Posts by: AP

I published on YouTube a video about how to export ecad files in KiCad and import them in Autodesk Fusion 360 to create nice electromechanical assemblies. Captions in english.

A very short clip with assembly test in Autodesk Fusion360: Raspberry Pi and a hat I designed for mobile radio. This type of simulation is extremely useful to pin point issues in mechanical design and assemblies (see at 0:35), that can be avoided early in the manufacturing process. I will create a more detailed tutorial …

I published on my YouTube channel a video about the ham radio Field Day event at Tuzla, Romania, 2020.

KiCad templates for two different hat models for Orange Pi Zero boards can be downloaded from my GitHub repo. Two different KiCad templates can be downloaded in the same GitHub archive: one uncut, 46×48 mm exactly same size as Orange Pi Zero; the other one has some cuts for network and USB connector, to accomodate …

I was quite busy the other day trying to understand how Baofeng is using RDA1846 transceiver in their products. While analyzing the schematic it struck me the overcomplicated way they do the switch between UHF and VHF. This is an excerpt of the schematic: The entire selector block is made up with discrete components ! …

A couple of weeks ago during what should have been a routine firmware upgrade, my Jabra Evolve 65 simply died. Have no idea what happened and maybe that will make an interesting future project, but because this headphone is my main headset used for teleconferences and other communication required by my job, I was kind …

Some time ago, my old Time Capsule died. It simply did not start. I read that this is an issue that plague all older (first and second generation) TCs. The culprits are four electrolytic capacitors inside the switching power supply, two 1,500 µF, one 1,000 µF and one 470 µF. The 1,500 µF were badly swolen. …

This will be another short post. I also made the GitHub repo public, but please be aware, current design is flawed. If you use it, you acknowledge that you use it on your own risk. Today I managed to build the revision 1.0 of this power sensor, not without some lessons learned. It was my …

I ordered the boards for this project with JLCPCB in China. This is my first attempt of working with a professional PCB manufacturer and I am extremely pleased by the results.

My first finished KiCad project is a prototype of a RF Power meter with input attenuation built around an Analog Device AD8307. An excellent tutorial about log amps can be read in March 1999 edition of Analog Dialogue. KiCad PCB: And the 3D rendering of the same PCB: The next step will be PCB ordering, …