QSOs for Thursday
I worked 5R8IC on 20m CW (Madagascar)
73 de NG0R
73 de NG0R
QSOs for Wednesday
I worked KG4AJ on 20m SSB (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
73 de NG0R
73 de NG0R
QSOs for Tuesday
I worked NC6X on 40m PSK
73 de NG0R
73 de NG0R
QSOs for Monday
I worked HI8LAM on 17m RTTY (Dominican Republic)
73 de NG0R
73 de NG0R
Arduino + LCD Shield = Hello World
About two weeks ago I built an interface so that I could connect my Arduino Uno to a 16x2 LCD. /blog/2011/11/26/arduino-hello-world/
That worked fine but I thought that I would try a couple of other approaches...
1. LCD Shield
2. I2C LCD
So tonight I decided to play with the LCD shield. (It is an ebay special.) The first thing that I ran into was the difference in the pin out between my last example/tutorial and the new LCD shield. It took about 20 minutes to track down the difference in the pin out and get the code working.
----
/*
LiquidCrystal Library - Hello World
Demonstrates the use a 16x2 LCD display. The LiquidCrystal
library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the
Hitachi HD44780 driver. There are many of them out there, and you
can usually tell them by the 16-pin interface.
Example from: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal
This sketch prints "Hello World!" to the LCD
and shows the time.
The circuit:
* LCD RS pin to digital pin 8 (formally pin 12)
* LCD Enable pin to digital 9 (formally pin 11)
* LCD D4 pin to digital pin 4 (formally pin 5)
* LCD D5 pin to digital pin 5 (formally pin 4)
* LCD D6 pin to digital pin 6 (formally pin 3)
* LCD D7 pin to digital pin 7 (formally pin 2)
* LCD R/W pin to ground
* 10K resistor:
* ends to +5V and ground
* wiper to LCD VO pin (pin 3)
*/
// include the library code:
#include
// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);
void setup() {
// set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
lcd.begin(16, 2);
// Print a message to the LCD.
lcd.print("hello, world!");
}
void loop() {
// set the cursor to column 0, line 1
// (note: line 1 is the second row, since counting begins with 0):
lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
// print the number of seconds since reset:
lcd.print(millis()/1000);
}
----
So the tutorial/example works again... that is pretty cool. (Small steps when I have a limited amount of time to work these projects.)
73 de NG0R
That worked fine but I thought that I would try a couple of other approaches...
1. LCD Shield
2. I2C LCD
So tonight I decided to play with the LCD shield. (It is an ebay special.) The first thing that I ran into was the difference in the pin out between my last example/tutorial and the new LCD shield. It took about 20 minutes to track down the difference in the pin out and get the code working.
----
/*
LiquidCrystal Library - Hello World
Demonstrates the use a 16x2 LCD display. The LiquidCrystal
library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the
Hitachi HD44780 driver. There are many of them out there, and you
can usually tell them by the 16-pin interface.
Example from: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal
This sketch prints "Hello World!" to the LCD
and shows the time.
The circuit:
* LCD RS pin to digital pin 8 (formally pin 12)
* LCD Enable pin to digital 9 (formally pin 11)
* LCD D4 pin to digital pin 4 (formally pin 5)
* LCD D5 pin to digital pin 5 (formally pin 4)
* LCD D6 pin to digital pin 6 (formally pin 3)
* LCD D7 pin to digital pin 7 (formally pin 2)
* LCD R/W pin to ground
* 10K resistor:
* ends to +5V and ground
* wiper to LCD VO pin (pin 3)
*/
// include the library code:
#include
// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);
void setup() {
// set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
lcd.begin(16, 2);
// Print a message to the LCD.
lcd.print("hello, world!");
}
void loop() {
// set the cursor to column 0, line 1
// (note: line 1 is the second row, since counting begins with 0):
lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
// print the number of seconds since reset:
lcd.print(millis()/1000);
}
----
So the tutorial/example works again... that is pretty cool. (Small steps when I have a limited amount of time to work these projects.)
73 de NG0R
CQRLog and LOTW
A couple of days ago I spent the 5-10 minutes that is needed to get CQRLog integrated with LogBook of the World. It is not hard if you follow the directions to setup TQSL correctly.
Now that I can export/upload and download/import my logs with LOTW from within CQRLOG I am more likely to updated LOTW on a regular basis. It takes all of about 60 seconds to make the updates.
73 de NG0R
Now that I can export/upload and download/import my logs with LOTW from within CQRLOG I am more likely to updated LOTW on a regular basis. It takes all of about 60 seconds to make the updates.
