Author Topic: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?  (Read 2538 times)

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Offline DaleReid

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I had looked at the WHOA! topic in another thread and decided to post a request to all Blitz folks who are not yet on line but have either ordered and not yet received their kit(s) or have them but not yet connected to the system to start supplying strike data to the servers.

You probably have either lurked here or been reading in preparation, but if you can, take a moment to hit the reply button and furnish your state (or providence, or district), city, and stage of your project such as waiting for kit, received but not started, partially completed.  Feel free to also ask for any assistance that the seasoned members here (not me, obviously) can give you if there is something that you have a question about, or just furnish the basic info.

Your response will be of interest to those of us with stations on line already, hoping to see where areas will get better coverage, backup coverage, or fill in with better geometry for better localizations.

Thanks. Dale
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Offline PaulMy

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2014, 10:31:28 PM »
I am waiting for the kit to be sent, and assembly by third-party.

Komoka (near London) Ontario, Canada (about 200 km east of Detroit MI and north of Cleveland OH)

Thanks to DFroula =D>
Paul

Offline corwyyn

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2014, 05:31:35 AM »
Well I'm finally in process on my build, within the next week it should be in testing and then the first Phoenix AZ station will be online!
Kevin
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Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2014, 09:51:20 AM »
Well I'm finally in process on my build, within the next week it should be in testing and then the first Phoenix AZ station will be online!
Yeah? Get with it Kevin, there's bolts out there with your name on 'em... go get 'em... 
 


Offline dfroula

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2014, 09:56:12 AM »
A few more parts to solder on my E-field kit. Should be testing this afternoon. Does that count?  :grin:

Don
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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2014, 10:05:07 AM »
A few more parts to solder on my E-field kit. Should be testing this afternoon. Does that count?  :grin:

Don
WD9DMP
Ok, everybody..
Just wait 'till Don fires up his E field, and discovers
that all his furnace motor controller interference  fixes
will have to be reversed  :twisted:

Ken, you do have a banned words list enabled on the forum, don't you????
 


Offline Weather Spares

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2014, 10:42:35 AM »
Hopefully this thread wasn't aimed at US people.

Red kit arrived a week ago with the E-field component too., Just about to make a start on it after a thorough read of the documents (Suffolk, United Kingdom).

Am, however, running a green kit at the moment, so not missing everything
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Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2014, 11:03:25 AM »
Well I'm finally in process on my build, within the next week it should be in testing and then the first Phoenix AZ station will be online!
Not to put any pressure on you Kevin, but does anybody realize what Kevin's new station accomplishes????   ;)
 


Offline Dr Obbins

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2014, 11:09:22 AM »
Well I'm finally in process on my build, within the next week it should be in testing and then the first Phoenix AZ station will be online!
Not to put any pressure on you Kevin, but does anybody realize what Kevin's new station accomplishes????   ;)
Provides non stop coverage from coast to coast  \:D/

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2014, 11:40:32 AM »
Not counting Stan's long reach from Maui, and assuming Francisco just south of Kevin gets his station tuned, Kevin will be the 6th station West of the Rockies!  Watch those counts go up on the West coast and SW US... not to mention Central America! Also will be interesting to see how Kevin shoots through the Rockies, Sierras, etc Northward...
 


Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2014, 11:48:47 AM »
Hopefully this thread wasn't aimed at US people.

Red kit arrived a week ago with the E-field component too., Just about to make a start on it after a thorough read of the documents (Suffolk, United Kingdom).

Am, however, running a green kit at the moment, so not missing everything
You're gonna love Red... it'll take some rethinking, especially with its versatility. Heck, you'll be getting strikes from North America and won't get credit for them... Let us know if we can help... several folks here have added Reds to their greens, still running both in some cases.
 


Offline W3DRM

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2014, 12:23:25 PM »
Hopefully this thread wasn't aimed at US people.

Red kit arrived a week ago with the E-field component too., Just about to make a start on it after a thorough read of the documents (Suffolk, United Kingdom).

Am, however, running a green kit at the moment, so not missing everything

Enjoy your new RED! And, if you decide to use the assembly instructions I put together (http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=20037.0), be sure you download the latest version as I have made some changes to those documents over the past few days. Also, please let me know if you have any problems with the instructions or find any errors in them.

Good luck on your new build!

BTW, what is your Green Station number?
Don - W3DRM - Emmett, Idaho --- Blitzortung ID: 808 --- FlightRadar24 ID: F-KBOI7
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Offline Fox_Of_The_Wind

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #12 on: June 14, 2014, 01:01:18 PM »
mines is being built.....should be ready by the year 2016 (by how fast I am going)

Anthony

Offline corwyyn

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #13 on: June 14, 2014, 06:13:53 PM »
Not to put any pressure on you Kevin, but does anybody realize what Kevin's new station accomplishes????   ;)
Yeah, no pressure, I get it...  :-P  Actually for me partly it's working up the excitement to look at electronic circuits on my days off since I spend enough time at work looking thru inspection scopes at the stuff (see attached).

