Posts Tagged ‘hab’
HAB Talks
May 19th, 2014 | 
Author: I was shocked when I realised it has been nearly two months since my last update. The pace of life really hasn’t let up and neither have the time pressures of work, however on with recent radio antics...
Last week I gave two talks and demonstrations at local radio societies on High Altitude Ballooning in the UK and how to track them.
The first was at South Kesteven ARS (SKARS) the club I am a member of. The second was at Spalding and District ARS (SDARS)
This was an updated version of the talk I gave last year at SKARS. Since then I have started work on my own tracker NERD-1. Sadly development has stalled and is still only at the prototype stage (NERDTEST) but I was able to use it to demonstrate reception and tracking using the UKHAS Habitat system spacenear.us/tracker
The SDARS venue had a projector and a decent WiFi Internet connection which allowed me to demonstrate how to set up DL-FLDIGI for a ground station and NERDTEST being received and both showing up on the map in real time.
My original PowerPoint presentation has been given a total makeover and I has included some videos of Felix Baumgartner, Dave Akerman’s Babbage Teddy Bear and wacky chef Heston Blumenthal's ‘Spud-in-space’ feature from his new television program.
To show a real tracker Steve Smith (G0TDJ) of Project Hab had been kind enough to loan me his VAYU-NTX unit.
I am not the most confident of people when it comes to public interaction and it was encouraging to see people genuinely interested in what I was talking about and keen to have a look and I have had some very nice feedback.
Giving these talks has spurred me to pull my finger out and get on with actually flying something and finishing the payload!
Another mothballed project is my Ultimate3 beacon kit, still being only a Foundation licence means I cannot use it to transmit but that may be about to change as tomorrow I am sitting my Intermediate exam which will allow me to properly experiment with transmitters. The exam was arranged through SKARS by Chairman Nigel Booth and the date came through a little sooner than I was expecting so perhaps not quite as prepared as I really should be, but with a decent electronics background and some quick revision it should be fine....
My operating has been largely limited to the UKAC VHF contests, setting aside a few hours per week is manageable and my results are gradually improving, even getting some complements on my operating.
Two weeks ago I was able to attend the local Dambusters Hamfest at Thorpe Camp and managed to pick up a decent rotator, this has proved invaluable for the UKAC as I don’t have to keep going outside the shack to turn the antenna.
Now if I hear someone calling CQ and can monitor a QSO to get the locator and the bearing a quick turn of the dial and I have a better chance. The program I use is BD_2004 from W1GHZ, running in console window it is a simple case of setting up your own locator and then entering other locators the bearing and distance are given.
As well as the weeknight UKAC there have been a couple of weekend VHF contests, I managed a couple of hours this weekend on the RSGB 144MHz May Contest and I had the best DX ever and nearly every QSO was in a new locator square!
I wasn’t able to spend more time on the contest as we took the dogs on a sponsored dog walk on Sunday in aid of the local hospice and on Saturday I attended the British Astronomical Association, Radio Astronomy Group General Meeting at the National Space Centre.
The notion of amateur Radio Astronomy is something that has fascinated me, up to now the only dabbling I have done has been with meteor detection using reflections from the Graves space radar (blog entry). This year some of the talks dealt with using RTL-SDR and Arduino/Raspberry PI in low-cost observation. Also at the meeting was a number of demonstrations and stands from other projects we I was able to garner a great deal of useful information.
Being able to detect ‘Hydrogen-Line’ emissions to map the Galactic plane using a FUNCube or RTL-SDR dongle is astonishing, not to mention low cost VLF receivers to detect Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances SIDs and magnetometers to measure the effect of the solar wind on the earth’s magnetic field!
It is all on the to do list, but it was a great day with some really fascinating talks and some exciting plans by the group. It was a shame I had to leave earlier than I wanted as I did miss some of the later presentations.
Anyway best get an early night!
Last week I gave two talks and demonstrations at local radio societies on High Altitude Ballooning in the UK and how to track them.
The first was at South Kesteven ARS (SKARS) the club I am a member of. The second was at Spalding and District ARS (SDARS)
This was an updated version of the talk I gave last year at SKARS. Since then I have started work on my own tracker NERD-1. Sadly development has stalled and is still only at the prototype stage (NERDTEST) but I was able to use it to demonstrate reception and tracking using the UKHAS Habitat system spacenear.us/tracker
The SDARS venue had a projector and a decent WiFi Internet connection which allowed me to demonstrate how to set up DL-FLDIGI for a ground station and NERDTEST being received and both showing up on the map in real time.
