Here are some pictures I've took of my TinyTraks, a fine kit from Byonics for doing mobile APRS. It comes as a kit, and interfaces between a GPS receiver and a radio transceiver (no TNC needed!).
To see my recommended configuration settings for the TinyTrakII, click here.
Click here to go back to David's APRS page.
While my TinyTrakII is still going strong, I wanted to try out some new ideas, and try to come up with something robust and versatile, to include pedestrian mobile capability. I'm a fan of packaging the TT in an Altoids tin, but I wanted something more mechanically robust. I settled on an Eagle diecast aluminum box (part # "ME400-4596" purchased from Mouser for about $8 plus shipping).
This box was chosen to be big enough to house the TinyTrak3, some switches, and a 2nd 7805 voltage regulator to power a Deluo GPS (although the 2nd 7805 is not installed yet in these photos). This box is slightly shorter and slightly thicker than an Altoids tin.
The switches on the side of the TT3 box are on/off, primary/secondary config, and a push-button to "transmit now".
I can cram this whole mess into a GSI Outdoors Lexan box (item # 73510, outside dimensions 9.25 x 7.75 x 3.9 in). And it is a rat's nest of wires. The cabling will be the subject of an "optimization" project soon.
Oh, and yes, it works!
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While my original Altoids tin mounting worked okay, having two cables attached to it was a bit much, it lacked a primary/secondary selector switch, and I wasn't sure one of the DB9s was always getting a good connection (the female DB9 installed from the inside of the tin prevented the mating connector from fully seating). Also the blinky lights were always visible and conspicuous, which was not always desireable.
So I whipped up version 2. I put all the required signals on one male DB9, and had just enough pins to allow each of the 3 pigtails had it's own ground (without having to bridge wires inside the cable's connector). The connections are, in no particular order:
To mount the TT2, I glued three flathead screws to the inside of the tin. On the previous version the standoffs had screw heads coming out the back of the box, which wasn't very clean and I couldn't just slap some velcro or magnet strips onto it. I used some short aluminum spacers (short tubes) to space the TT2 off the bottom of the tin.
In the interest of space, I also removed the on-board DB9. I couldn't get a cable on it without removing the TT2 from the tin, anyway. I built myself a cable which provides power and serial data in the right places just for programming of the TT2. I use a different cable when used in-vehicle.
Since I have a steel console with flat surfaces, I simply attached some adhesive magnet strips to the bottom of the tin. I can slap the thing on top of the console and open the lid if I want to see the LEDs. Or I can slap it onto the rear of the console when I want it out of the way.
The switch is DPDT center-off. Down selects my "primary" configuration, center is off, and "up" selects my "secondary" configuration. Sometimes I use the secondary config for an experimental setup, leaving primary at "known good" settings. For example, I tested with increasingly aggressive (shorter) TXDELAY settings on secondary until it stopped working, then I could flip back to primary until I was able to pull the unit out to reprogram it.
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