I sang happy birth day to @nei…
November 9th, 2011I sang happy birth day to @neilhimself to night. How cool is that?
Stuff that I like, stuff I hate and all that is in between….
Wait for @rosiesgrosso – going…
November 9th, 2011Wait for @rosiesgrosso – going to @neilhimself and @amandapalmer show!
Shaving Yaks – Round 2…..
November 6th, 2011So with a newly wired house, running through my new GigE switch, I needed to focus on building some kind of computer rack. I had lots of options, from buying a rack used, to getting one of those musician portable rack cases. After lots of Googling, I finally decided to go with building one myself out of 2×4’s. I know it won’t ‘look’ as nice, but it will also allow me to build it to fit the exact spot and expected need. I started with this guys plans and started adapting to my space.
Mr. Duke’s plans were for a full height rack, which I believe lives in his garage. I decided to build one half as tall and just put it on top of the existing cabinets in the laundry room. I am planning on ‘hiding’ stuff in the lower cabinets, like the UPS system and then I wouldn’t need to-do quite so much demolition work. I still ended up removing one set of cabinets which were mounted on the wall. After pulling them down, I get the impression these were left overs from another remodel.
I spent quite a bit of time designing the rack, so I could make sure it would fit everything. I had originally believed there would be LOTS of extra space, but in the end there is just enough with a little bit extra for future growth. I can’t seem to find the plans I made, I would like to scan them. I made one small post design change, which was shorting the width of the rack by about 1.5 inches. I don’t know why Mr. Duke made his so wide, but it wasn’t needed to hold a 19′ computer case and it fit my space better.
I did several test fits before assembling the whole thing, but only seemed to capture one of them. Y
ou can see the D-Star repeater computer acting as a test model. Since finishing the rack, I’ve been asked several questions that I’ll address right now. The cabinet isn’t the only thing holding the rack in there. I’ve attached several braces to the wall studs along the wall and screwed the rack to them. I have also added ‘braces’ under the cabinet. I can climb up there without it even flexing now.
The second question that has come up is about dust, since the cloths dryer is right there. This was something I worried about, but found a simple solution for when digging around the garage. We had bought a air purifier when Isaac was real little and never used. I just stuck it on the top shelf and let it run all the time. It is noisy, which is why we never used it originally, but it does a great job keeping the air dust down. I’m thinking of installing one in my office actually.
So with the test fits done, I was able to finish construction of the rack. My helper actually did quite a bit of assembly, he really likes using the cordless drill. The general layout of the rack is pretty simple. The bottom section will hold 8U’s worth of computers. Right now my main server is a HUGE 4U case and sits on the bottom, the D-Star repeater is a 2U and sits on the main server. I have room for one more 2U case, which will probably be filled with a XEN host in the future. (EDITOR NOTE: I’ve decided to replace the 2U computer with a smaller 1U, running off a 32G CF card. The 2U will get turned into my XEN host system)
I should point out that the choice of colors and actually most of the painting was handled by my assistant. The raw boards look was going to get old, so I was going to slap a coat of black or dull brown on it. But Isaac found some cans of blue left over from a bathroom paint job and the red is left over from our living room.
Above the computers is a shelf and it is mainly to hold the monitor, keyboard and random other 
things which take up space. Right now I have a old P3 desktop sitting in there, which is running my DVAP. Ultimately that will move over to the D-Star computer, but I needed to move it when everything else moved out of the shack and I like having the DVAP running. (EDITOR NOTE: I have since moved the DVAP over to the 2U computer and pulled the old P3 out of the rack completely)
The space where the P3 desktop is right now is actually the space I set aside for the cable-modem and router. I haven’t gotten around to moving them yet, they are still sitting under the workbench in the shack.
Above the main shelf is a second shelf, which right now has the GigE switch and will ultimately have the repeater radio. If I decide to expand beyond the DVAP and add 2m node, all of those pieces will go up there.
