OPINION : Yet Another Battery Story→

/
OPINION : Yet Another Battery Story

This isn’t really an amateur radio story, but it does have a battery in it, so it could be. :)

About six months ago, I noticed that my battery-powered shaver wasn’t holding a charge as well as it used to. Recently, I’ve had to just use it with that AC adapter to shave down my beard properly.

I cracked it open and found that it was powered by a single NiMH, AA cell, very much like the one shown in the photo. The kicker is that it’s not a standard battery, but one with solder tabs.

Read More

OPINION : Benchduino: It’s Gonna Be BIG, for Builders→

/
OPINION : Benchduino: It’s Gonna Be BIG, for Builders

Far more than will admit, amateur electronic builders tend to have a prototype that looks more like a Rube Goldberg cartoon than something designed by Hewlett Packard (when they were building). Me, too. There’s just a lot of wires, connectors, rigged-up jigs, and so forth when you’re trying to get a circuit to work like it’s ‘sposed to. And, put a microcprocessor or small PC board into the mix, aye yai yai!

There are breadboards, even sophisticated ones, that help with this. And, there are design boards to facilitate with some PIC development as well as ones that help with Arduino or Raspberry Pi projects. That’s good. But I’ve seen nothing like a workbench platform for most all of these with hardware and software hooks to keep Rube Goldberg in Collier’s Magazine. Until now.

Read More

OPINION : Learning About Batteries→

/
OPINION : Learning About Batteries

I often say that getting an amateur radio license is as much getting a license to learn as it is getting a license to operate on the amateur radio bands. Lately, I’ve been learning about batteries, LiPo batteries to be exact.

It all started when I purchased a Morserino. The Morserino is a feature-packed Morse Code learning aid. In addition to helping you learn the characters, it’s also supposed to help you learn how to copy in your head. It has a built-in touch keyer function, and a LoRa interface that lets you send and receive code from other Morserino units.

Read More