Tag Archives: Homebrew

Activities, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter

Feb 18 DSO138 Kit Building Tips

Hi DSO138 kit builders,

I wanted to share some tips to follow for our 18 Feb Kit Build from 1-4pm. As I already built my own kit, I wanted to share some advice.
I know not all of you can attend, but for those of you who can, please read below. I’ll also post on the website along with some pics.
  1. Make sure you bring a magnifying glass AND a multimeter. Also, might help to bring an LC meter too (though I didn’t have one at the time) The color bands on the resistors are particularly impossible to see, so I had to measure the resistance of every one. I even did it 2-3 times to make sure I was right.
  2. To test your kit at the end of the night, you need to supply it with power. You can do this 2 different ways. The first is bringing a 9V battery along with 9V battery leads terminating at the end of a female port as shown below. The second is grabbing a power adapter rated for no higher than 12 V again terminating on a female port with pic shown below.
  3. You might want to bring a small Phillips head screwdriver (for eye glasses) in order to perform probe calibration.
  4. If you want, bring your laptop so you can download some signal generators (using your sound card) in order to play with the oscilloscope. In order to do this, I ended up using a BNC to an audio adapter which I purchased off of Amazon Prime. I’ll bring mine in case you don’t have one
  5. If you have a standalone signal generator, please bring it, along with BNC wire connections for the o-scope.
DSO138 kit power supply port
DSO138 power supply port
9V battery adapter
9V battery adapter
12V power supply (stolen from a Linksys router) with port (top-middle)
12V power supply (stolen from a Linksys router) with port (top-middle)

In order to do some testing, we are going to want to use either signal generators that club members graciously bring in, or you can use your laptop’s sound card. To that end, Mike (K1WVO) suggested a really nice link to do this.

I’ve tested most of these and they work fine on my scope.

If I have any other thoughts, I will update this post.

Thanks and 73,

Brian, AB1ZO

Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter

Home Brew Your Own Arduino UNO

1 Comment

The first question you may ask is, Why would I want to build my own Arduino UNO?  Economically speaking it does not add up in your favor after you acquire the parts and consider the time it takes to put it all together.  This is especially true when you consider that a Nano “clone” could be purchased for around $3!  You might have a permanent use application that makes building one your best option?  Maybe you just like to learn and do stuff just because you can!

The unit below is built on a prototype shield that has become the main board.  For my keyer application, I have no need of USB communications and I can keep the wiring down to only what is needed.  The 5v regulator will soon have a small heatsink as it gets warmer than I would like.

Homebrew Arduino UNO

Below is the other side of this board.  I used #4-40 screws as “legs”.

Homebrew Arduino UNO

Instructions for building one yourself on a solderless breadboard can be found at https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone

Instructions on burning the bootloader with another Arduino can be found at

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoToBreadboard

and

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP

If you run into trouble like I did by getting the “wrong” ATmega328 micro controller you can get work around instructions at http://www.crash-bang.com/resource/bootload-atmega328/

73,

Mike AB1YK

Activities, Education and Training, General, Homebrewing, On The Air, Space

Amateur Radio at MakeIt Labs

On Saturday, January 28th the Nashua Area Radio Club (Nashua ARC) will be hosting a special event for Interested kids, parents, and friends in the community about the joy of amateur radio at MakeIt Labs in Nashua from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. You may drop in at any time and stay as long as you like to participate! Among our activities, you can:

Get-On-The-Air Station (GOTA)

Ham Radio GOTA StationThis is amateur radio at its best and what it’s known for! We invite you to get on the air and make a contact (we call them QSO’s — pronounced: cue-so) somewhere in the world! You might be able to make a new friend in Germany or even Japan! Making contacts sits at the heart of amateur radio and is an activity that brings people together. So don’t be shy, step up, and hit the push-to-talk button!

Satellite Station Display

AMSAT LogoThe Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) began in 1969 to foster amateur radio participation in space research and communication. Currently, AMSAT groups help advance the state of the art in space science, space education, and space technology. Come learn about what components go into constructing a station capable of contacting a satellite and what antennas, and smart phone apps, operators use to keep a pulse on the satellite location.

Digital Amateur Television (DATV)

DATV Transceiver RackNot only are amateur radio operators granted privileges to transmit speech, but we also can send fast-scan data such as TV signals! Many operators have experimented with how to homebrew their own fast-scan TV stations, and our club president Fred (AB1OC) and our member Skip (K1NKR) have chosen to use construct a station which uses a Raspberry Pi (RPi) with an Arduino shield to sit at the heart of the transceiver. The RPi is the brains of the TV which runs Linux and among other things is responsible for sequencing, transmit/receive control, automatic VSWR monitoring, and a touch-screen controlling interface to configure and operate the system. Learn about what it takes to build and operate one of these stations. We may even be able to make a contact! More information can be found at https://stationproject.wordpress.com/category/amateur-television/.

Kit Building with Nashua ARC

Oscilloscope KitThe Nashua ARC holds kit-building nights were both inexperienced and experienced members homebrew in a relaxed, learning environment. In the past, we have built Pixie QRP (low-wattage) kits transmitting Morse Code on the 40m amateur band. But, on February 18 from 1 – 5 pm, First Church in Nashua, Nauss Hall, we will build the digital oscilloscope kit DSO138 (shown to left). This kit comes with a clear acrylic case to protect it, build instructions, and among its specs has a 1 Msps sampling rate, 12-bit accuracy, 200 kHz bandwidth (good for audio signals), capable of freezing the waveform display, and comes with a 1Hz / 3.3V test source. We invite you to join us and will bring some kits with us. More info can be found on our website at https://www.n1fd.org/2016/03/27/inexpensive-diy-digital-oscilloscope-kit/.

We hope you will join us for our event! Please bring friends, family, but most importantly we want you to have fun and enjoy this hobby with us!!

Contact Information

Brian Smigielski (AB1ZO): [email protected]
Jamey Finchum (KC1ENX): [email protected]

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide