The K5WLF Blog

I sure dropped the ball on keeping up to writing regular posts for this blog. Students are back on campus for the fall semester and things are always hectic for the first couple of weeks. It takes a bit of time to get the returning student hands back in the slot and to hire new ones to replace those who graduated.

But, on this long weekend, I’ve finally gotten a break to write a short post. Short, because there really hasn’t been much going on that y’all would really be interested in. But, I do have one new project underway.

Back in the QuickBASIC days, the advanced version of QB was called the Microsoft BASIC Professional Developers System (PDS). I used the PDS to write a pretty decent little program that automated most of the calculations that someone working with electronics would commonly use. I got thinking about that program recently and decided, especially in view of all the new hams that are coming along, that it would be a good idea to update it. And, while I was at it, I decided that it would be a good idea to make it cross platform. A lot of folks, myself included, are using Linux these days, and there are more Mac users than there used to be. That pretty much lets out the old BASIC PDS, because programs written in that language are only usable on the Wintel platform. Plus, I wanted to be able to work in Linux. Time to learn a new language.

After doing a bit of research, and talking with Bill (WA5PB), my local *NIX guru, I decided on Python. It’s an object-oriented language that also works well for functional programming and has more features than I’ll probably ever use. Python is an interpreted language, which means that it’ll run on any platform that has the Python modules installed. Downloads of Python are free for all three major platforms — *NIX, Windows and Mac.

Just as a matter of general interest, it’s not named after the long, sinuous reptile which kills its dinner by squeezing said dinner with multiple coils of its body, but rather after the comedy troupe, Monty Python’s Flying Circus. That makes it even better.

So, I’m learning a new programming language while updating my old program. I currently have nine modules written out of the necessary fifty or so. The first release will be a text-based interface, which is run from the command line. For the second version, I’ll also have to learn the Tk graphical user interface (GUI) programming language, since I intend for the program to have a GUI in V2. It won’t make it work any better, but folks seem to like being able to work with a mouse and have pretty windows to click in.

When the program is completed, it’ll be available right here on Rebel Wolf Online for free download. There’s no ETA for it at the moment, but I’ll be working on it whenever I can find the time. In between all the other projects that I work on when I can find the time. At least I’m busy, Beats the hell out of being bored.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

Once again, I have been lax in my postings to this blog. I don’t know if being on vacation is an excuse or a reason. But that’s the case. Actually, it’s been a “stay-cation” this year. The global economic fiasco put a bit of a hitch in my intended summer trip to the Emerald Isle. I first visited Ireland in 2004, and have been there a total of four times. I love the people and the weather in my favorite destination of Co. Donegal, but finances just didn’t permit it this year. So, I stayed home. While Éire has been having a cool summer with highs in the 60°F range with almost daily rain, I’ve been sitting in North Central Texas with temps in the high 90s and low 100s. We did get about 2″ of rain in two hours yesterday, though. It made the heat wetter.

I’ve managed to stay busy on a couple of projects I’ve been working on. Haven’t made particularly good progress, but I’ve stayed busy. Even got caught up into doing a bit of work-related stuff that popped up during my absence from the office. Wonder what they’d have done if I’d been in Ireland? Maybe it’s a good thing I stayed home this year.

Have had some other good, clean electronics fun, though. The guys on the radio-telescope project dropped by one day with a tech problem and we got that solved. And, today, a fellow ham and good friend came by to run a few parts on my lathe for a new 20-meter beam he’s building. Then we got involved in trying to fix a Kenwood Station Monitor he bought on eBay. He knew it was DOA when he bought it, but we’re having a bit more trouble isolating the problem than we expected. Always good to be humbled a bit by an inanimate device, I guess.

Still got some more work to do for work and still got my projects to finish. Have to be back in the office on 23 Aug, so it’s just the rest of the week to do whatever passes for a relaxing vacation at my house. Just wanted to let y’all know that I was still around and hadn’t gone paws up. I’ll try to be a bit more regular with the posts. Honest.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

I mentioned in my last post that I’d soon be ordering a 12 VDC power supply for my new Toshiba Satellite A665D-S6051 lappie from Lind Electronics. I’ve been dealing with Lind for several years now, and I figure it’s time to tell y’all a bit more about them.

