Project Toucans Keyer Design

Project TouCans is well underway! I'll have more details soon. The key difference between TouCans and the Flying Rockmite is that it includes a Tuna Topper amplifier. The amplifier/radio combo chews through the 8 AA batteries more quickly than the Rockmite alone did. Consequently, Diaze—the 12 year old here—and I switched over to D cell batteries. Our keyer, however, is located on a AA battery case.

Today, the design for the TouCans keyer became obvious when I looked at the Rockmite's current keyer next to the new battery pack:

The two D cell battery packs will be glued together back-to-back. As you can see, the battery pack manufacture graciously included an indentation in the top of the battery packs that holds the on/off switch snugly—even more so after a drop of superglue is applied. The keyer video game switches will be attached in the same way they were on the AA battery pack in roughly the same location at the front of the D cell battery packs. The Ethernet breakout board may be a tight fit, but have smaller boards if we need them. We'll have this whole keyer thing worked out soon.

Oh, Also! That's the TouCans radio suspended in the antenna in the background of the photo!

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