IoT water tank telemetry project – part 3

Battery trials

The project continues, albeit slowly.

Some inexpensive DC-DC boost converters have been very slow from China, though multiply source, they have not yet arrived.

An older module which was on hand has enabled progress of reliability and battery trials.

Above is the current prototype. The module on the white plug in cable is a 4-20mA simulator set to 20mA for maximum drain during battery trials. The module at upper right of the pic is a TP4056 batter charger and 1S protection board for the 2000mAh LiPo. The PV array (partially obscured) is capable of 80mA of charge current in full sunlight. The prototype includes a red LED drawing 1mA, an additional 24mAh load per day. Continue reading IoT water tank telemetry project – part 3

Last update: 18th October, 2018, 8:07 AM

4NEC2 plots of STL VSWR III

Conintuing from 4NEC2 plots of STL VSWR II, this article is a tutorial in using 4NEC2 to determine the Half Power Bandwidth of a simple model of the main loop.

The model is drawn from AA5TB’s calculator’s initial values.

The model is in NEC-4.2, and is a 20 segment helix in free space, and tuned for resonance at 7.000MHz. (If you repeat this using NEC-2, you may need fewer segments to avoid violating NEC-2’s segment limits.)
Continue reading 4NEC2 plots of STL VSWR III

Last update: 17th March, 2018, 8:34 PM

4NEC2 plots of STL VSWR II

At 4NEC2 plots of STL VSWR I explained a method of working around a limitation of 4NEC2 values for Zo that can be applied using the Settings menu.

I asked the developer to consider a change, but I gathered that he regarded 4NEC2 to be at End Of Life.

It appears that 4NEC2 enforces a requirement that Zo>=0.1, so having discovered that by trial and error, one wondered if it was possible to change that threshold by hacking the exe file.

The IEEE754 Double representation of 0.1 is 0x3FB999999999999A, and of course it would be stored backwords in the exe file. Searching for 0x9A9999999999B93F found only one occurrence, offset 0x1490. That was changed to 0xfca0f1d24d62503f (the backwords representation of 0.001) and the exe tested. (It might be tempting to set it so zero, but that would permit entering zero which may cause run time errors). Continue reading 4NEC2 plots of STL VSWR II

Last update: 14th November, 2018, 11:20 AM

Balancing a ceiling fan

I have a ceiling fan which has poor balance and is quite annoying on its high speed.

To solve the problem, I attached a flight controller board which I had on hand for this sort of purpose to the stationary spindle extension, and I have the associated configuration software installed for flying machines

Above, the OmnibusF4 v1 flight controller. Not a good flight controller for flying machines because of the silly pinout, but cheap (for that reason), about $20 on eBay. The flight controller contains a 3 axis gyro and accelerometer, the latter will be used here. Continue reading Balancing a ceiling fan

Last update: 11th March, 2018, 5:51 PM

Riding the RF Gain control – part 5

Every so often one sees advice from experts on how to operate a communications receiver or transceiver for SSB reception on the HF bands.

Very often that advice is to adjust AF Gain to max, and adjust RF Gain for a comfortable listening level. This is argued today to deliver the best S/N ratio, partly due to delivering the lowest distortion due to IMD in the receiver front end.

This is the last of a series of articles exploring and discussing the wisdom of that traditional advice. The preceding parts have examined a range of receiver types identifying their susceptibility to overload in one form or another, means of minimising the risk of overload, and effects of S/N ratio.

Most recommendations to intervene lack quantitative evidence to support the claimed benefits.

Let us quantitatively explore the advice on a modern receiver.

A quantitative example

In this test, a modern budget priced receiver, an IC-7300, is used to evaluate SINAD (similar to S/N) on a steady signal off-air, trying initially the ‘sensible’ basic automatic setting to suit the 40m band, and then various preamp, attenuator and RFGAIN settings to try to win an improvement in SINAD.