Lind Electronics manufactures and sells power supplies for laptop computers. AC supplies, DC supplies and, now, combined AC/DC power supplies. Yep! Their latest product is a combination Auto/Air/AC supply that also has a USB power port so you can charge your iPhone or other device that’ll charge from a USB port. That’s the one I’m going to get.

The Toshiba A665D is new enough that it’s not listed yet on the Lind website, so I sent an email to Lind, using the contact form on their website. It was pretty late at night when I sent the email, but by 1000 the next morning there was a note in my Inbox from Josh Mueller, informing me which of their products were the right ones for my computer. Great response time. Thanks, Josh.

I’d inquired about both the Auto/Air adapter and the Auto/Air/AC adapter, and Josh sent me the Lind part numbers for both items. I’d guessed that the supplies for the Toshiba A500 computer would also fit the A665D, and I was right. Toshiba is pretty consistent with the power requirements and the connectors for their laptops.

As soon as I get this post uploaded, I’ll be ordering the Auto/Air/AC adapter from the Lind website. It’s going to be really nice to only have to carry one power supply when I go on a trip somewhere. The same supply will be in daily use to run the computer from the 12 VDC system at the house, rather than plugging it into the AC grid. And, I won’t have to tie up a computer USB port to recharge my iPhone. The power supply (you’ve probably figured out by now that Lind calls them ‘adapters’) accepts AC inputs from 100 VAC – 240 VAC, and from 50 Hz – 60 Hz. That pretty much covers the world. The DC voltage input range is from 11.5 VDC to 16 VDC, and there’s an included aircraft power cable for those power receps onboard airliners. (Remember that the airliner receps only provide a max of 75 watts.)

If that range of power inputs doesn’t cover your needs, go ahead and order the adapter from Lind and then contact Powerstream, and I’ll guarantee you that they’ll have a converter that’ll match whatever power source you’re dealing with to one of the inputs of the Lind adapter.

One of the drawbacks, in my opinion, of most of the new laptops is the proliferation of I/O ports on the sides of the computers while not using the available area on the backside of the lappie. My new Satellite is no exception and, although I’m already in love with the little computer (running Ubuntu Linux), I’d much prefer they’d used some of the space on the back and not had cables extending out from the sides of the box. The ones on the left side don’t bother me that much, but I really wish they’d left the right side free of ports so that cables don’t extend into the area where my mouse pad sits. I hate those little touchpads that lappies have, so, unless I’m fully portable, I use a mouse with the computer. By providing a USB port to charge my iPhone, the Lind adapter will eliminate a USB cable protruding from the right side of my computer. I’m smiling now.

A quick word about Powerstream. They make voltage converters for just about any range of input and output voltages (AC and/or DC) that you’ll ever need and a few other nifty devices that you’ll appreciate. For example, the output from the alternator system in your vehicle isn’t really satisfactory for charging SLA batteries. I carry an SLA battery in my pickup that’s normally charged by the PV panels in the rack. For those rare times when the PV panels aren’t making the trip, I have a Powerstream charger that accepts the input from the on-board alternator and converts it to the proper multi-mode charge protocol for SLA batteries. Powerstream is another vendor that I recommend without reservation.

Between Lind Electronics and Powerstream, you’ll be able to power your laptop, and most other devices, no matter where you are in the world and regardless of what power source you’re using. By the way, don’t forget to use Anderson PowerPoles to make your 12 VDC connections. They’re available from Powerwerx — another one of the all-time great suppliers.

