Year: 2018

I’ve been looking for a small, but not too small Bluetooth keyboard for the Raspberry Pi. I was hoping to use an older Mac bluetooth keyboard but kept getting time out errors during connection after pairing for some reason. This appears to be a common problem. The local Central Computer sells a brand of small bluetooth keyboards under the model Comkia B405. This is a combo trackpad and small keyboard.

 

The box didn’t come with any instructions (though says its supposed to). I found the following was able to get it to pair with the Raspberry Pi.

 

• Plug in the keyboard to USB power using the supplied cable
• Turn the keyboard on using the sliding power switch on the front edge near the USB port
• On the Raspberry Pi select the “Make discoverable” option in the Bluetooth menu in the upper Right of the screen
• Click the small copper colored button on the bottom of the Comkia keyboard
• Select the “Add Device…” menu option from the same menu
• You may notice that the entire computer hangs up for a bit (I’ve noticed this on the Raspberry Pi when new bluetooth devices appear)
• You will see a “Bluetooth 3.0 Macro Keyboard” appear in the bluetooth menu near a keyboard icon
• Select this / click the Pair button
• Watch the pairing process
• If all works as expected you will have the keyboard and track pad working at this time

 

They keyboard is okay, though with some weird key placements (the – key is on the bottom right with a couple other moved around keys. I’ve also noticed that it takes bluetooth keyboards a little while to become active after reboot, the mouse pointer will not be active for a minute or two after boot!

 

 

 

 

Not my best SSTV decode, but still it’s always really amazing to grab a photo sent directly from space. This was captured using a 2m handheld and a 2m yogi antenna. Lots of noise even though it was a clear and high pass. Will try with my j-pole next time to compare.

1/ Halted computer surplus, aisles of electronics and surplus, leds/lcds/resistors/etc… http://www.halted.com/  3051 Corvin Drive, Santa Clara, CA

2/ The Electronics Flea Market. Old school Hamfest / computer flea market Next one is April 14, 2018 Electronics Flea Market at the parking lot at Fry’s Electronics in Sunnyvale https://www.electronicsfleamarket.com/  1077 E Arques Ave  Sunnyvale, CA 94085

3/ Al Lashers electronics in Berkeley, store filled with electronics, etc… http://allashers.com/  1734 University Ave – Berkeley – CA 94703

4/ Central Computers in SF, probably the only place you can buy an Arduino in SF! https://www.centralcomputers.com/  837 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA

5/ Jameco Electronics store, electronic components and some kits 1355 Shoreway RdBelmont, CA 94002  https://www.jameco.com 

6/ Ham Radio Outlet Oakland store. Amateur radio equipment, antenna wire, books, etc.. Great demo set up of live radios and rooftop antenna. 2210 Livingston St. Oakland, CA  Stop off a block away at Quinns Lighthouse for a lunch if the weather is nice and watch the boats go by

7/ Electronics Plus components and compute rparts and more https://www.electronicplus.com/contact.asp  823 4th Street, San Rafael, CA 94901

8/ Evil Mad Science LLC kits, arduino and parts https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/ 

  1285 Forgewood Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Last year I lucked into buying a new old stock (NOS) AS-2259/GR NVIS antenna including everything except a base for $60. The bases for these antennas can be hard to find. For about 6 months I contacted everyone who said they sold the bases as NOS and had a series of Ebay alerts. The ones I could easily buy were not the flat bases like the Telex 1994 or 1995 but were the adapters to military radio sets like the TRC-75 or similar. These would require me to build an adapter to my regular coax which would add complexity and would be just as much work as making my own base.

I’ve found Brooke Clarke’s PRC68 pages very helpful in learning about the AS-2259 including instructions on how some people have home brew their own base. I went to the local hardware store and attempted to part out a base.

None of the copper connectors were of the right size to fit in the various parts of the AS-2259’s mast connectors without causing damage and when I looked at the cost, time to build, test and fix, it seemed that buying a base was the way to go (especially since curing epoxy was a big part of getting it right)

I eventually looked into pricing out buying a brand new base adapter from the manufacture (R.A. Miller Industries). The part number was RRF0209G which seems to be the same as the Telex 1994 base. It has no transformer and is rated to 1000 Watts. It has wing nut points for attaching the coax which means I need to make a coax to bare wire or ring connector end.

A new one cost $175 and I placed my order. 2 or 3 weeks later I had it in my hands. It’s smaller than you’d expect from the photos. the base is 6″ by 6″ and the mast adapter is about 9″.

The cost was high enough that I likely would have skipped it if I hadn’t gotten such a good deal on the AS-2259/GR but appears to be an option if you have a AS-2259/GR sitting around with no base.

I haven’t had a chance to try it in the field yet but the quality is high as you’d expect.