.

Good night!
11:27pm

LVB Tracker - 36 days till Dayton

At 10:20 am today I started cutting the 1104 little white wires that make up the LCD cable. My shoulder gets a pinching sensation while doing this so I will be resting frequently as a precaution and cause that little pinch gets annoying. I will attempt to build 94 LCD cables. That will exhaust the parts I have for the LCD Cable.

I was looking at last years blogs and found out we are about 2 weeks ahead of where we were last year! Hope that means I will not be building trackers in my hotel room during the banquet!

Back to work.
2:00pm

Been catching up on recorded TV while cutting wires. It actually works out quite well. Where I can't continuously cut wire due to a sore shoulder, I cut during the commercials and rest during the show! Working on the last 200 wires now and might finish before dinner. Bad news is I will probably run out of white wire. Last year the same thing happened about the same time. I ordered a bunch of wire (1000 ft) but I might use it all. But now I have traffic on skype so we'll try to finish after dinner.
5:53pm

LCD cable wires are cut. Next we will do the button assy wires to see if we have enough wire.
8:28pm

Found enough switches to build 81 button assemblies. Just finished cutting the required wires and HAD ENOUGH WIRE!

Cut 600ft of wire today!

I am done for today... Good Night!
10:14PM

LVB Tracker - 37 days to Dayton

20 trackers shipped today YAY!

And there are 37 days till the Dayton Hamvention so I will immediately start working on building 94 LCD cables. I have more time this year but I have a difficult time recovering from the many interruptions that occur. So it will take maximum effort to get 30 or so trackers built for Hamvention. I don't think we will sell that many at Hamvention... last years tracker sales were down from the year before at Hamvention but what doesn't sell can be sold from the AMSAT office.

My wife Sue wants to go to dinner.

LVB Trackers - Oh NO

Yesterday, Saturday, was very windy in the afternoon. Blew Sue's windsock into the trees trangling the trailing edge into one of the branches. This pisses her off so I thought I'd try to fix it before she saw it. Tried pulling REAL HARD on the sock to no avail. Brought out the tree trimmer to cut out the offending branch. BAD MOVE! Even with the sling on I drove my left shoulder to places it wasn't ready to goto yet. My shoulder was sore all night! DON'T TELL SUE! I think it will be OK.

I probably should rest for a few days but. I goofed off Saturday not building a single tracker. Did find the tie wraps I needed for the remaining assembly step before testing. But i'm gonna try to finish and ship at least 10 tomorrow. More if it doesn't bother my shoulder.

For now I need to finish my PT exercises and walk Rufus.