I'm not ready to declare victory just yet but I scratch built a CATS Pi i-gate - https://cats.radio/pages/igate.html - it's doing something when I run a tx test so 🤞

Some very small 0402 components here but not too many! I used a hot air gun this time but might try my modded toaster oven when I get time to try making the bigger tracker board - https://gitlab.scd31.com/cats/mobile-transceiver

I didn't find build instructions but handily the kicad BOM has LCSC part numbers.

#hamradio #cats

On my way from a work event at Glaziers Hall in London where I saw this amazing stained glass panel depicting Faraday and Newton. It’s the coat of arms of “The worshipful company of scientific instrument makers”.

I found some interesting information at https://wcsim.co.uk

I'm super late to this party, but as an experiment I asked ChatGPT and Cody to write me a browser extension to help manage tabs by letting me close all tabs which have loaded a certain domain.

It worked really well! I had to make a few small code changes, and I'm pretty sure totally non-technical people couldn’t use these tools like this yet, but as a way to scratch as an experiment an itch it's great. It's something I wouldn't have started on my own.

Edit: code at https://github.com/mattfoster/tab-smasher

I made badge kits for a Christmas party with some friends and wrote it up at https://hackerific.net/2024/12/17/christmas-badge-buildathon/

Great fun and very successful - highly recommended if you have geeky friends! 

I went for a lunchtime run with a LILYGO T-Beam in my pocket running LoRa APRS tracker firmware (https://github.com/richonguzman/LoRa_APRS_Tracker) on 70cm! It worked surprisingly well despite being a bit uncomfortable.

I flashed another LILYGO thingy with the I-gate firmware (https://github.com/richonguzman/LoRa_APRS_iGate) and attached that to my antenna at home.

Overall pretty cool and cheap, and worth trying on the car.

I found https://lora-aprs.live/ pretty useful while setting things up.

#lora #aprs

I managed to get one of the first batch of QDX transceivers from QRP labs, and I just plugged it in for the first time. It needs some tweaks but works!

There are some odd design decisions (9V power and USB type B) but it's cool and tiny.

#hamradio #qrp

I hacked a Toaster Oven into a PCB reflow machine.

Basically, I just added a cheap PID controller and a thermocouple, and it was a fun and fairly quick project!

I wrote about it here: https://hackerific.net/2021/11/13/pcb-toaster/

#electronics

Feel pretty pleased with myself, I just built my first home-designed PCB and it worked  

It's the small bidirectional amplifier described here: http://w7zoi.net/bidirectional_matched_amplifier.pdf and built by w2aew here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TtKE39TWpI

I made a couple of footprint mistakes but didn't need any bodge wires! I spent ages messing with KiCad but learned a lot, and have a few ideas for changes. I don't really have a project in mind, but wanted to build something simple I could use to learn.

Also on the subject of keyboards I made myself a rev1 Sofle split board with Cherry Browns (https://github.com/josefadamcik/SofleKeyboard).

I'm still tweaking the keymap and I'm not used to using it but it's fun. The two screens look cool too.

Here's a pic with Royal Nave 2 caps.

I just made myself a "Gherkin Express" 40% keyboard. It's as big as a credit card, but fairly thick because I accidentally ordered the wrong size PCB.

Still, it worked once I filed the connector down! Instructions etc. at: https://www.40percent.club/2020/08/gherkin-express.html as well as endless awesome tiny keyboard projects.