Latest project on the ZS1I Workbench. What is it?

 UNDER CONSTRUCTION.  Please return to this topic.

Amateur Radio HOTA Activation: St Mark's Catherdral, George

This past Saturday, 29 October 2022  the St Mark's Cathedral in George was activated from 11h00 to 14h00 as a Heritage On The Air site by Corne ZS1COR.  In support he was joined by members of the Eden Radio Club ZS1ERZ.  Site approved:  St Marks Cathedral, George. HB0046  Corne reported that he made +-20 contacts during the activation period.  He would like to thank all those who contacted the station and also who assisted him during the activation.   A special thanks also to the Dean and Rector as well as the Church Parish for allowing amateur radio to activate this beautiful St Mark Cathedral and heritage site!!

As from the images it  is clear that this is a beautiful heritage site well looked after.  

More about the site (Church):

The Cathedral building was consecrated in 1850, initially as the Parish Church of St Mark, and was granted cathedral status in 1911. The building itself has been extended over the years with the Chancel and Apse, the North and South transepts and the Lady Chapel being added at various times to give the Cathedral its present appearance and appealing style. It is a visually tasteful, attractive and colourful building lending itself to the accustomed form of Anglican worship.

As an Anglican Cathedral, the style of worship at St Mark’s always has been and still remains largely traditional, with sympathetic acknowledgement of justifiable and sensible adaptations to meet evolving changes in attitudes and needs of the people it serves. The glorious Anglican church music tradition remains, as does the orderly pattern of common prayer, symbolism and formal ceremony.

Specifically, our culture is one of inclusiveness, encouraging the regular celebration of Holy Communion or Eucharist and welcoming anyone who is in full communion with their own church to receive Communion or to merely come to the altar rail to receive a blessing. Daily worship lies at the heart of our Cathedral with formal services each day and the invitation to use it for private prayer, quiet contemplation or to light a candle in memory of a departed loved one whilst it is open to the public on weekday mornings. It is also part of our caring culture to work within the wider local community, assisting in various ways with financial, spiritual and physical support for those less fortunate and in need of sympathetic concern and practical assistance. To this end, the Cathedral Parish tithes on a regular basis to assist community projects in relieving poverty and need whilst providing hope and upliftment, both spiritually and practically. Much of the community work is undertaken by volunteers from the Parish, guided by the Clergy.

As a practical way of promoting the Cathedral’s culture of inclusiveness it is also used as a venue for music and choral performances so raising its public profile as an integral component of George’s historic fabric and making it accessible in a way that elevates it beyond being considered only a place of worship.

What is HOTA?

H.O.T.A (Heritage on the air) is an amateur radio group that strives to motivate radio amateurs to learn more about history, and to keep history alive by activating a multitude of historical sites by using SSB, AM, FM, CW and even with Heliographs.  Radio amateurs have great fun going out in the field and visiting places and areas where once history was made. Even if you do not like history there is places that were visited that might be of interest to you.  You can even combine your other hobbies with H.O.T.A.  Now that you have a faint idea of H.O.T.A it is time to learn more about H.O.T.A and the fun radio amateurs have and  can have in activating historical sites.

If you want to learn more about H.O.T.A you can visit the Heritage on the Air website by clicking HERE.

 Images of this event:

(Click on images for larger view.)

PLEASE NOTE:

The author of this article is not affiliated to any amateur radio club in South Africa.  The information published is to promote amateur radio and activities by any means available.  Any club in South Africa is welcome to send me information for publication about their activities and I will gladly publish it on the GRHub Network Blog.

 

Eden Radio Club - Field station setup at the Botanical Gardens, George on the 22 October 2022

 (Click on images for larger view.)

The Eden Radio Club once again created on air and off air activity this past weekend.  The Eden Radio Club with Corne ZS1COR at the helm  setup a field station on the 22 October 2022 at the Botanical Gardens in George.  The station was active from 07h00 to 11h00 SAST.  The aim was to create on air activity as well as to introduce amateur radio to the general public.  Once again the club was successful in their aim for this event.  Several members of the public and radio amateurs visited the station.   Listen to what Corne ZS1COR has to say about the event.

 

(Click on images for larger view.)

PLEASE NOTE:

The author of this article is not affiliated to any amateur radio club in South Africa.  The information published is to promote amateur radio and activities by any means available.  Any club in South Africa is welcome to send me information for publication about their activities and I will gladly publish it on the GRHub Network Blog.

KISS DIY Solar Panel Charge Controller

I needed a KISS DIY Solar Panel Charge Controller a few years ago to charge a 6 V solar flash light when camping or for QRP work when I am outdoors.  Yes there  are many such projects on the Internet.  I decided to build the controller described by Rick KC8AON available HERE.  It is very simple to build there a KISS project and it works as prescribed.

