Tag Archives: Education and Training

Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, Youth Activities

A Raspberry Pi Video Player for Expo Displays

1 Comment

We are continuing to provide our Ham Radio Youth Expo displays at local Hamfests. We are always looking to simplify to delivery of our Ham Expos displays.

Raspberry Pi Video Player
Youth Expo Kits and Computers Display

Dave, K1DLM recently suggested a great simplification idea. His idea is to replace the multitude of Laptop Computers that we’ve been using to display videos at our Expos with Raspberry Pi Computers. I wanted to share how we went about building our Raspberry Pi Video Players so that others might have the information needed to duplicate what we did for other applications.

Raspberry Pi Video Players

Raspberry Pi Video Player
Completed Raspberry Pi Video Players

We’ve been using a total of 8 laptop computers as part of our Ham Expo displays and most of these only play video content. Many of these computers can be replaced with a simple and compact Raspberry Pi Computer.

Raspberry Pi Player Close-up

The image above shows a closeup view of one of the completed Raspberry Pi Video Players. All that is required to use our new players is to connect the player to an HDMI display. Power is provided via a small USB power supply.

Raspberry Pi Video Player Display

The players produce a very nice display on an HDMI monitor. We also connect the players to a small USB powered speaker to provide audio.

Player Hardware and Packaging

Our video players are relatively inexpensive and easy to build. Here’s a bill of materials:

The parts cost a total of about $60 new on Amazon. Fortunately, we had most of the parts required on hand except for the cases which significantly reduced the overall cost of the project.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+

The current build of the Raspian OS includes a copy of the VLC Media Player which we use to play our videos. Playing high-resolution videos does stress the capabilities for the Model 3B+ that we are using and a few of our videos needed to be downscaled to 720p resolution to play smoothly. The downscaling was done using QuickTime Player on a Mac. Our monitors are 27 in or smaller and there was no noticeable loss of video quality at 720p resolution.

Case, Power Supply, Fan, and Heatsinks

The processing load associated with continuously playing videos causes the Raspberry Pi to generate a good bit of heat. To deal with this and also to provide a nice case for our players, we chose an enclosure package which includes a fan and heatsinks. The package also includes the required USB power supply with an on-off switch.

Player Software

RPi Desktop via VNC

We enabled the Raspberry Pi VNC Server on our Video Players to provide keyboard and mouse access via Windows and Mac computers. This allows a single PC to configure and start the VLC players on all 7 of our Video Players used in our Ham Expo Display. We use the RealVNC connect client on the controlling PC to access our Raspberry Pi  Video Players.

Raspberry Pi File Sharing on a Windows PC via Samba

We also installed the Samba file sharing package on our Video Players. Samba allows a Windows or Mac PC to access the drive on the Players to load our videos.

The Model 3B+ provides both wired and WiFi access and we use the wired connection for loading our videos because it is much faster than WiFi. The Raspberry Pi’s WiFi connection is great for VNC access to start out players at our Expos.

Planned Use Of Our Players

The Raspberry Pi video players create an inexpensive and easy to use System for playing videos as part of our Ham Expo Displays. We will be using them for the first time at our Ham Expo Display at HamXpostion at Boxboro in September.

The resulting Raspberry Pi are very capable systems and I expect that we will find other applications for them as we go forward.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Youth Activities

Membership Renewals

Close to 40% of our members are up for renewal in the month of September.  We encourage those members to renew early,  beat the rush, and make sure your membership does not expire.  This article will show you how to tell when your membership is up for renewal. It will also show you how to renew your NARS membership online.

When is My Membership Due for Renewal?

Looking up my membership status
Looking up my membership status

You can visit the following page to see when your membership is up for renewal: https://www.n1fd.org/member-directory/.   Scroll to the 2nd table on the page, titled Membership Roster and Status, put your callsign in the search box and hit return.  As you can see above, I have looked up my membership status and I see that my membership is expiring in September 2019.

Membership Renewal Form
Membership Renewal Form

 

How to Renew Your Membership

To renew your membership, you can fill out the membership renewal form at the following page:  https://www.n1fd.org/renew-your-membership/.  At the end of the form, you will be asked to pay your membership fee using PayPal.

