PaulTech
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Everything posted by PaulTech
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Well, after having a look in my spare parts section I realized I now have quite a number of FM data receiver modules and then I remember this project I have been wanting to look at. The asking price for this old software seems a bit steep and I was wondering if you might like a look also, i.e do the work. https://www.coaa.co.uk/epirbplotter.htm It seem a reasonable match to the AIS ,marine safety etc. And since it is on 406MHz not too many alterations would need to be done to the standard 433MHz board. My concept is to include a GPS module with the receiver to provide some indication of dire
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Yes, I was looking at si4463 modules with an onboard STM8 when I saw this module and really didn't look too hard. Just assuming since I was looking at Si4463s this was also one.
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These module are expensive but for those that don't want to replace SMD components in the filter they may be a good option http://www.icstation.com/product_info.php?products_id=4624#.VJT4xbALs Except it uses 100kHz steps?
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one thought, if you are using external filters , you can probably remove the onboard LC filter. it might add a few extra dB of loss and probably isn't really needed. I'm going to tackle mine very soon, I did a complete equipment upgrade, new DSO, new PLL sig gen, new hot air work station, new laptop in preperation. Now I have all the bits I had ordered so it's time to play.
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It's ok to use a soldering iron with 0805 or lager but once you start dealing with 0302 it all starts getting very tricky, they just seem to stick to the soldering iron. Yes , you can push them down but it can quickly becomes a 3 handed operation. And BGA? not talking about 200 pin BGA as do come as low as 4 pins(balls)
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MMICs are super easy to use at 162MHz, they're designeg to have 50ohm in &out, they just need a little power. Deadbug on a tiny bit of PCB. the channel spacing for AIS is 25KHz and so the filter could be set a little big bigger 30-40KHz, not to much or more noise will get in , but a little wider to allow for any transmitters which either be drifting or have the modulation set a little too high. As you noticed too narrow doesn't work too well.
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just had another quick read thru the Si4463 doc, and noticed the channel filter bandwidth is configurable from 850KHz to 1.5KHz wide. Too narrow or too wide will cause problems too.
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I've recently bought a hot air soldering "iron" as there are lots of ICs I want to play with but they only come in SMD packaging. I think DIP is really only released for hobbiests and old gear now as it is increasing rare to see PDIP offered. PDIP also uses more gold, the wires that go from die to pins is very thin gold, so the longer the distance the more gold. I know it's a very small amount but when you multiply it across 100,000 ICs it adds up.
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Try the minicircuits site for MMICs as well, the filter looks like an easy solution as it would stop a lot of interference that the onboard filter just isn't designed to deal with. http://www.minicircuits.com/products/Amplifiers_what_is_new.shtml you really don't need much bandwidth so a MMIC that goes to 1GHz would work. I still have lots of the first gen MMICs as I had to buy a whole strip as they were special order way back. Even these old MMICs are very very handy, you can mount at antennas very easily. Just check the noise figure, as some can be a bit noisey and when you amplify the sig
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double the range is aout a 6db better sensitivity, so a MMIC at the antenna end or FET amp would easily get this result. The MMIC have the advantage of being very easy to work with. Even if the was a bit of filtering before the amp it should still get about an extra 10db improvement.
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interesting that the commercial model doesn't support NMEA according to their site. In what way does the dAISy have to catch up?
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http://www.bosunsmate.org/ais/ has some info on the NMEA packet structure. As for the sailboat, checking every 5 minutes for 1-2minutes for a new vessel within a packet may be all that is required. I can't test this yet as I'm still building mine, had to buy a hot air rework station, solder paste etc as the filter component changes are way too small for a soldering iron. Anyway it is about time I moved into the 21st century.
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I used the whole adaptor for each board as I had plenty and they are cheap in bulk but it should be possible to cut each in half and make two adaptors. I like the whole board as it provides more support and makes them easy to handle. Of course, if the board is too small to fit on the intact adaptor than bisection would definately be necessary.
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Had to take a photo of the back as well as it had the pin desigations
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I managed to buy modules that weren't in 2.54mm DIP config , actually 1.27mm SIL but didn't want bits of wire everywhere. I rummaged thru my boxes and found the perfect solution, 24 pin SOP adaptor boards. The pic is BEFORE soldering, looks great after soldering. http://bit.ly/1p3sdEN
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Well, after checking my stash of boards it looks like I bought CC1100 boards at the time, I did favour them at the time. Any way I now have 2 for $7 in the mail. I was wondering about weather balloon sonde reception 400-406MHz with these Si443x boards. I live in sight of the local international airport and I'm sure they launch weather balloons from there, again another SDR task probably easily handled with cheap hardware.
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I'm sure I bought a couple of these modules from Deal extreme a few yeas ago. Better start looking for those tiny modules. Thanks for the tip.
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There is another AIS USB receiver on the market, http://www.radargadgets.com/buyais.htm , a little more expensive. If I didn't have plans to build all 3 AIS receivers then the $50 option would be great. 2 will be AIS , the other as a general data receiver.
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Element14 and RS don't seem to be stocking this if yet, shows up in the list but no stock. Thanks for the sizes now get on with ordering. An article did mention it was also for TX but they may have been confused with the TX/RX ready bit in the intro, it really meant it was suitable to go on a TX as the receiver. And of course I did get a bit excited until I re-read the app sheet again,, trying to figure out how it was possible to do that on so few I/Os
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very interesting, have already my boards from osh and I'm now wating on a reply from my local distributor for the si4362, Mouser wanted $39 for postage. I have been in research mode for an AIS receiver for a few weeks when I finally stumbled into this project. I see the si4362 is a transceiver chip so it should be possible , with a GPS module, to make a AIS transponder. Whoops saw this mentioned in an article, just checked definately receive only. What size is the crystal , just looking at the board it looks like 7mm x5mm.
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very interesting, have already my boards from osh and I'm now wating on a reply from my local distributor for the si4362, Mouser wanted $39 for postage. I have been in research mode for an AIS receiver for a few weeks when I finally stumbled into this project. I see the si4362 is a transceiver chip so it should be possible , with a GPS module, to make a AIS transponder. What size is the crystal , just looking at the board it looks like 7mm x5mm.