73 de NG0R
QSOs for Sunday
I worked V21DB (Derrick) on 20m SSB (Antigua)
I worked FG5FR on 17m CW (Guadeloupe Island)
An interesting side note. In a previous career I was photojournalist. One of the stops in that career path was with WFTV Channel 9 based in Orlando, Fl. As part of the the team at WFTV I regularly traveled the South East United States and the Caribbean as part of our hurricane coverage.
In the early/mid `90's I flew into Antigua on a puddle jumper the day after a major hurricane to shoot a news story. I remember the utter destruction of the storm and flying across the ocean past these little islands thinking about how big that blue ocean really is. (We flew out of San Juan on a charter and St. Kitts was about the half way point of the trip over the open water to Antigua.) The trip was safe both directions... but I was paying attention to every little spot that might provide safety or rescue in case there was an issue.
73 de NG0R
I worked FG5FR on 17m CW (Guadeloupe Island)
An interesting side note. In a previous career I was photojournalist. One of the stops in that career path was with WFTV Channel 9 based in Orlando, Fl. As part of the the team at WFTV I regularly traveled the South East United States and the Caribbean as part of our hurricane coverage.
In the early/mid `90's I flew into Antigua on a puddle jumper the day after a major hurricane to shoot a news story. I remember the utter destruction of the storm and flying across the ocean past these little islands thinking about how big that blue ocean really is. (We flew out of San Juan on a charter and St. Kitts was about the half way point of the trip over the open water to Antigua.) The trip was safe both directions... but I was paying attention to every little spot that might provide safety or rescue in case there was an issue.
73 de NG0R
Softrock Case
I finally put the Softrock (that I was working on almost a year ago) into a case. It looks like the case has been sitting on my workbench to-do pile since last November.
/blog/2011/01/04/softrock-ensemble-night-8/
/blog/2011/01/02/softrock-ensemble-night-7/
/blog/2011/01/02/linux-sdr-links/
/blog/2011/01/01/softrock-ensemble-night-6/
/blog/2011/01/01/softrock-ensemble-afternoon-6-more/
/blog/2011/01/01/softrock-ensemble-afternoon-6/
/blog/2010/12/31/softrock-ensemble-afternoon-5/
/blog/2010/12/31/softrock-ensemble-night-4/
/blog/2010/12/30/softrock-ensemble-afternoon-4/
/blog/2010/12/28/softrock-ensemble-night-3/
/blog/2010/12/27/softrock-ensemble-night-2/
/blog/2010/12/26/softrock-ensemble-night-1/
When time permits it I need to fire this up and finish the final checkout. The idea was that this little gem would end up driving some of the transverters. ---So many ideas, so little time.
73 de NG0R
QSOs for Saturday
I worked J6/WD9CMD (Dave) on 17m SSB. He was operating from St Lucia with an Icom IC7200 and a Buddipole in a dipole configuration.
I worked PJ2/PA0VDV on 12m CW (Curacao)
73 de NG0R
I worked PJ2/PA0VDV on 12m CW (Curacao)
73 de NG0R
DDS60 kit assembly
As part of my Arduino and PIC discovery and research I decided to order a DDS60 kit so that I would have a nice board for experimenting with the AD9851. (Analog Devices DDS chip)
http://midnightdesignsolutions.com/dds60/index.html
The kit arrives in a nice set of plastic and includes a quick assembly guide.
As you can see once the parts are emptied out of the shipping bag they are nicely organized. The resistors and capacitors are taped to a card. The parts are color coded and the part number and value is listed on the card as well.
The kit takes about 2.5 hours to put together. It is not that the kit is hard, but you do need to be careful during the assembly steps since EVERYTHING is SMD except for the header pins.
There are a few places for parts on the PCB that are left empty. The kit likely has evolved a bit since the last PCB was created at a fab shop.
This board will work with multiple other kit systems include the PIC-El system from AA0ZZ. I have one of Craig's PIC-EL III boards (PIC based MCU) in addition to several Arduino (ATMEL AVR based MCU) to experiment with.
73 de NG0R
http://midnightdesignsolutions.com/dds60/index.html
The kit arrives in a nice set of plastic and includes a quick assembly guide.
As you can see once the parts are emptied out of the shipping bag they are nicely organized. The resistors and capacitors are taped to a card. The parts are color coded and the part number and value is listed on the card as well.
The kit takes about 2.5 hours to put together. It is not that the kit is hard, but you do need to be careful during the assembly steps since EVERYTHING is SMD except for the header pins.
There are a few places for parts on the PCB that are left empty. The kit likely has evolved a bit since the last PCB was created at a fab shop.
This board will work with multiple other kit systems include the PIC-El system from AA0ZZ. I have one of Craig's PIC-EL III boards (PIC based MCU) in addition to several Arduino (ATMEL AVR based MCU) to experiment with.
73 de NG0R