My original PowerPoint presentation has been given a total makeover and I has included some videos of Felix Baumgartner, Dave Akerman’s Babbage Teddy Bear and wacky chef Heston Blumenthal's ‘Spud-in-space’ feature from his new television program.
To show a real tracker Steve Smith (G0TDJ) of Project Hab had been kind enough to loan me his VAYU-NTX unit.
I am not the most confident of people when it comes to public interaction and it was encouraging to see people genuinely interested in what I was talking about and keen to have a look and I have had some very nice feedback.
Thanks @nerdsville for an excellent talk on High Altitude Balloons and telemetry, look forward to your launch. pic.twitter.com/H8AevMNQ13
— Spalding DARS (@SDARS) May 16, 2014
Excellent talk at Club tonight by @nerdsville on high altitude balloons and radio data. Andrew knows his subject and enthusiasm infectious.
— Jim Scott G0HGH (@photoimagery) May 16, 2014
Giving these talks has spurred me to pull my finger out and get on with actually flying something and finishing the payload!
Another mothballed project is my Ultimate3 beacon kit, still being only a Foundation licence means I cannot use it to transmit but that may be about to change as tomorrow I am sitting my Intermediate exam which will allow me to properly experiment with transmitters. The exam was arranged through SKARS by Chairman Nigel Booth and the date came through a little sooner than I was expecting so perhaps not quite as prepared as I really should be, but with a decent electronics background and some quick revision it should be fine....
My operating has been largely limited to the UKAC VHF contests, setting aside a few hours per week is manageable and my results are gradually improving, even getting some complements on my operating.
Two weeks ago I was able to attend the local Dambusters Hamfest at Thorpe Camp and managed to pick up a decent rotator, this has proved invaluable for the UKAC as I don’t have to keep going outside the shack to turn the antenna.
Now if I hear someone calling CQ and can monitor a QSO to get the locator and the bearing a quick turn of the dial and I have a better chance. The program I use is BD_2004 from W1GHZ, running in console window it is a simple case of setting up your own locator and then entering other locators the bearing and distance are given.
As well as the weeknight UKAC there have been a couple of weekend VHF contests, I managed a couple of hours this weekend on the RSGB 144MHz May Contest and I had the best DX ever and nearly every QSO was in a new locator square!
I wasn’t able to spend more time on the contest as we took the dogs on a sponsored dog walk on Sunday in aid of the local hospice and on Saturday I attended the British Astronomical Association, Radio Astronomy Group General Meeting at the National Space Centre.
The notion of amateur Radio Astronomy is something that has fascinated me, up to now the only dabbling I have done has been with meteor detection using reflections from the Graves space radar (blog entry). This year some of the talks dealt with using RTL-SDR and Arduino/Raspberry PI in low-cost observation. Also at the meeting was a number of demonstrations and stands from other projects we I was able to garner a great deal of useful information.
Being able to detect ‘Hydrogen-Line’ emissions to map the Galactic plane using a FUNCube or RTL-SDR dongle is astonishing, not to mention low cost VLF receivers to detect Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances SIDs and magnetometers to measure the effect of the solar wind on the earth’s magnetic field!
It is all on the to do list, but it was a great day with some really fascinating talks and some exciting plans by the group. It was a shame I had to leave earlier than I wanted as I did miss some of the later presentations.
Anyway best get an early night!
Cheap GPS module
Several of the Arduino projects I have been experimenting with have used a GPS module to provide accurate time and/or location information and in the case of the QRSS/WSRP QRP beacon a highly accurate GPS derived 1 second pulse is used for frequency calibration. A number of people have enquired about the GPS module I am using.
Most GPS devices have a limit on the altitude they work at, normally 60,000 feet or less. This is a legacy of the now defunct CoCom (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) restrictions. For my HAB project this restriction needs to be disabled and the GPS must be switched into 'flight mode' In the HAB community the favoured devices are made by U-BLOX
Therefore when I was sourcing a GPS I had search specifically for a inexpensive device using a U-BLOX.
I soon found something called a GY-GPS6MV2, it appears to be a generic design and is readily available on eBay from suppliers in China, Hong Kong and Singapore and can be purchased at the moment for around than £10 (approx $15) including postage!
It is also available from domestic suppliers but often at a much more inflated price, but you don't have to wait several weeks for them to be delivered.
There are many other GPS modules available but this module seems to be one of the cheapest available. it is often listed as a NEO6MV2 GPS Module Aircraft Flight Controller.
The module consists of a small PCB 25mm x 35 mm size with a separate ceramic antenna connected by a small lead which is 25mm x 25mm in size. The Antenna is quite heavy and isn't suited to Pico HAB payloads but for other uses is more than satisfactory.
