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The original way to interface a TS-50 transceiver to a computer used to be through a serial interface converter. The serial interface has since been replaced with USB ports. Luckily it is even easier to build a homebrew USB interface for the TS-50! The circuit # A USB interface for the TS-50 requires nothing more than soldering in a ready-made USB-to-TTL adapter. These can be found on eBay for less than 2 USD.

My old Ham-IV rotator has been in storage for a while, but I’m keen on using it again for satellite tracking. Following moving object such as satellites across the sky requires computer control, so I decided to retrofit the Ham-IV’s controller box. After all the rotator controller box is just 3 switches and a position sensing pot, it shouldn’t be too hard to control using a microcontroller. There is an excellent project by Anthony Good K3NG around for adding computer control to rotators. Since it makes no sense re-inventing the wheel, I used his code and built my own custom hardware. It consist of a small 5V power supply, an Arduino Pro Micro clone, a ULN2003A driving 3 relays, 2 pots and an LCD.

My 1981 vintage rotator control box blew its display backlight. Instead of searching for a suitable replacement bulb, I decided to replace it with a LED strip. The replacement is quite simple. The original LED bulb is preserved for historical purposes but slid aside to make room for mounting a piece of LED strip on top of the display. The voltage from the lamp (2 5V AC) is rectified using a small power diode, in my case an 1N4004, sent through a current limiting resistor, and send through the LED strip. A 10microF across the rectified supply is used to smooth the voltage and thus avoid flickering.

This page describes how to automatically send events on the VSCP bus on specific, pre-determined moments. This is useful for example to every night turn off any lights that might have been left on. Add DM row # Add a DM row to the VSCP daemon DM matrix (/srv/vscp/dm.xml): <row enable="true" groupid="wakeup" > <mask priority="0" class="65535" type="65535" GUID=" 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00" > </mask> <filter priority="0" class="65535" type="6" GUID=" 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00" > </filter> <control>0x0</control> <action>0x40</action> <param>0,20,1,0,0,37:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:01,1,1,1</param> <comment></comment> <allowed_from>0000-01-01 00:00:00</allowed_from> <allowed_to>9999-12-31 23:59:59</allowed_to> <allowed_weekdays>mtwtfss</allowed_weekdays> <allowed_time>*-*-* *:*:0/20/40</allowed_time> <index bMeasurement="false" > 0</index> <zone>0</zone> <subzone>1</subzone> </row> Detailed explanation # Here’s a detailed explanation of the above DM row:

I plan on using a few spare Nokia Li-Ion batteries for my new quadcopter and was in need of a decent battery charger. This project can charge 5 single cell LiPo or Li-Ion (in my case Nokia BL-5C 1020mAh) batteries simultaneously from a single 6-20VDC power source. It is based on Microchip’s MCP73831 integrated charge management IC, which is powered through a 1117 5V regulator. Here’s the schematic for a single battery.

In true eevblog-style we take the REX C100 PID controller and don’t turn it on, but tear it apart. The controller can be found in many different options on eBay for around 10 Euro. I was curious to see what is inside this cheap PID controller so I opened it up and took some pictures to share. Here’s how you typically find these controllers on eBay. The REX C100 ships in a small cardboard box.

This article describes how to control VSCP events from a web page. It is based on websockets which connects to the VSCP daemon. Web page # Button # To be able to trigger events on the VSCP bus from the web page, we will be using button elements. The onclick property of these button elements will refer to a function vscpButtonEvent , which will be passed the arguments index , zone and subzone.

This post describes how I set up my development environment for OpenHAB on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I followed the tutorial How to set up a development environment for openHAB. Ensure the system is up-to-date # sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade Git clone # su - cd git clone https://github.com/openhab/openhab cd openhab ls Download and install oracle jdk 1.7 # I followed the tutorial How To Install Java on Ubuntu with Apt-Get.

This is a quick video tour of my home automation system. .

This article is a check-list for configuring Mespelare nodes as I integrate them into my house’s lighting and power system. It describes the steps to follow to properly configure each node, so that I don’t forget anything. Most of the configuration is documented in a master spreadsheet file, which lists all inputs and outputs, how they are physically connected (cabling) and how they are to be configured. Load node registers Load standard registers file (template) Configure input-to-output mapping (based on teleruptors xls file) Set output status registers to light up correct LEDs (based on which inputs are active) Set output control registers for outputs 1-6 to 0x98 (152d) Set output control registers for output 7 to 0x00 (disable) Set output control registers for active outputs to 0x98 (152d) Set output control registers for in-active outputs to 0x00 (disable) Set subzone for outputs 1-6 to xxx (LED zone) Set subzone for active outputs (based on teleruptors xls file) Set control byte for inputs 1-6 to 0x01 Set input subzone for active inputs (based on frames xls file) Update node registers Save node registers to local file (backup)