mines is being built.....should be ready by the year 2016 (by how fast I am going)
Naw as you go along your confidence will increase and pretty soon you'll be flinging solder all over the place (or maybe you do that now?)
« Last Edit: June 14, 2014, 06:15:34 PM by corwyyn »
Kevin
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Blitzortung station 1042

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2014, 06:30:45 PM »
Not to put any pressure on you Kevin, but does anybody realize what Kevin's new station accomplishes????   ;)
Yeah, no pressure, I get it...  :-P  Actually for me partly it's working up the excitement to look at electronic circuits on my days off since I spend enough time at work looking thru inspection scopes at the stuff (see attached).

mines is being built.....should be ready by the year 2016 (by how fast I am going)
Naw as you go along your confidence will increase and pretty soon you'll be flinging solder all over the place (or maybe you do that now?)
Yeah, but we're not in the nanotechnology domain... BO should be a piece of cake for you...  :lol:  Believe me, I do understand.  ;) But just wait 'till your first signals start showing up on 'real time'...  :twisted: ... . .... . ... .
 


Offline Weather Spares

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #15 on: June 15, 2014, 06:22:57 AM »
Good luck on your new build!

BTW, what is your Green Station number?

My green station number is 574, it used to detect strikes over 3,000km away, but since the winter seems to of cut back to around 1,000km will be interesting to see how the two compare :)

Thanks for the best wishes - just doing the surface mount chips at the moment. I've found anchoring the top left/right legs of the chip with a low temperature solder (150c) and then using standard solder for the other 6 legs before topping up the first two with standard solder seems to work well for me along with a wooden toothpick to position and hold them in place :)
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Offline W3DRM

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #16 on: June 16, 2014, 12:23:34 AM »
Good luck on your new build!

BTW, what is your Green Station number?

My green station number is 574, it used to detect strikes over 3,000km away, but since the winter seems to of cut back to around 1,000km will be interesting to see how the two compare :)

Thanks for the best wishes - just doing the surface mount chips at the moment. I've found anchoring the top left/right legs of the chip with a low temperature solder (150c) and then using standard solder for the other 6 legs before topping up the first two with standard solder seems to work well for me along with a wooden toothpick to position and hold them in place :)

Thanks for your station number.

I find that putting just a drop of solder on pin 1 prior to positioning the chip allows me to get it in position to begin with and then I solder the rest of the pins. Works for me without having to worry about different types of solder. I use both a small set of tweezers and a toothpick to position the chip. They work great for me.

Today, I began the assembly of my E-field boards. Started with the pre-amp and then went to the amplifier. Along the way, I discovered some changes that I want to make to the assembly instructions and will get those published tomorrow. Nothing major just some minor changes to make. Still have a few components to mount tomorrow and then I will test the new E-field boards to see if they work or not.
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #17 on: June 16, 2014, 07:42:53 AM »
Another trick that worked for all my surface mounts was to take some liquid FLUX, not solder paste, and brush a small amount over each set of pads before soldering.  It has aided in making just a small amount of solder touched to the pin flow extremely well and bond under the pin when touched with the iron and then just touched with the end of the solder 'wire'.  I do put a small and I mean small, amount of solder on the pad first so there isn't a huge hump that keeps the chip from setting nicely on its legs and close to being flat.  Then having positioned the chip, the slightly sticky flux keeps it from moving too much and then hold pressure on the top of the chip, touch the soldering iron to the top of the pin and when it melts the chip settles into the tiny amount of melted solder, pull the iron away, leaving gentle downward pressure and the solder sets.  Then you can go to all the other pins and finally come back to the first anchoring solder joint and redo it if there isn't enough solder to make a good connection.

I apologize for preaching to the choir here, but I found that the little bit of liquid flux and it's aid in making the first pin tinning and increased ease of flow (not depending upon the rosin inside the solder core to melt first and flow, thus limiting the amount of solder on the end of the iron) along with the slight stickiness makes things so very much easier and quicker.

These comments for those reading about this and wondering how to best get those tricky parts in place and soldered down without bridges.  Invariably, having an excess of solder on the tip of the iron, trying to get the rosin core to melt, will lead to the excess amount running down onto the pads and bridging, so be sure to also clean off the tip of the iron before doing this part.
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Offline dfroula

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #18 on: June 16, 2014, 08:07:14 AM »
This is the method I use, except I use a pencil with a nice flat eraser tip to hold the chip in-place. I load a bit of solder on the iron tip and just touch it to the first pin at the point where the pin touches the fluxed pad. The flux causes the solder to flow immediately. Minor adjustments can be made to the chip position by slightly moving/twisting the pencil. Once the first soldered pin locks the chip in-place, I solder the other pins in similar fashion with direct application of solder and iron, drawing the tip of the soldering iron from the point of contact with the pad to the end of the pad. The flux prevents solder bridges by attracting the solder to the joint.

I use the liquid flux Radio Shack sells, along with some very fine solder. I found that tinning one pad first can create a bump that can make it difficult to position the chip, so usually use the "extra solder on iron tip" method.