On the board is a small button-cell battery to provide backup to the GPS chip and a small EEPROM connected to the GPS chip which I believe can store configuration(s). I haven't used it myself just using the module in it's default set up at the moment. For a schematic click here
The board has four connectors VCC, GND, TX (Transmit) and RX (Receive) and can be powered by the 5V supply on Arduino boards since it has a small regulator to provide the 3.3V needed.
In most projects all that is required is data out of the GPS. The GPS TX (data out) being connected directly to the microcontrollers RX (data in) The (0V and 3.3V) level shift of the signal is compatible with the TTL input of the microcontroller.
The GPS by default will start up and output standard NMEA sentences at 9600 Baud, until GPS position lock is achieved the NMEA sentences won't have a long/lat location. The module also has an LED which will start flashing once a lock is achieved.
There is no direct connection for the highly accurate 1PPS (pulse per second) signal that can be used for frequency calibration, but the flashing LED is driven by pin 3 of the GPS module which is the 1PPS (pulse per second) signal required.
The 1PSS signal, like the TX is either 0V and 3.3V, in order to use it a small lead will need to be soldered onto the board, either directly onto Pin3 of the GPS chip, or alternatively on to the small current limiting resistor used by the LED, as indicated below.
Most GPS devices have a limit on the altitude they work at, normally 60,000 feet or less. This is a legacy of the now defunct CoCom (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) restrictions. For my HAB project this restriction needs to be disabled and the GPS must be switched into 'flight mode' In the HAB community the favoured devices are made by U-BLOX
Therefore when I was sourcing a GPS I had search specifically for a inexpensive device using a U-BLOX.
 s |
| The GY-GPS6MV2 as supplied |
It is also available from domestic suppliers but often at a much more inflated price, but you don't have to wait several weeks for them to be delivered.
There are many other GPS modules available but this module seems to be one of the cheapest available. it is often listed as a NEO6MV2 GPS Module Aircraft Flight Controller.
The module consists of a small PCB 25mm x 35 mm size with a separate ceramic antenna connected by a small lead which is 25mm x 25mm in size. The Antenna is quite heavy and isn't suited to Pico HAB payloads but for other uses is more than satisfactory.
On the board is a small button-cell battery to provide backup to the GPS chip and a small EEPROM connected to the GPS chip which I believe can store configuration(s). I haven't used it myself just using the module in it's default set up at the moment. For a schematic click here
The board has four connectors VCC, GND, TX (Transmit) and RX (Receive) and can be powered by the 5V supply on Arduino boards since it has a small regulator to provide the 3.3V needed.
In most projects all that is required is data out of the GPS. The GPS TX (data out) being connected directly to the microcontrollers RX (data in) The (0V and 3.3V) level shift of the signal is compatible with the TTL input of the microcontroller.
The GPS by default will start up and output standard NMEA sentences at 9600 Baud, until GPS position lock is achieved the NMEA sentences won't have a long/lat location. The module also has an LED which will start flashing once a lock is achieved.
There is no direct connection for the highly accurate 1PPS (pulse per second) signal that can be used for frequency calibration, but the flashing LED is driven by pin 3 of the GPS module which is the 1PPS (pulse per second) signal required.
The 1PSS signal, like the TX is either 0V and 3.3V, in order to use it a small lead will need to be soldered onto the board, either directly onto Pin3 of the GPS chip, or alternatively on to the small current limiting resistor used by the LED, as indicated below.
 |
| Showing the GPS 1pps points |
Arduino, WSPR and AD9850 DDS experiments
Happy New Year!
Christmas is thankfully behind us so I can get back to what I enjoy doing once I have reorganised my workshop.
As you know I am currently developing a potential High Altitude Balloon (HAB) project and have been experimenting with the Arduino microprocessor platform and have constructed a basic prototype.
With the arrival of the GPS module(s) I have had it successfully working and even took it out for a test walk in the local area, receiving the data and uploading it to the UKHAS habitat system.
This project has revitalised my interest in 'hobby electronics' and I have ideas for a number of other Arduino based projects and have been splashing out on components from eBay. Just before Christmas I purchased an Arduino Mega board, this has more I/O pins than the current Uno and specifically some extra hardware serial ports.
Do any internet search for Arduino based amateur radio projects and it will results in numerous mentions of projects using ultra cheap DDS modules based on the Analog Devices AD9850/AD9851 chipsets.
