5185 strong

[syfr]

Im copying 5185 so well tonight I hear it on mt "easychair" receiver < Drake SW2 and indoor loop up all of 9' (wirewrap wire tacked to the ceiling) > in my living room.

Good job...with the duty cycle so low your batteries should last a looonnnggg time.

[Seamus]

Thanks for the report. 

It's been up continuously for almost a week and a half now on the same charge, with no solar panel connected.  I just measured at the terminals, and it's still got 11.6 volts left in the tank, on a pair of 6 volt, 4.5Ah gel cells in series.  The keying is handled by the CMOS version of a 555 chip, using a 2N2222 to switch power to a "Michigan Mighty Mite" transmitter that's been tweaked for operation on the crystal's frequency.  Current drain in a continuous key-down state is right around 125 mA, so it's just sipping at the supply with something like a 25% duty cycle every two seconds.

I got some new tools recently, and I'm looking forward to playing around a bit in the next few days, probably tossing together another test unit or two, to play around with some keying and other experiments.  I'll also be able to look at experimenting with enclosure and mounting options, in hopes of getting this one out "into the wild" before too long.

[syfr]

re:solar, Ive scored some vw panels off of ebay in the$15 range....3.5 watt, so they say.

Im awaiting return to service of one arm so I can package and deploy too.  :-)

[cmradio]

re:solar, Ive scored some vw panels off of ebay in the$15 range....3.5 watt, so they say.

Short circuit current * open circuit voltage and the part they don't tell you... that's when it's illuminated by the Death Star's LAZER BEAM!

Peace!

[Seamus]

Yeah, the lack of standardization - or at least the lack of adherence to said standards - is apparently a big issue in solar cells and panels.

A while back, I picked up some "5 Watt" panels from Harbor Freight, for what amounted to 50% off (big coupon, on top of an existing discount).  One of those sitting inside the workroom window (with double panes, a window screen, and some minor filtering) will float the gel cells on the test beacon, apparently indefinitely.  I had it running for around 3 weeks solid into a dummy load, at a slightly higher duty cycle, and they stayed right up there near the full-charge voltage the entire time.  In an open-air mounting situation, one should be able to float a beacon plus a PIC- or AVR-based keyer without any problems, probably even with a few bells and whistles added on.

[syfr]

just got some keyer chips for beacon use in the $3 range.  think i'm going to send qsl info.

[beaconman]

I heard it up on the global tuners tonight
Conn. Receiver ...

Looks like it is doing well up and down the east coast...

No Blinky though...