You might have noticed the dead space behind the computers on the bottom. I didn’t originally have a good plan for it, but obviously it is required to have enough space on the other levels. I have since found it very useful, makes getting to the back of the computers super easy for hooking them up. I also haven’t finished all the power distribution work needed. I have a power strip screwed to the back brace right now, but ultimately I’ll move my super UPS to the system. (EDITOR NOTE: Due to a lost of power and having to ‘fix’ some bad HD activity, the super UPS is now installed.)
I have been REALLY happy with how this project has turned out so far. It is amazing how noisy all this stuff is and now its out of my office/shack, I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. While our summer hasn’t been all that warm, I’ve had none of the heat problems of years past. I know getting everything out of the closet, so it has real air circulation has really helped. I have since switched gears and moved back to the actual driver for this project, which is getting the D-Star repeater built. I picked up a new antenna for it at HRO on our trip to Oregon and will get it installed on the tower soon. (before the rain comes) I dug out all the components last week and hopefully this weekend will get the interface cable built.
NOTE: I started writing this post almost two months ago. In that time I’ve made good progress, which will be the wrote up in a future post.
How I spent my spring vacation….
November 6th, 2011(NOTE: I just found this post in my drafts folder, no idea why I didn’t publish it. So I’m doing it now, this was originally wrote right after I returned from the Dayton Hamvention in May 2011)
This was the year that I went to the Dayton Hamvention as a civilian. The whole Dayton experience is so different from when I worked the Icom booth, it is really like two different events. On the plus side, going with Icom means having everything paid for (I’m thinking $1.2k if you include mad money) and the obvious bonus of getting to be a ‘vendor’. The vendor thing opens many doors for you and being one of the biggest (if not the biggest) vendor is slick. But the down side is that you really don’t get to fully experience the whole show, since your kind of stuck in the middle for the whole day.
In years past, I would get to ‘run’ through the flea market and maybe see 1/2 of it. There had to be something really significant for me to slow down and look at it. As I discovered this year, it really takes closer to 3-4 hours to cover the flea market. Jeremy (NH6Z) and I walked the entire thing on Saturday morning, we stopped at any stall which had old networking gear, Tek test equipment or anything repeater like. (Plus one vintage radio display where I really wanted to buy the Drake 2B receiver) Obviously we were stopping quite a bit and it was a hoot. I should have taken one more swing through to catch anything I missed and to pick up the 1/2 inch hardline N connectors I saw, but I was ready to get out of the sun.
The other thing which really made a difference for me was getting to attend some of the forum talks. I went to the D-Star forum, which I’ve never been able to in the past. (Scott-N7SS always went and someone had to cover for him) I should have went to the TAPR forum, but I managed to over sleep on Friday, so I missed it. I also went to most of the contesting forum, which was really interesting. They had a great talk on PJ2T contesting station which I will have to look into more. I don’t know if I have the time to join, but I thought it looked really cool.
I learned a long time ago that the big dinners are just not my thing.(The DX dinner and Contesting dinner being the biggest) I missed going to the D-Star pizza feed, since my plane came in late on Thursday. I did get to attend the roadkill roast that the TAPR board puts on Saturday night and I really enjoy it. (Thanks Tom-N8ZM for hosting it and Jeremy-NH6Z for the invite) Instead of the big formal dinners, I sort of ‘arranged’ a Pacific NorthWest Geek BBQ Dinner (PNWGBBQD?) on Friday night. We went out after the D-Star thing that Icom and the Georgia D-Star group put on at Drury hotel. (K7VE, N7SS, KK7DS & NH6Z) Must say this was certainly the most interesting and fun evening out of the trip for me. (thanks guys!)
So here are the three most interesting things I saw at Dayton and some random pictures which still amaze me.
- Elecraft KX3 – This is really new, I don’t think their website even has info on it yet.