A WX Note…

In the “Daily Bounce” (our daily email exchange) from my dear friend Ash in Co. Donegal, Republic of Ireland, this morning, Ash told me that it’s been raining daily and that he’s still running the heater. Seems the torrential rains are keeping him from mowing the lawn (I thought that’s what the sheep were for) and really screwing up his monthly model rocket launches at the planetarium and maritime museum in Greencastle. Greencastle is at 55°N latitude, so I don’t really expect the WX to be as warm as it is here in Texas at 32°N. Also, I know that if it gets up to around 75°F (24°C) the natives start grumbling (they call it “whinging”) about the heat. That’s understandable — I don’t like it much warmer than 75°F either — but it is a tad unusual to still be running the heater on the next to last day of July. Makes you wonder about global warming, doesn’t it? However, there’s definitely something to be said for the pleasant aroma of a peat fire in the hearth. Truly, the aroma of a so-called fire, fueled by peat, is really pleasant. The problem is that peat, according to Irish wisdom, is the only substance in the world which creates smoke and flames without emitting heat. Yeah, it’s not really a very efficient fuel, so that explains the large market for heating oil in Ireland. But, I digress.

After reading Ash’s “whinge” about the weather in his part of the Emerald Isle, I did a screen capture of the graphical forecast for my part of Texas and sent it to him. I’ll share it with you and those of you who live in more temperate climes will say, “How can those folks live there?”, and those who live here will understand. For those in more temperate climes who are questioning, I can only reply, “We choose to live in Texas because it’s the greatest state in the United States and we can’t really conceive of living anywhere else. But, yeah, summers are a bit hot”. I admit, in all honesty, that if I ever could force myself to leave Texas, which I can’t, the only other place I could ever think of living is Co. Donegal, ROI.

Herewith, the screen cap:
(only slightly distorted by the blogging software)

Yeah, it’s going to be a tad warm here for the next few days. And, I just started a three-week “stay-cation”, so I’ll have to be using my own A/C for the duration rather than sitting in a cool office and an even cooler planetarium at work. Oh well, at least I’ll be getting my metalworking shop set up. Seeya next time. Stay cool.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

I left work a few minutes early today. No worries. I got there early and didn’t take a full hour for lunch. My intention was to get to the local ChinaMart before the after-work crowd got there. I just wanted to get in and out quickly and head for the house. Just as I headed for the check-out after I’d collected my purchases, I heard the sound of rain on the roof. Not just rain, but RAIN!

I’d picked up a loaf of Mrs. Baird’s Large bread, my last item — was headed for the “10 Items or Less” register and looked out through the front doors on the grocery side. The rain was coming down so hard that it was creating a mist inside the entry foyer when the doors opened. Oh well. No big deal. The rain can’t last like that for long. So, I proceeded to the #11 register.

I was wrong. The rain could, and did, last that long and after I’d paid for my groceries and gotten to the entry foyer on the GM side, it was still raining hard enough to afford diminished visibility. I stood with the other folks who didn’t really want to get drenched on the way to their vehicles for a few minutes and finally decided that it wouldn’t really hurt me to get a bit wet. So, I said “the hell with it” and proceeded to my pickup. My truck was parked about four slots from the end of the line closest to the store and I was wet to the skin before I was half-way there.

I chunked the groceries in the truck and scrambled behind the wheel. Took a moment to wipe the rain off my glasses and hoped that I hadn’t drowned my iPhone. Putting the headphone jack on top of the phone was a really stupid idea and I was hoping that the flap of my belt holster had kept the downpour from activating the moisture sensor in the phone. Evidently it did. Because the phone still works.

Finally behind the wheel, and with the rain beating on the roof of the cab, I fired up the pickup and let the A/C cool the cab. I said it was raining, I didn’t say it’d had time to cool off yet. With an eagle eye on the mirrors, I backed out into the lane, barely able to see where I was backing, hoping that anyone coming down the lane would be going very slowly. Nobody came down the traffic lane and I put the pickup into “Drive”. With the wipers running at max speed, and the water standing about one inch deep across the entire parking lot, I headed for the street. I picked up the mic for the 2m radio and announced “K5WLF mobile” just to let the folks on the repeater know I was on the air.

KE5VYV (Aaron) came back to me, asking my location and inquiring about the WX. I described the conditions in the WallyWorld parking lot and told him that I really felt like I should have declared “Maritime Mobile”. He said he was in about the same type of conditions, although on a road, rather than a parking lot, and that visibility was lousy for him too. We cleared, to allow each other to “put both hands on the wheel” and I headed for home.

