Topic: New station on-line

[dfroula]

I finished up Dave Robbin's Red Controller.

I connected it to my amp/antennas for 15 minutes or so to get the data flowing and so Dave's station would show at blitzortung.org and lightningmaps.org. The amp isn't done yet, so no active data is flowing at the moment. Of course, the station is physically here in Saint Charles, IL.

Station ID is 946 - Cave City, KY.

Don

[W3DRM]

Way to go Don! 


BTW, I do see strikes picked-up by 946...

[jmcmurry]

Dave,

You're a lucky man, Don does beautiful work.

- Jim

[dfroula]

I saw hundreds of signals at lightningmaps.org, but no strikes. I didn't bother to connect the ground, so it was mostly junk noise. There is so little activity at the moment, there was no chance to get a real strike. Although, the strike stats graph does show strikes, but the Network tab doesn't. Odd.

One interesting difference with this kit compared to Jim M.'s is that the GPS module supplied was the new GlobalTop Fox-1 unit, rather than the older PA6H. I wonder if they corrected the firmware/hardware bug that causes problems if too many sats are being tracked?

The pinouts on the new module are the same, but the notch on the module should not align with the white dot on the board silk-screen. New builders beware!

I could identify the ground pins on the new module by looking for the tiny bridges to the shield from the ground connection pins. I ohm'ed the board to find if the corresponding pads were at ground, indicating the correct orientation. Otherwise, it would have been easy to install the module backwards, which would be a very hard thing to correct once it was soldered down.

Don

EDIT: It appears the only feature difference is that the PA6H has an additional TTL interface for receiving RTCM position correction data from an RTCM receiver. The FOX-1 has only a single TTL interface for primary GPS data. This is inconsequential for our application.

[Dr Obbins]

Dave,

You're a lucky man, Don does beautiful work.

- Jim

Yes - I am excited to get the unit up and running.  Unfortunately, my work schedule won't give me time to play with it for a couple of weeks. 

I do want to give a big thanks to Don for volunteering his time to assemble the unit.  So Don here is your big
THANKS

[dfroula]

My mistake on the "new" gps module. "GTPA013" is the number of the built-in patch antenna...

It is, in fact, a PA6H.

Don

[W3DRM]

My mistake on the "new" gps module. "GTPA013" is the number of the built-in patch antenna...

It is, in fact, a PA6H.

Don

I'm confused. Did the GPS module have the alignment notch or not? You seem to have indicated that it did not and thus, alignment is not according to the directions/drawings. Just want to be clear on this.

[dfroula]

Sorry, it was confusing.

The "old" and "new" modules are physically and electrically the same. However, the stamping and labeling on the top of the module is different should not be used to orient the module when installing it, as the markings are placed differently.

There is a very slightly cut-off corner on the module. I thought at first that this might be an index marking that was meant to align with the white square that is silk-screened on the board. This is not possible to do. If the notch was aligned with the white square, the electrical contacts would be at right angles with the pads on the board.

The white square on the PCB is meant to denote "Pin 1" of the module. There is a small "1" stamped on the underside of the module that should be aligned with the white square.

Regards,

Don

[W3DRM]

Thanks for the clarification Don.

[dfroula]

I just finished up Dave Robbin's station. A new location down in Kentucky should be on-line soon!

The station is a clone of mine and Jim M's, except for the 50mm longer ferrite antennas.

Don

[Dr Obbins]

I got your email Don, and I am looking forward to getting this unit up and running. The pictures look like very professional craftsmanship. Thanks again.