Dozcord
Doz' Blog
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5M ago
 If you need to message me, join up to the Dozcord Discord server. There's an invite link https://discord.com/invite/k77BJrsXx2 ..read more
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Making an attic antenna for LORA APRS & TinyGS
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
Recently I changed my job.  Sadly this led to the loss of use of the wideband Discone antenna mounted for test purposes on the side of the old building, which I'd used for my TinyGS and LORA APRS igate.  I have got an igate at my home, however I'm disappointed by it's woeful performance on the co-linear antenna I fitted in November last year, it requires further investigation when the weather improves! The plan is to mount a simple quarter wave ground-plane antenna in the attic.  First things first, an antenna is made up around an SMA connector, and given a tune-up using ..read more
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PiCow - the Raspberry Pi Computer Originated World
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
There I was, minding my own business, when the lovely owner of Radios-TV.co.uk commented on my PiPatGen thread..... Dammit! I was supposed to be tidying the workshop (in all fairness, some tidying occurred!) A PiCow ... why not ?!?? (if you don't know what C.O.W. is ... look here.) So I did a spot of research into video playback, and found a brilliant video playback program called hello_video designed for continuously looping video for use on advertising hoardings and art installations. Excellent. Some footage was conjured up, and exported from my video editing software (Kdenlive ..read more
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PiPatGen - The Raspberry Pi Television Pattern Generator.
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
Recently I came by an old Model B Raspberry Pi, whilst once the cutting edge of single board computing, is now showing it's age a bit. So what projects can we create today with it? How about a pattern generator for our vintage analogue TV sets? It's got suitable composite video output (I *think* even the current Pi's (although sadly not the 400) have this (if you can find one)), so this project *may* work fine on something newer. Here's the plan: Have a set of test patterns available, that we can select, say Test Card F, Test Card C, a PM5544 type, maybe the "Native American" pattern ..read more
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Hackaday hero (??)
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
Thanks again Hackaday! https://hackaday.com/2022/11/13/power-up-vintage-electronics-less-unsafely-with-a-dim-bulb-tester ..read more
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Aliexpress LoRa Amplifier AB-IOT-433
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
I've been experimenting with APRS using the T-Beam LoRa hardware, as described in Andreas Spiess HB9BLA Wireless' YouTube video here. (Andreas has two YouTube channels, both are very much worth subscribing to, here and here.) Now the standard T-beam hardware outputs around 100mW, and I'm getting a range of around 9 miles, although one packet managed to make a 12 mile journey one morning! Perhaps a little more output power would help. AliExpress advertises a small RX/TX amplifier. A quick search for "Lora amplifier" pulls up a few, and I bought this one. It arrives from the seller ..read more
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Thanks Hackaday!
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
Wow. Thanks Hackaday! https://hackaday.com/2022/10/30/garmin-hud-got-discontinued-but-not-trashed/#comment-6526059 ..read more
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Building the XUM1541 USB to IEEE Serial interface
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
A while ago I repaired a 1541 Disc drive (here), and despite fixing the VIC-20 (here) I hadn't tested the drive.  I had, however, seen a project called XUM1541 (details are here) which gives us a USB to IEEE serial....  So simple!  An Arduino Pro Micro is pressed into service, but V8 of the firmware resisted many attempts to flash onto my Pro Micro... the webpage described hitting the Reset button just before running the avrdude command line.... but the Pro Micro doesn't have a reset button. I used a pair of tweezers to short out the RST line to GND on the Pro Micro, but stil ..read more
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Lamp Limiter / Dim Bulb Tester
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
One piece of test gear I've never had is a lamp limiter or dim bulb tester.  They're ideal for s-l-o-w-l-y awakening our vintage electronics up from years of slumber, without too much drama.  I've been helping my neighbour, Steve, build a pub in his back garden, and while we were testing out some of the electrics, he donated a box of three incandescent 60w lamps to the cause. Ideal. You can't use LED lamps, and halogen lamps are far from ideal. Here's the schematic. It's a simple enough circuit. The live side of the mains is supplied via two 60w lamps (in series), each lamp can ..read more
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The C2N'terface
Doz' Blog
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1y ago
So, we're here, sorting out our micros, and I've hit a problem...  I'd love to build a Raspberry Pi based 1541 emulator, but Pi's are currently unavailable due to the dreaded chip shortage, and I won't pay "scalper" prices, so that's out. What's needed is to connect my age-old trusty MP3 player to our VIC-20 (or C-64/128 , PET ... anything that wants a C2N plugged in!) Now the PET, VIC and C64 don't really have an audio in, like a ZX81 or Spectrum. They expect a processed square wave pulse train.  A bit of an internet search, followed by a good look at the schematic of a C2N, and ..read more
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