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Prototype of Rockmite Keyer a Success!

The Rockmite has a new keyer that should last longer, and brings it one step closer to having a modular interconnect ala the proposed Open-Headset-Interconnect-Standard 

Today I Learned:

You can superglue video game switches to battery cases!


From that point, it was pretty easy to kludge jumpers over to the three-wire keyer, converting it to the keyer that will eventually contribute to the Rockmite keying system. I had brought out two ground wires, one each for the di and da buttons. They each went into a single two wire connector that was, in turn, wired to on lead of each switch. The original di and da wires were jumpered to the other corresponding switch terminals.

And, here it is in action!



I'm not using the RJ-45 breakout board inspired by the open headset standard yet, but this will probably be the board placement



Finally, since the red yam features so prominently in a number of the project pictures, (I typically use it as a light duty insulator and/or standoff), I mentioned that we could use it as a battery. Apparently I hadn't brought this up before? The 11 year-old kid, (Daize), was enthralled.

What's next? 

Figure out the placement of the third switch: probably on the bottom of the batter; case.

Make the initial prototype via two breakout boards, (maybe use a rubberband to attach the one seen above at first, and just use the screw terminals on the back of the board for the radio-side breakout board.

In operations news, the radio is back to being detected on the Reverse Beacon Network:






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