The circuit is nothing more than a standard LM317 3 terminal adjustable voltage regulator mounted on a scrap piece of copper clad board that I cut traces on with a Carpet knife, and a couple of resistors and capacitors. it has one variable resistor to set the output voltage with, and you can set this to 13.5 volts for a float charge, or around 14.4 volts for a quicker charge.

KC8AON's article explain in detail how to construct this controller and therefor I will not go in to detail except to draw your attention to the following:

• I have added two diodes to the output and input for protection
• WARNING:  This charger has no automated cut-off when the battery is full.  It will keep on charging.  So it needs to be under full time observation when charging a battery.
• Float Charge = 13.5 V and 14.4V for charge. Set by 5K preset.
• To charge a 6 V battery use a fixed 220 Ohm Resistor.
• To charge a 12 V battery us a fixed 150 Ohm Resistor.
• I use a 3 W  Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Panel with a Vmp of 10 V (Note:  If you want to charge a 12 V battery then you need a solar panel of at least 17. 5 V Vmp.)

Finally:  This little charge controller served me well and is still in operation today.  

Images:  (Click on images for larger view.)

 

Beat the Eskom Loadshedding Blues with this DIY Internet Router UPS Project. (Ver. 1)

Update:  24 October 2022

1. Added a 15V outboard power supply to use when power is available. This resulted in a far better charge voltage for the battery pack.

2. Added a direct coupling wire from the input of the unit to the two buck converters. In other words I bypassed the battery charging process. This eased the load on the input XL4015. If there is a power outage it still switches to the battery as per original diagram.

3. Swop the LM2577 LM2596S step up/down converter board for a XL6019 step up converter board. I found that the XL6019 does a far better job than the original suggested up/down converter and does not create a lot of heat.

This UPS has been in operation for several days now. I am very happy with the performance of the Internet Router UPS. So far it is working as I would like it to work for my setup.  I am currently contemplating to make further changes to the unit.  Whether this will materialize needs to be seen as there is an old saying -  "Do not scratch in a project that is working well, just now it might not work at all!!" 

Original Posting:

The ever worsening of load shedding in South Africa and the work-from-home policy for business continuity resulted in the DIY Internet Router UPS Project. Working from home means your home's WiFi networks are more important than ever especially during periods of load shedding. Anyone with a fiber-line connection will know that their Internet connection drops whenever the power goes out. It is annoying if you are in an important meeting/webinar or just browsing the Internet and there is an interruption due to load shedding. I was approached by my wife and son to solve the issue of fiber Internet going offline during periods of load shedding.  Now I hear you think that this is easy just use a power inverter connected to a battery during these periods.  Yes that is one option but why should I run a power inverter just for an item that draws less than 2 amps.  My Amateur Radio Shack runs fully from Solar Power and and an inverter.  I do not have any problems running my computer, radios, Shack Router, 3D printer, GRHub Network etc, etc. from this system.  Unfortunately the Shack is located quite a distance from the Fiber Connection Point and Home Router and running wires from point to point is not desirable nor the answer.

I had two options:

1. Using a conventional UPS ( Bulky and Costly )
2. Mini-UPS ( Light and Cheap )

You guessed correctly I went for the Mini-UPS.  Now I know you can buy these from various outlets but at a costly price as it seems that load shedding is now the excuse to  "milk the cow" and to make money out those not technically skilled.  Well I am definitely not going to "be milked" so I choose the DIY Route by constructing a Mini UPS for the house Router and Fiber Internet Connection.  Google is your friend as you can find a variety of UPS projects that will serve your needs.

Before I continue I must confess!  This is the most ugly constructed project I has ever build during my long "career" in amateur radio.  However it works great and the reason for the ugly construction is that I needed the unit ASAP and there was no time to 3D print a nice looking cabinet for the project.  Ordering an ABS case was also not a option.  I needed the project as in yesterday.  Once I have some time on hand I will print a 3D cabinet and re-fit all the components into it.  This could easily take anything from three months to three years.  Hi Hi!!

I am not going to go into full detail as this unit is available on many sites with full instructions and photos. I did however changed the circuitry to my liking and needs.  Here are the features of the unit that I constructed:

1. Automatic Switching ( using a Bridge Rectifier ) between the power supply and battery pack during a power outage.  More info on using the the bridge to do the switching can be found HERE.

2. Two Output Ports: 12V / 3A and 5V / 3A (Voltage and Amps can be changed by turning the pots on the modules)

3. 8 hours of backup time

4. Battery pack with 3S BMS in a 3S2P ( 3-series and 2 parallel ) configuration

5. Additional Protection via 1N5821 Diodes

6. Additional Filtering via 1000uF /16v electrolytic capacitors on the input and output terminals

Finally:  I enjoyed constructing this project.  It is currently on test and I will update this post once I am happy that the unit functions as it should.  Provisional tests were successful, however I would like to see what it will do with stage 4 or 6 load shedding.

Images:  (Click on images for larger view.)

 

Update 20 October 2022: