After a coffee morning at the Bank Cafe, Ross VK2ARD, Paul VK2AMT, Duncan VK2DLR and Jeff VK2WSR drove to the clubrooms. We were joined a little while later by Andrew VK2XI and David VK2IXI. Duncan had a couple of his Meshtastic devices powered up. The small devices were happily receiving data from other Meshtastic units from The Channon area. An explanation of Meshtastic is below:
“Meshtastic is an implementation of LORA – Long Range, low powered radio. It’s a mesh network – a set of interconnected radio devices – for communication of short text messages and small data packets. The data is usually used to share device locations and related information. This makes it perfect for chatting and sharing where you are, or for tracking objects and vehicles. It also has other, more specialised uses. At a basic level, Meshtastic does not need an internet connection to function, nor does it need any infrastructure such as repeaters or towers. Each device talks to each other device, and every device is a repeater for everyone else, forming the mesh. Communication can easily be encrypted, so you can control who can read your messages. Other meshed devices will still pass on your traffic even if they can’t decode what’s in those messages. Hardware is fairly cheap, starting from around $25. Even a cheap, simple device will still have the same output power as a more expensive and complicated one (though perhaps not as good an antenna and you will need to power it from USB).“
It was a day of projects, one of which was a demonstration of the Mill that Jeff gave to the club some while ago. It was very interesting to see it drill holes and cut tracks on PCB, using a circuit design that had been prepared earlier. The photos below show the Mill in operation,
2.4 GHz TRANSVERTER
Andrew VK2XI had recently purchased a used 2.4 GHz transverter, his first real move into microwaves, after a first taste of 23cm via a transverter. The unit is planned to be used on the MAD Days (Microwave Activity Days). The transverter is going to be driven by a Yaesu FT817. Andrew has already joined the Brisbane VHF Group, a club with lots of experience in VHF, UHF and microwave operations and construction. We will be very interested in how it goes. Well done Andrew. The photo below shows the inner workings of the transverter.
STEPPER MOTOR CONTROLLER
The photo above shows an Arduino controlled Stepper Motor Controller. What is that for, you may well ask? The stepper motor rotates the tiny lens on Jeff VK2WSR’s All Sky Camera. This camera can record and store video overnight of the night sky, showing meteors, eclipses etc. The stepper motor is the small unit on the right. It’s amazing what projects can be assembled with the Arduino units controlling things and use of the Raspberry Pi mini computers only add to the list of projects that can be assembled.