Category: Electronics

Explorations in things electronic

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Awash in parts

I happened to stumble upon a MiniLab II electronics lab that Jason/NT7S was selling. Seems to be an older version of this Mini-Lab 200 and reminds me of the old Radio Shack electronics lab kits that I used to see in their stores when I was a kid.

Along with the Mini-Lab, he was nice enough to send along a bunch of other goodies: capacitors, variable capacitors, potentiometers, diodes, transistors, 555 timer chips, ATtiny85 microcontrollers, oscillators, inductors, connectors and some copper clad boards. More things than I know what to do with, but I’m sure I’ll learn and find something to put them to use in.

My parts bin has fewer empty boxes now. I may need another one. I definitely need more workbench space.

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SoftRock SDR radio kits

The SoftRock SDR radio kits I ordered arrived in a little box yesterday. The SoftRock Lite II receiver and the SoftRock Ensemble RXTX kits I got both contain a lot of bits and pieces to put onto relatively small boards.

The SoftRock Lite II kit.

A bunch of components in individual ziplock bags for a SoftRock Lite II SDR radio receiver

The SoftRock RXTX kit.

A bunch of components in individual ziplock bags for a SoftRock RXTX Ensemble SDR radio

It will be a little while before I’m ready to tackle either of them. The receiver kit looks like it will be the easiest to start with. There are a few SMT components to put on, but not as many as the RXTX kit.

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New kit: Etherprog by @NT7S

I received a new kit from Jason/@NT7S in the mail yesterday.

It’s a small little kit called EtherProg. Documentation is somewhat sparse, consisting of a circuit schematic, bill of materials and some source code.

I’m not entirely sure what it does yet, but there’s an ATtiny85 microcontroller in the middle of it. That and the source code tells me it’s something programmable or a programming interface for other projects.

Sure, I could ask, but I think it will be more fun to put it together and try to figure it out for myself.

Then I’ll ask.

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Breadboard power

Spent a couple hours putting together the two breadboard power supply kits while I was waiting for laundry to get done.

Soldered all the pieces into place and worked on refining my technique. I think I’m starting to get better at it now. Still looks a little messy, but it’s not quite as blobby as when I first started. Managed to not burn myself either.

Two power supply modules for breadboards. One module has a USB-B connector, and the other module has a 2.1mm DC power barrel jack connector.
Power supply modules for breadboards

Grabbed a USB A/B cable off the scanner (closest one available), plugged the B side into the power supply and…nothing.

Crap, I did something wrong putting it together.

Then I realized the other end wasn’t plugged into anything. Plugged the A side into the computer and I was rewarded with an LED light coming on!

The USB power supply works perfectly. Measured pretty close to the 5 and 3.3 V it’s supposed to put out. I need to find a suitable wall wart for the other one. The closest handy one I had (used for the cradle for my Tungsten T3) only puts out 5V/1A. It gave me just under 3V, but didn’t change when I switched to 5V. Think I’ve got a few more wall warts around that will put out the 6-12 V the power supply wants. Just need to hunt them down.

Now to find some projects to make use of them.

More soldering XPs!

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Kit building frenzy

The guy at my local Radio Shack is starting to recognize me.

RS Guy: “Hello, back for more stuff?”

Me: “Yep, back for more bits.”

After whetting my appetite for electronics (again) and soldering with the Morse code key and its breadboarded cousin, I’ve added a couple more kits to work on and practice my soldering with.

Both are small, simple breadboard power supply kits from Sparkfun. Haven’t started assembling them yet, but they’re pretty easy. The components and pieces are smaller though and it’s a much smaller board to work with. Now that I know a little more about soldering, they’ll be good projects for me to practice on. The kits will provide power for future breadboard projects I work on (provided I don’t cook anything in the process of soldering).

A tip from Andrew/AC8JO let me to the SDR radio kits at Five Dash. After a bit of consideration, I decided to get the Softrock RXTX and Softrock Lite II kits. Not sure what frequency band i’ll build them for, but I can decide that later.

I’ll need to gain a few more levels in soldering and pick up an SMT soldering subspecialty before I tackle the RXTX kit. The Softrock Lite II I think I can make with a little more soldering practice.