After damaging the original radio mic cable that came with my tracker, I was starting to think that I may have damaged something in the tracker itself. Nothing I tried seemed to make the tracker key up my handheld. However, a couple of days ago my replacement mic cable arrived and I finally found some time to play with it.
Initially I wired up the cables as per the original , however nothing worked. I discovered that the mic cable was wired differently and needed to swap a few cables around. This seemed to do the trick and I am now TXing again. Phew...
Now that I am TXing again, I haven't yet seem my callsign appear on aprs.fi So again I was wondering if something wasn't right. So to test this out I downloaded some APRS tracking software that runs using my PC's soundcard. After a few tweaks, like changing the baud rate to 1200, i had success. The application decoded my handhelds signal and I was able to read the coordinates. It accurate to about 5 meters, which probably isn't to bad seeing the GPS unit is on the window and probably not seeing a full sky.
So with a big smile on my face, I can finally after many weeks of downtime move on to get the tracker into a more portable form. Would be nice to see my callsign on APRS.fi to double confirm that everything is ok.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Open Tracker USB
Decided to purchase an Open Tracker USB APRS tracker and over the past few weeks have been playing around with it. I initially purchased the tracker by itself, but after ordering decided to also purchase the adaptor cable to connect into my Yaesu 7R handheld. So wasted a week waiting. I could have made my own cable, but really wasn't in the mood.
Open Tracker USB comes with a few different options for power, I decided to order it with the cig lighter as I could cut it off and connect a battery power source.
To configure the device you plug in a USB cable and run the provided configuration tool. It is very easy to configure with an example config that I used on www.aprs.net.au
When using the USB cable your computer will power the tracker. However for the first test I connected the tracker to a 12v DC power supply and hooked my Garmin 18x PC GPS up. Straight away I could see blinking lights but didn't really know what they meant at the time. So assumed things were ok.
Later when I received the correct cable for the vx-7r I was able to see that the vx-7r was sending out a signal. Though it was sending something I still didn't know if it was working. My call wasn't appearing on any APRS maps, but I'm hoping this is because my handheld is unable to get a decent signal out.
Made up a 12v DC battery pack with AA's and connected it up to power the GPS and tracker. All looks good. Decided to take the tracker for a walk to see if a change in location would get a better signal out. However on packing it, I must have damaged the mic cable as I no longer get any transmit. Damn....
I can see the trackers red light solidly lit , when trying to transmit, but no TX on the radio.
Currently pulling the connector apart to see if I can revive it, otherwise I'll have to purchase another plug. Almost melted the thing with the hot iron. My soldering skills unfortunately are lacking good experience. Anyway we'll see what happens.
Open Tracker USB comes with a few different options for power, I decided to order it with the cig lighter as I could cut it off and connect a battery power source.
To configure the device you plug in a USB cable and run the provided configuration tool. It is very easy to configure with an example config that I used on www.aprs.net.au
When using the USB cable your computer will power the tracker. However for the first test I connected the tracker to a 12v DC power supply and hooked my Garmin 18x PC GPS up. Straight away I could see blinking lights but didn't really know what they meant at the time. So assumed things were ok.
Later when I received the correct cable for the vx-7r I was able to see that the vx-7r was sending out a signal. Though it was sending something I still didn't know if it was working. My call wasn't appearing on any APRS maps, but I'm hoping this is because my handheld is unable to get a decent signal out.
Made up a 12v DC battery pack with AA's and connected it up to power the GPS and tracker. All looks good. Decided to take the tracker for a walk to see if a change in location would get a better signal out. However on packing it, I must have damaged the mic cable as I no longer get any transmit. Damn....
I can see the trackers red light solidly lit , when trying to transmit, but no TX on the radio.
Currently pulling the connector apart to see if I can revive it, otherwise I'll have to purchase another plug. Almost melted the thing with the hot iron. My soldering skills unfortunately are lacking good experience. Anyway we'll see what happens.
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