Can one ever have enough antennas? The answer to this question is no, no one can not. This is the first law of HAM radio; more antennas = more better. But with more antennas(antennae?)(aunt-Anna?) come more coaxial cable runs, and additional runs means additional holes in the side of the house. This may be problematic
In the amateur radio world, there are various forms of packet radio used throughout the bands. When looking at the higher bands such as 2 meter, as far as popularity goes, the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) takes the cake. It is useful for relaying geographic positions, as well as other telemetry and short messages.
For various holidays, I have some small windowed displays which feature LED lighting; all low voltage stuff powered by 5 volt USB, as well as some displays that are more year-round. Not wanting the displays lit during the day, and immediately tiring of plugging and unplugging the lighting each day, I decided that an automated
After completing the previous project which could locally or remotely control DC power through the use of PWM. I started to think about methods to control AC or mains power. This of course presents a new set of challenges. First of all, our single transistor used to switch DC previously cannot be used. Second, we
After having acquired quite a few LED strips from irreparable televisions, and having fun building circuits to drive them, it became clear that some way to control them in a more meaningful way would be useful. A simple on/off switch could suffice, but dimming would also be a nice feature, and perhaps means of remote
Finding the right voltage DC power supply can sometimes be difficult. Sure, there are standard supply voltages, such as 5, 9 and 12, but if you need something that’s different from one of these voltages, it can be a bit of a hassle to find a supply. Of course there are inexpensive variable output DC
After the popular single board computer, the Raspberry Pi 4 B was released by Raspberry Pi Foundation in mid 2019, I was excited to get my hands on one. I had been using the previous model (the Pi 3) for several years prior, and I enjoyed the small form factor, relative good performance, and access
To monitor the garage at my current residence, I first thought running a wire attached a sensor would be required. Because of the difficulty involved in running a wire I began to search for alternatives. I stumbled upon some low cost and quite minute transmitters and receivers on Ebay that operate on the (unbeknownst to
Running multiple computers can have advantages. In my case at my desk I run a windows machine during the day, and keep a Linux machine running around the clock for various tasks. Usually remote terminal access is all that is needed for day to day interfacing, but sometimes I’d like to be able to access
Over the last few decades, power supplies have changed quite a bit. In most small inexpensive consumer electronics of the past, you’d find a small transformer, and a linear voltage regulator. This worked quite well to achieve low voltage DC for the product to operate. There are however limitations with this kind of supply for