T-Minus 5 and Holding

Well, I've decided to put the TinyTrak project on hold. I have the case cut out and some wire leads soldered in place but I just don't have the time to get it finished before my trip. There's no way in Hades it'll happen. So I'll just make do with the first kit I built and hope to get back to version 2.0 sometime in December.

It was a valiant effort but there's just too much going on right now. :-(

Latest Goodies

Today I picked up the makings of my future battery bank. I got four CS3 HRL12390 batteries rated at about 108AH. These batteries retail for about $250 and I scored an excellent deal and paid a fraction of that. My initial calculations show that I should be able to get about 5 days out of these operating 24 hours a day. I know I won't be operating anywhere near that so I'm willing to bet I could last about 2 weeks.



I'll say one thing, too. These puppies are heavy! They weigh in at just under 73 lbs ea. Here's the manufacturer's description:

HRL 12390W is specially designed for high efficient discharge application. Its characteristics are high energy density, small footprint and high discharge efficiency. It can be used for more than 260 cycles at 100% discharge in cycle service, up to 10 years in standby service.

I probably won't be able to get started on the bank project until after Thanksgiving but I'm at least happy to have the batteries sitting in the garage.

Stalled

Well, progress on the new TinyTrak has pretty much stalled out. I'm having to re-work the case design and I've been busy working on other things. We'll see what happens this weekend.

Tomorrow kicks of tower weekend. We have a member in our club that's not doing well health-wise and he's asked for help getting his two towers down. We've got a small party getting together to take care of that for him this weekend and I figure we'll do a tower each day. Shouldn't be too bad but you never know.

Aaaaaargh!

Ok, tonight has been frustrating. It seems I got a little turned around with my serial soldering and I put my power leads in the wrong places. The bad thing is that I had to really test my contortionist skills and fine motor skills while soldering in an incredibly tight area without melting other wiring. Well, I got it resoldered just fine though it took some precious time.

Now on to the grand finale. After getting it put back together I went for the 2nd power test of the evening. Who let the smoke out? It would appear that if you accidentally solder one of your diodes directly to your power lead you exceed the diode's ability to retain its smoke.

So I guess I'll be calling Radio Shack tomorrow to see if they actually stock the 1N4148 diodes or if they're online only. I really hate to wait any longer. This is taking much longer than I'd hoped. :-/

TinyTrak Version 2 Pt 2

I have all of the components in place that are directly on the board. I have the LEDs mounted (temporarily) in the case. Unfortunately I don't have #20 hookup wire so I'll have to get some tomorrow to finish. I'll use #18 for power but the LEDs and various switches should be fine with #20.

I'm a little bummed that I didn't get it done tonight but it's not a big deal. At least I got to melt a little solder. :-)

TinyTrak Version 2

I got the new TT3 on Thursday and I've spent the past few days laying out my next design and getting or scavenging the components I'll need. I'm taking my time with this one to make sure I've got a robust and clean implementation. I've been doing some local testing to verify my theories and so far I'm on the right track. I spent today getting the case ready and I hope to start final assembly and testing tomorrow.

I also have to say that I'm impressed with the GPS2. It locks on very quickly. It's certainly faster than the eTrex at signal acquisition. I do wish it had a slightly longer cable. At 6' it just barely reaches where I have my current TT3. This should change once I implement the next version but even another foot would be nice.

More Traking

Well, the mind is flooded with mods and other build changes I want to employ with the TinyTrak3 so I've ordered another one. Byon just sent me the shipping notice so I should have it tomorrow. I still need to make some drawings and circuit layouts so I don't leave anything out so it might take me a little longer. Hopefully I'll be able to build it out with parts I have laying around aside from the case.

I also ordered the GPS2. I think I'm ready to go to a more "permanent" GPS solution instead of using my eTrex. Besides, I'm tired of changing out AAs. Stay tuned for more updates.