Not sure how to describe it, because it is clearly designed to solve a couple different problems. My best description is a KX1 built on top of a K3, but with many/most? of the features of a K3. - Solved Scott-N7SS M2 rotor problem – This is probably the ultimate geeky and a personal thing, but I’ve been hunting all over the internet to find the wiring diagram for the M2 2800 rotor for Scott.(http://www.m2inc.com/products/rotors/or28002.html) He has one of these, but had zero docs and there is little info available on the net about it. On Saturday morning I entered via side door and got straight into the hall where the M2 booth is located.
One of the people working the M2 booth had a very deep knowledge of these rotors and was able to tell me what colors they have used for the two sets of control wires. (AC voltage for turning the rotor and DC to flip the reed switches) With this info and the pictures I took, I think we can finally get Scott’s working. Then he’ll be out of excuses and will have to finally get his tower in the air. :-) - Talked with Mark Philips about the DV-Node adaptor I ordered – for those that have been following along with my quest to build a homebrew D-Star repeater, you know that I’ve been waiting a LONG TIME for the last piece. I ordered a node adaptor from Mark back in Nov 2010 and am still waiting for it.(http://www.gmskhotspot.com/) He has had supply problems and recently has even stopped responding to e-mail. (If you think I’m frustrated, you should look around the net!) I actually put a order in for one of the Dutch boards, which became available again a couple weeks ago and at this point still believe it will get here before the one I ordered from Mark. But anyhow, Mark was in the flea market and took my info. He says it has either been shipped (but I’ve never received it) or is in the current batch which have been waiting on a part, which is now sitting at his house. I just hope to eventually get it before the summer is over…..
EDITOR NOTE: About two weeks after Dayton, I received a board from Mark. It would enumerate to the computer, but won’t decode anything. Thinking of just tossing it and washing my hands of him.
I also got some pictures of the amazing tower system they bring in to Dayton, this year they painted it red and white.
I think I found a mobile antenna solution for the truck, which will play nice with the parking garage and not mess up the paint on the top.
There is this company (DZ Company) trying to get into the radio kit business, it will be interesting to see where this goes in the next year.
I also got to watch one of the AMSat demo’s and ran into Diana Eng, who makes all the cool ham radio videos for Make magazine.
One of the FUD things talked about at the show was from Robin-AA4RC of DVDongle fame. Robin was discussing the idea of being able to access a DV-Dongle using a Android tablet or eventually an iPad. Robin-AA4RC talked about it, but didn’t actually demo anything. I spoke to him about it briefly and he is going down the road of making the DV-Dongle available remotely, which means both the iPad and just about any other computer will be able to access a dongle over the network. If you can remote it, there is no reason why you couldn’t use a dv-dongle to get a homebrew repeater on the d-plus network, without belong to the US-Trust system.
I should mention that Icom was showing several new radios which were pretty interesting. The long due replacement for the IC-746 was out in the IC-7400(http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7410/default.aspx), the IC-9100 (http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/satellite/9100/default.aspx) was finally available for hands on playing and actually purchase. They also had a new booth layout, which I liked better. (No raised counter, so you weren’t looking down on the visitors) The only down side I heard was that also meant no chairs. It is HARD to stand on your feet for 8 hours on that concrete. I didn’t have todo it this year and I still had sore feet each day.
Nothing happier then a little …
November 6th, 2011Nothing happier then a little boy with a car puzzle. http://t.co/1wU30e39
Isaac (I mean Superman) breaki…
October 29th, 2011Isaac (I mean Superman) breaking his first board at Tae Kwon Do http://t.co/Ze53rbC7
Oh crap is it raining today……
October 28th, 2011Oh crap is it raining today…
Lovely hike to the truck….
@bernard_ben Well played, well…
October 28th, 2011@bernard_ben Well played, well played….. ;-)
@bernard_ben Yes, but you are …
October 28th, 2011@bernard_ben Yes, but you are no longer one of the cool people. :-)
Someone is tweeting from a new…
October 28th, 2011Someone is tweeting from a new Amazon Fire!