Above is a screenshot from SpectrumLab of a SINAD measurement on the IC-7300 setup normally for 7MHz (PREAMP OFF, ATTENUATOR OFF, RFGAIN MAX). Without signal, the S meter indicates around S4, with signal the S meter readings is around S7 and SINAD is around 16dB (it dances around a few tenths of a dB due to the combination of FFT bin size and integration interval). Continue reading Riding the RF Gain control – part 5

Last update: 9th March, 2018, 7:54 AM

Discussion of WA7ARK’s contribution to a QRZ thread on an End Fed Dipole

In another long running discussion on QRZ about End Fed Antennas, WA7ARK offered a contribution:

(1) Back in post #30 I showed that with a halfwave wire fed close to its end works just like the same wire fed in the center; the only difference being the feed point impedance. I let EzNec figure this out; I didn’t have to explain it with any mysterious “displacement” currents. Shown as (1) in the attached.

Since, in the model, the source is a constant current source, that forces the current on either side of the source to be equal, and the radiation pattern predicted by EzNec reflects that, because the patterns for the end-fed and center-fed match… (go back and look at post #30)

His post #30 is of a 67′ dipole at 66′ above poor ground @ 7.18MHz, fed at one end.

Above is the current distribution of my approximate re-creation of his model in NEC-4.2. It reconciles with his published graphs. Continue reading Discussion of WA7ARK’s contribution to a QRZ thread on an End Fed Dipole

Last update: 6th March, 2018, 11:50 AM

woolly thinking on the nature of feed line common mode current

An online expert somewhat exasperated that the audience hasn’t absorbed his wisdom elaborated in apparently many previous posts said:

We’ve been round and round on this discussion but in a current mode balun aka a common mode choke the losses due to the windings and core are common mode not differential mode losses. You DO NOT dissipate your transmitted and received signals, which are carried as differential mode signals, as choke losses.

I know you’ve been reminded of this many times and don’t expect you to accept it now but that’s how common mode chokes work.

Now there is a sense in ham radio forums that repetition transforms assertions to fact, but setting that aside, let’s look at the assertion from an energy conservation point of view. Continue reading woolly thinking on the nature of feed line common mode current

Last update: 22nd May, 2020, 12:34 AM

Hobbyking 2500mAh 18650 LiIon cells (9210000181-0) initial capacity test

This article is documentation of a capacity test of 5 x Hobbyking 2500mAh 18650 LiIon cells (9210000181-0).

The cells were purchased on 26/02/2018 (~$7 + shipping) and received at about 30% charge. They were each charged in a XTAR VC2 Plus charger at 0.5A until charged.

The cells are 65mm long, and do not claim to contain protection modules which are prudent in some applications.

Each cell was then discharged at 1A (0.4C) to 2.8V, the discharge was captured.
Continue reading Hobbyking 2500mAh 18650 LiIon cells (9210000181-0) initial capacity test

Last update: 1st March, 2018, 8:32 AM

IoT water tank telemetry project – part 2

Calibration of the 4-20mA input

This article is a tutorial on calibrating the 4-20mA input which is designed for flexibility that is achieved through exploitation of the calibration.

The input device for this tutorial is a Pt100 RTD temperature sensor and inexpensive Chinese Pt100 – 4-20mA converter (loosely) calibrated for -50-150°. The Pt100, the converter, the load resistor, the divider resistors on the MCU board, and the MCu voltage reference all introduce error which is compensated in this end to end calibration procedure.

For this demonstration, two scenarios are measured:

  1. probe in still air whose temperature is captured with an accurate thermometer; and
  2. probe in boiling water whose temperature is calculated from known altitude and barometric pressure.

Another option would be to use a container of water filled with ice to obtain close to 0° for scenario 1… you don’t need a triple point cell for the end system stability and accuracy.

Temperature of boiling water

Using Calculate cooking time for soft boiled egg :

No, we are not boiling an egg, but the results include the temperature of the boiling water under current altitude and pressure. Continue reading IoT water tank telemetry project – part 2

Last update: 24th November, 2018, 5:52 PM

Aluminium ground system suitability for ham radio station

I have been asked a few times about my article Implementation of G5RV inverted V using high strength aluminium MIG wire, and conversations ran to the suitability of the wire to a radial system on Marconi type antennas.

Firstly, a progress report on the antenna, no news to report and that is good news, there have been no issues so far. Inspection of connections without disassembly has not shown signs of corrosion or fatigue. Continue reading Aluminium ground system suitability for ham radio station

Last update: 22nd February, 2018, 12:51 PM