Deviation Meter

I hadn't built anything in a while. And a friend mentioned the desire to have something to check for proper deviation on various Echolink and repeater setups.

In a prior blog, Are you narrow or wide?, I covered more of the background.


There is a lot out there on this sort of thing.

http://www.repeater-builder.com/projects/poor-mans-dev-meter/devmeter.html

http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/deviationmeter.html

https://archive.org/stream/73-magazine-1993-08/08_August_1993#page/n23/mode/2up

So I suggested we build this and hook it to a an old dedicated scanner. And after construction we calibrated it against a club IFR-1200 service monitor.

If you are not found of breadboarding, the above 73 article has an etched board available:

http://www.farcircuits.net/test1.htm

Here is a video that my friend made:

You'll be disappointed to know that Radio Shack doesn't carry the 15 vdc panel mount meter anymore.

LifeNet

A interesting Mesh like network was brought to my attention. It's called LifeNet.

In the wake of major disasters, the failure of existing communications infrastructure and the subsequent lack of an effective communication solution results in increased risk, inefficiencies, damage and casualties. Current options such as satellite communication are expensive and have limited functionality. A robust communication solution should be affordable, easy-to-deploy, require low-to-zero infrastructure, consume little power and facilitate Internet access.

LifeNet is a WiFi-based data communication solution designed for post-disaster scenarios. It is open-source software and designed to run on consumer devices such as laptops, smart-phones and wireless routers. LifeNet is an ad hoc networking platform over which critical software applications including chat, voice messaging, MIS systems, etc. can be easily deployed. LifeNet can grow incrementally, is robust to node failures and enables Internet sharing. A novel multi-path ad-hoc routing protocol present at its core, enables LifeNet to achieve these features.

LifeNet exploits multihop communication to provide coverage over comparable areas with minimal infrastructure. Every device functions both as a host and as a router. Two devices close to each other communicate with each other directly, whereas communication between two far off devices can be relayed by low-power intermediate nodes in a multihop fashion.

More can be read here.

Velleman VM100 / K8055 and the VM132 Temperature reading

More stuff with the Velleman VM100 / K8055 Experimental USB Interface

In the past we used this board for repeater activity logging:
http://kb9mwr.blogspot.com/2010/02/vellman-k8055-activity-graphs.html
http://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/projects/voip/activity-graphs.html

Today we will use it to monitor temperatures.  The hookup is printed on the back of the VM132 cardboard packaging.  In case you misplaced that:

If you were to just connect a thermistor to the analog input of the USB interface board, you'd have to put a table to your program to convert the voltage to temperature. The voltage over the a NTC conduction model thermistor is very non-linear vs. temperature.  This table is essentially what is on with the TLV2741 comparator chip on the VM132 board.

The analog inputs of a K8055 are supposed to get an input voltage. With jumper SK2 open and ATT1 turned fully clockwise, that input voltage should be in the range of 0 to +5V.

The VM132 Universal Temperature Sensor has a 0 to 20mA current loop.  After the connections are made it is just a matter of adjusting the K8055 ATT1 and or the blue multi turn VM132 trim pot to calibrate the returned software reading to the actual temperature.


Velleman VM110 Experimantal USB Interface
Velleman VM132 Universal Temperature Sensor
+12 volts to the sensor

Linux k8055 library binary:  http://libk8055.sourceforge.net/

 Syntax : k8055 [-p:(number)] [-d:(value)] [-a1:(value)] [-a2:(value)]  
        [-num:(number) [-delay:(number)] [-dbt1:(value)]  
        [-dbt2:(value)] [-reset1] [-reset2] [-debug]  
     -p:(number)   Set board number  
     -d:(value)   Set digital output value (8 bits in decimal)  
     -a1:(value)   Set analog output 1 value (0-255)  
     -a2:(value)   Set analog output 2 value (0-255)  
     -num:(number)  Set number of measures  
     -delay:(number) Set delay between two measure (in msec)  
     -dbt1:(value)  Set debounce time for counter 1 (in msec)  
     -dbt2:(value)  Set debounce time for counter 2 (in msec)  
     -reset1     Reset counter 1  
     -reset2     Reset counter 2  
     -debug     Activate debug mode  
 Example : k8055 -p:1 -d:147 -a1:25 -a2:203  

What it returns looks like a string of 6 numbers, separated by semicolons.

 Example: 499;16;128;230;9;8  
        499 : Measure done 499 msec after program start  
        16 : Digital input value is 10000 (I5=1, all other are 0)  
        128 : Analog 1 input value is 128  
        230 : Analog 2 input value is 230  
        9  : Counter 1 value is 9  
        8  : Counter 2 value is 8  

So we need to create script to pool the k8055 program and look at that third number, analog input 1.

 #!/bin/bash  
 #  
 # Bash wrapper to watch the input of a Vellman K8055 board.  
 #  
 LAST=0  
 while true  
 do  
 T=`k8055 | awk -F ";" '{print $3}'`  
 #  
 if [ $T -ne "$LAST" ];  
   then echo `date '+%b %d %Y %T'`: TEMP $T  
 fi  
 LAST=`echo $T`  
 sleep 1  
 done  

-

 [root@kb9mwr k8055]# ./temp  
 Aug 02 2011 00:44:17: TEMP 66