Category: Hardware
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Fourth round of the tracker project
In the fourth round it was decided to make another version of the VHF tracker, but without the PA module. A smaller (Hammond) enclosure with 3D printed top and bottom. The whole thing got simpler, but we also decided to design a 4-layer PCB and let the factory in China assemble most of it. Exceptions…
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Arctic Tracker software on LilyGo T-TWR plus
Arctic Tracker is both a hardware and a software project. Until now, hardware has mainly aimed to demonstrate how to make trackers from affordable modules, in particular the ESP32, and relatively few discrete electronic components in addition. The ESP32 is a popular and fairly advanced microcontroller. It has been used in several products aimed at…
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Third round of tracker project
Five tracker prototypes have been made in this round. As described in the previous post, this third version is based on the ESP32-S3, it has a USB-C socket and a OLED display on the outside of the enclosure, with a 3D-printed cover. Display The first idea was to replace the Nokia LCD display with a…
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Running Polaric Server on Ulari
The “Polaric Server” is mainly a web based service to present live APRS tracking information on maps and where the information is updated in realtime. It is originally targeted for use by radio amateurs in voluntary search and rescue service in Norway. It consists of a web application and a server program (APRS daemon). It…
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Arctic Tracker – what now?
The Arctic Tracker was an attempt to create an advanced APRS tracker with modules, and in particular with a Wifi-module, that can be constructed by hand be amateurs. It has proven to work though there have been some issues. Now there is also a work going on with developing a Polaric Tracker 2 in the…
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Second round of tracker project
The second iteration of the Arctic Tracker is based on an ESP-32 IoT module (a sucessor of the ESP8266). It is quite capable and still rather cheap. It has Wifi, Bluetooth, a dual core CPU operating at up to 240 MHz, 520 KiB RAM, and several other interesting features. We use a ESP-Wroom-32 module with…
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Designing a prototype tracker
We have been working for some time, designing a more complete prototype Arctic Tracker. The plan is to produce up to 10 units, with financial support from the Norwegian Radio Relay League. We will use a Tekal 12.30 aluminum enclosure (like the Polaric Tracker), it will have a display, and a PA module that can…
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Working with the WIFI module
The Arctic Tracker lab model has a main microcontroller unit (Teensy 3) and a ESP-12 WIFI module. Now, can we connect the tracker to a PC or to the internet (using WIFI) and can we make a web interface to configure the tracker? Yes, it seems like we can. It can connect to the internet,…
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Assembling and testing the tracker lab model
The picture above shows the PCB for the Arctic Tracker with most parts mounted. It was straightforward to solder the parts on the board, except the Teensy. It can be tricky since it need to have 37 pins soldered on it first, and these should either be soldered onto the PCB either directly or a…
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The quest for open software for the ADF4351
It seems the ADF4350/ADF4351 is a versatile little RF synthesizer, ranging from low VHF to well into the microwave spectrum. The are quite a few articles describing projects using the ADF4350 or ADF4351, and a few that publish firmware files for diverse MCUs that can control the synthesizer, but no I haven’t been able to locate…