We have multiple membership renewal options to choose from if you qualify, with the following yearly fees.  Make sure you take advantage of a discounted rate if you qualify:

  • Regular Membership:  $31
  • Senior Membership (Age 65 or over): $26
  • Full-Time Student: $26
  • Family Membership: $46
Field Day 2019 Team

Your membership allows you to participate in all of our activities including:

HAB-3 Students and Teachers - Ready to Launch
HAB-3 Students and Teachers – Ready to Launch

Your membership in the Nashua Area Radio Society also supports our education and youth outreach work including:

  • Amateur Radio Licensing class delivery and scholarships for students, teachers, and young people
  • STEM Education for school students through Amateur Radio (ex. our High-Altitude Balloon program)
  • Activites to introduce young people and new Hams to Amateur Radio such as ARRL Kids Day, ARRL Rookie Roundup, and other youth outreach activities

If you are not yet a member, you can join the Nashua Area Radio Society online at https://www.n1fd.org/join-us/

 

Antennas, CW and QRP, Education and Training, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter, On The Air, Space, Youth Activities

Plans for HamXposition @ Boxboro 2019 – We Need Your Help

The Nashua Area Society will be part of the fun at HamXposition @ Boxboro again this year. We will be adding some new things this year as well as providing the Ham Radio Expo display that we did last year. Our contributions will include:

  • An expanded Ham Expo Display
  • Ham Bootcamp – a new activity for prospective and recently licensed Technician and General Class Hams
  • An Expanded Kit Building Activity
  • Several Forum Presentations featuring some of our recent projects and NARS Activities leading to our recognition as Club Of The Year

We will need a lot of help from NARS members to make our contribution to HamXposition successful. More on this later in this article.

Ham Radio Expo Display

HamXposition @ Boxboro
Ham Expo Display

Our Ham Expo display will cover many activities that you can do with Amateur Radio. Our display will also include three GOTA stations:

  • A Computer Controlled Satellite GOTA
  • A Remotely Controlled High-Power HF GOTA
  • A Repeater GOTA

We will also be adding a radio programming clinic where you can get your HT programmed at the show.

Ham Expo Layout

The diagram above shows the planned layout for our Ham Expo display. It will cover the entire back wall of the main exhibit hall in the vendor area and will include the Satellite GOTA station in the bar area as we did last year.

Ham Bootcamp

HamXposition @ Boxboro
Ham Bootcamp Activity

Ham Bootcamp is a new activity this year. Ham Bootcamp is a hands-on activity for folks interested in getting a Ham Radio License and folks who have gotten their Technician or General Class License and would like so help to get on the air or to upgrade their station to take advantage of their new General Class privileges. Our planned activities are outlined in the chart above. Most will be hands-on in small groups of 10 or less so we can answer questions and demonstrate how to have fun with Ham Radio. Ham Bootcamp will take place from 9 am to noon on Saturday and will accommodate up to 100 HamXposition attendees on a first-come-first-served basis.  We will also provide a $5 discount coupon to all Ham Bootcampers to use toward one of the kits that are included in our kit building activity at HamXposition.

Kit Building Plans

HamXposition @ Boxboro
Morse Tutor Kit

The popular Morse Tutor kit will be back again this year and we’ll have folks on hand as well equipment so that folks can build their kit and get it working at the show. You can find more about our Morse Tutor kit here.

We will be adding a second kit at our kit build – a 70 cm ground plane antenna. This is an antenna that you can build and use to help your HT or base rig get out better on the 70 cm band. We’ll have an analyzer and folks who can help you to tune your antenna for the best operation after you complete your kit.

Forum Presentations

NARS Forum Presentations

The Nashua Area Radio Society has had a pretty amazing year and we will have the opportunity to share some of our experiences at HamXposition via forum presentations. You can see the topics for our planned presentations above.

We Need Your Help

NARS HamXposition Teams

HamXposition is an important undertaking for us and for the northeastern Amateur Radio Community as a whole. We need your help to plan and execute our plans. Please reach out to Dave, Jerry, Scott or myself and join our HamXposition Team. It will be a lot of fun and a rewarding change to give back to the northeastern Amateur Radio Community.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide