Arduino for amateur radio: experiments with the Freetronics KitTen compatible microcontroller

An attempt at using microcontrollers for amateur radio applications.

The Freetronics KitTen kit I built came from their stall at the 2012 Melbourne Mini Maker Faire.

Microcontroller projects involve software, hardware and the minor miracles that must happen before computers will talk to one another. Hence they have traditionally been for advanced electronic hobbyists and professionals only, because of the many things that can go wrong.




Arduino promises to make microcontrollers simple, cheap and accessible. Has it succeeded? Watch this video as I, who has a record of nothing but failure in these things, attempts to get a project going, and then design some of his own.

At one point the quest almost got derailed. An account of similar symptoms and the builder giving up was read. However a solution was found and the development could continue.

Radio projects featured include a beacon, an automatic CQ caller (configured as a QRPp transmitter) and a foxhunt transmitter, all with their own customised code.

I recommend the kit featured ( http://www.freetronics.com/products/kitten ). It came direct from Freetronics though Jaycar also stock a good range. The January 2012 issue of Silicon Chip magazine has a good beginners' introduction to Arduino and I suggest also getting this.

NOTE: A question that those used to building from scratch will ask is whether you can buy the chip used ( Atmel ATmega328P 28 pin ) seperately, program in this unit and then insert into your own circuit board.

You can, but need a preloaded chip, eg http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/atmega328-with-arduino-optiboot-uno Also see: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1252022534

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Arduino
• Freetronics
• KitTen
• review
• Maker
• Faire
• amateur
• ham
• radio
• morse
• beacon
• CQ
• ID
• foxhunt
• ARDF
• projects
• homebrew
• microcontroller

[vk3ye]

@flexairz computing networking's great when it succeeds and indispensible to modern life but it's still less robust and less reliable than a road or bridge which just sits there and does its job.

Experts may disagree, but to many networking remains a black art in which so many things must be right for it to work.

[vk3ye]

Thanks MadManMark - knew there was a better way of doing it. And I also prefer the term 'program'. I won't take you up on your kind offer - I'll teach myself one of these days. In the meantime I've found some ideas on 'brainwagon's' website that features a similar app.

[YounityProductions]

Am I the only one who came to see the timing? Its 13:37...

[fasthackem]

Apart from the Mistake at 4:28 its is great stuff! Keep on posting!

[fasthackem]

4:28 "This confirms my long held view, that Networking is unnatural for a computer" -LOL, so how does plugging in a USB device and finding out that it doesn't have a driver or a correct driver lead you to such a view? How do you confuse the two?

[jphdg]

Awesome video Peter. I loved the mini fox hunt!

Anyhow yes micro-controller circuits are quite interesting and leave everything virtually your imagination. Keep up the good work.

73

VK3TVZ

[radioguyuk]

seems like a lot of work for very basic automation, good vid and good luck with it :)

[flexairz]

C'mon Peter. Networking unnatural for a computer? Really? I've been working in and around computers for more than 25 years and connecting them through all kinds of networking types and protocols.

[FyberOptic]

Editing someone else's code is probably how pretty much everyone starts out, so you're well on your way to learning. I started out as a programmer long before I got into digital electronics, but I found that the underlying concepts are very similar, which helped me. Like with anything else, though, your abilities will begin to snowball over time, where learning one thing here and one thing there helps you to understand various other things, which then helps you understand more, etc.

[dodegkr]

Hi Peter, take a look at raspberry pi. It will give you a credit Card type computer with gpio on board for £15 due in next couple of weeks. Dave M0IDD