DDS means Direct digital synthesiser and is a type of frequency generation which can be used for creating arbitrary waveforms from a single, fixed-frequency reference clock. Read the Wikipedia page for more details.
In a nutshell the AD9850 is a chip that under microprocessor control can produce a sinusoidal wave from about 1hz to 40mhz. In other words it is an accurate microprocessor controlled VFO (Variable Frequency Oscillator) or signal generator.
VFOs are the main building blocks of radio receivers and transmitters, so not surprisingly a lot of projects have utilised these modules, rather than the traditional means. Intrigued I ordered a couple of these modules for the pricey sum of £3.50 each!
Using information on George Smart's (M1GEO) website and Simon Kennedy's (G0FCU) blog I quickly had a simple WSPR beacon running!
Before anyone panics I know at the moment I only hold a Foundation Amateur Licence so the construction of homebrew transmitters isn't allowed. This 'beacon' has no power amplifier and the antenna consisted of an inch or so of wire on the DDS output. I was able to verify the operation using my SDR receiver in the same room.
Construction of commercial kits is allowed under my licence so I have ordered a Ultimate3 QRSS kit from Hans Summers for the pricely sum of £17.50! This uses the same DDS module and same microcontroller as the Arduino.
In the meantime there is also more information and ideas on Eugenr Marcus' (W3PM) webpage about the use of these DDS modules, including making frequency reference sources and calibration using the GPS module.
My new year resolution is to get my Intermediate Licence as soon as possible.. but it has been great to get down to some proper experimenting...
Christmas is thankfully behind us so I can get back to what I enjoy doing once I have reorganised my workshop.
As you know I am currently developing a potential High Altitude Balloon (HAB) project and have been experimenting with the Arduino microprocessor platform and have constructed a basic prototype.
With the arrival of the GPS module(s) I have had it successfully working and even took it out for a test walk in the local area, receiving the data and uploading it to the UKHAS habitat system.
NERD-1 and Boris have just been for a walk, first time NERD-1 has had proper GPS and running on batteries. #hab pic.twitter.com/RaKsf1rQhr
— Andrew Garratt M6GTG (@nerdsville) November 23, 2013 This project has revitalised my interest in 'hobby electronics' and I have ideas for a number of other Arduino based projects and have been splashing out on components from eBay. Just before Christmas I purchased an Arduino Mega board, this has more I/O pins than the current Uno and specifically some extra hardware serial ports.
Do any internet search for Arduino based amateur radio projects and it will results in numerous mentions of projects using ultra cheap DDS modules based on the Analog Devices AD9850/AD9851 chipsets.
DDS means Direct digital synthesiser and is a type of frequency generation which can be used for creating arbitrary waveforms from a single, fixed-frequency reference clock. Read the Wikipedia page for more details.
In a nutshell the AD9850 is a chip that under microprocessor control can produce a sinusoidal wave from about 1hz to 40mhz. In other words it is an accurate microprocessor controlled VFO (Variable Frequency Oscillator) or signal generator.
VFOs are the main building blocks of radio receivers and transmitters, so not surprisingly a lot of projects have utilised these modules, rather than the traditional means. Intrigued I ordered a couple of these modules for the pricey sum of £3.50 each!
Using information on George Smart's (M1GEO) website and Simon Kennedy's (G0FCU) blog I quickly had a simple WSPR beacon running!
Experimenting with Arduino and AD9850 DDS and GPS unit.. pic.twitter.com/rxDHQQ1aFd
— Andrew Garratt M6GTG (@nerdsville) December 29, 2013 The Arduino uses the GPS module borrowed from NERD-1 for accurate time and then controls the output of the AD9850 DDS to generate the WSPR signal.Before anyone panics I know at the moment I only hold a Foundation Amateur Licence so the construction of homebrew transmitters isn't allowed. This 'beacon' has no power amplifier and the antenna consisted of an inch or so of wire on the DDS output. I was able to verify the operation using my SDR receiver in the same room.
Construction of commercial kits is allowed under my licence so I have ordered a Ultimate3 QRSS kit from Hans Summers for the pricely sum of £17.50! This uses the same DDS module and same microcontroller as the Arduino.
In the meantime there is also more information and ideas on Eugenr Marcus' (W3PM) webpage about the use of these DDS modules, including making frequency reference sources and calibration using the GPS module.
My new year resolution is to get my Intermediate Licence as soon as possible.. but it has been great to get down to some proper experimenting...
Cannot beat a picture of an oscilloscope to look techy.. my DDS experiments continue... pic.twitter.com/T9OLHOdTLW
— Andrew Garratt M6GTG (@nerdsville) January 1, 2014 