There was water standing on the streets in all the traffic lanes and it was simply a matter of picking the shallowest spot and doing your best. I was initially headed north on Wolfe Nursery Road and it was best to stay in the west lane because the east lane was flowing curb deep. I turned east onto Frey and immediately discovered that the south lane was curb deep there too. Fortunately, everybody on the road was going slowly because of the water and traffic was moving about 20-25 MPH instead of the posted 40. There’s a spot on Frey, just in front of Gilbert Intermediate School, that dips down and collects water during a storm. I hit that at about 25 MPH with another vehicle about 100 feet behind me. It was deep enough that I started to hydroplane, even at that low speed, and as I felt the front tires disconnect from the road, I reached down and hit the switch for the lightbar, hoping that it would alert the car behind me to slow down. The following driver was alert and paying attention and in the mirror I saw the nose of his SUV dip sharply as he responded to my signal. I say “he”. I couldn’t really tell who was driving. It could just as easily have been a female driver. Either way, the driver was alert and responsive and avoided any problems with the high water.

The rest of the trip to the house was at about 20 MPH, staying to the middle of the road whenever possible, since the sides of Frey Street were running curb-high. There were spots that were deeper and, although I cuss the newer vehicles a lot, I certainly did appreciate the encapsulated ignition coils on my ’93 Dakota. I ran through several spots that were deep enough that I’m sure that the ignition would have been drowned out without them.

The rain was still coming down hard enough that I was running the wipers at max and still having trouble seeing where I was supposed to be going. Somewhere around Clinton and Frey I met Unit 302 of the Stephenville PD. That’s the officer that patrols my part of town. I waved to him, and I think he waved back, but the visibility was so bad I’m not really sure.

There’s a big dip in Frey Street just before the left turn onto Race — my street — and today it was filled with about a foot and a half of water. Like I said, I’m really happy for the sealed coils in the ignition in my Dakota. I made the turn and pointed the pickup the last block and a half toward the house. The rain hadn’t let up as I pulled in and I waited for a few minutes, with the engine running and the A/C on, to see if it would diminish.

It didn’t and I decided that I didn’t intend to spend the evening sitting in the pickup while Mother Nature washed it for me. I got the door key ready and made the run. No point in hurrying actually. I was still wet from the journey between ChinaMart’s front door and the pickup. I was even wetter by the time I was inside my house. The radar computer was already on and GRLevel3 was telling me that we wouldn’t have any respite for at least a half hour. Lighting was hitting pretty close to the house, so I pulled the network cable to the computer and switched it to wireless mode. It was already running off the 12 VDC system, so I wasn’t worried about power problems. The groceries would just have to sit in the truck until the rain moderated.

With a bit of time to kill, I unplugged the power cable and the network cable from my new lappie and, on battery power, connected it to the wireless network — which I hadn’t done before. I browsed the Net and waited for the rain to subside. It did. In about 45 minutes. And I brought the groceries in from the pickup, got the mail, pulled the trash bin around to the back of the house (today was trash day) and generally settled in for the evening.

I’ll be getting a 12 VDC power supply for the new lappie from Lind Electronics within the next week or so. That’ll put both of my computers off the 120 line and on the 12 volt buss. It’s not a perfect arrangement, since the 12 VDC buss is supplied by an AC power supply with a battery floated across it. But, any spikes coming down the AC line will be cut to 1/10 of their original intensity and, in the event of a grid failure, both computers will continue to run on battery power.

The rain’s over now, and the radar is clear. Just ground clutter on the screen now. We got almost three inches in about an hour and a half. And it’s rain that we desperately needed. It also gave me incentive to do a couple of things here in the house that really needed to be done. I got both computers running on the wireless network — one less path for a lightning strike to attack them. And, I came up with a pair of new ideas to improve my grounding system. I’ll clue y’all into that when it’s all installed and done. Now, I really need to get the DSL modem and the router running on the 12 VDC buss. Something else to do during my vacation.

73,
ldb
K5WLF