Don
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Another trick that worked for all my surface mounts was to take some liquid FLUX, not solder paste, and brush a small amount over each set of pads before soldering.  It has aided in making just a small amount of solder touched to the pin flow extremely well and bond under the pin when touched with the iron and then just touched with the end of the solder 'wire'.  I do put a small and I mean small, amount of solder on the pad first so there isn't a huge hump that keeps the chip from setting nicely on its legs and close to being flat.  Then having positioned the chip, the slightly sticky flux keeps it from moving too much and then hold pressure on the top of the chip, touch the soldering iron to the top of the pin and when it melts the chip settles into the tiny amount of melted solder, pull the iron away, leaving gentle downward pressure and the solder sets.  Then you can go to all the other pins and finally come back to the first anchoring solder joint and redo it if there isn't enough solder to make a good connection.

I apologize for preaching to the choir here, but I found that the little bit of liquid flux and it's aid in making the first pin tinning and increased ease of flow (not depending upon the rosin inside the solder core to melt first and flow, thus limiting the amount of solder on the end of the iron) along with the slight stickiness makes things so very much easier and quicker.

These comments for those reading about this and wondering how to best get those tricky parts in place and soldered down without bridges.  Invariably, having an excess of solder on the tip of the iron, trying to get the rosin core to melt, will lead to the excess amount running down onto the pads and bridging, so be sure to also clean off the tip of the iron before doing this part.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #19 on: June 16, 2014, 11:43:56 AM »
You solved that 'bump' problem.  I usually find pressing down gently until I feel the leg drop through the solder when it melts tells me all is well, but the control you obtain with the eraser gripping the top of the chip allows far more control than either just pushing down with something, or trying to micro hold the chip with a pair of tweezers and then sneeze or twitch a millionth of an inch and throw things off. 

I cannot emphasize how much the use of a little liquid flux on those pads assists with the tacking down of the first leg, and also to allow less lengthly times of heating the other legs when they are soldered and therefore reducing exposing the chip to high temperatures that can otherwise be avoided.

Now I'm itching to build another one just to try the pencil eraser trick. 

I'm learning something every day.

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Offline W3DRM

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #20 on: June 16, 2014, 02:09:53 PM »
You solved that 'bump' problem.  I usually find pressing down gently until I feel the leg drop through the solder when it melts tells me all is well, but the control you obtain with the eraser gripping the top of the chip allows far more control than either just pushing down with something, or trying to micro hold the chip with a pair of tweezers and then sneeze or twitch a millionth of an inch and throw things off. 

I cannot emphasize how much the use of a little liquid flux on those pads assists with the tacking down of the first leg, and also to allow less lengthly times of heating the other legs when they are soldered and therefore reducing exposing the chip to high temperatures that can otherwise be avoided.

Now I'm itching to build another one just to try the pencil eraser trick. 

I'm learning something every day.

Amen, putting the liquid flux on the pins BEFORE placing the chip works the best for me too. When I assembled my E-Field kit, I installed all of the SMDs first on both boards. It went very quickly and smoothly and I had no problems with solder bridges at all. I haven't tried the pencil eraser trick and simply use my small tweezers. No problems with twitching, so far...
Don - W3DRM - Emmett, Idaho --- Blitzortung ID: 808 --- FlightRadar24 ID: F-KBOI7
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Offline schaffer970

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #21 on: June 16, 2014, 02:54:41 PM »
I have the antenna's wound and sorted the parts for the boards.  Just haven't had the time  (courage? - and I did read the posts above, thanks!) to get the boards built.

Tom
Grand Junction, CO (western edge of Colorado in the middle)

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #22 on: June 16, 2014, 03:08:17 PM »
Tom,
If the Surface Mounts are in place, you can pour a tall cool one and relax.  Everything thereafter is pretty routine and just take the time to make sure (I am OCD to some degree and tested each resister before bending the leads and soldering them in) that all parts go into the right holes.

Soldering some of the RJ's in place and the dinky little USB connectors were just a bit more challenging to make sure all the pins were in the holes without bending one of them. 

It will be great to have your location furnishing data soon.

Dale
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Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #23 on: June 16, 2014, 04:34:55 PM »

At last Colorado Wakes UP... Man, we need ya Tom... you'll help fill in a nice line, if we can get Kevin away from the TV down in Phoenix to finish his....
Got a good new station running down in NW Mexico, and between the Texas stations and you three, + our lonesome hangers-on up the West Coast, things should start popping.
Now, what about you threatening a couple of friends across state on the Front Range and High plains? And somebody up near Dinosaur, and down about Gunnison??? That'd be good spacing... I'm really curious about how a station would function up at Leadville... .
 


Offline corwyyn

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Re: Are you waiting for a board set, or assembling but not yet on line?
« Reply #24 on: June 16, 2014, 07:50:54 PM »

...if we can get Kevin away from the TV down in Phoenix to finish his....

TV no, bed yes.  Sorry but on my days off I am a serious bed pig unless I have errands or doctors appointments.  I did however get the amp finished last night and got a good start on the controller but once I started having to re-read the same paragraph in Dons' build instructions for the third time I decided the rest could wait until tonite.
Kevin
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Blitzortung station 1042