Part 7- Finishing up for the final installation

With a few of the bugs worked out, the system is running through its final paces, before its to be installed in the car. While this is testing, time to turn my attention to the other part of this, my bike.

This will be the first time I have equipped the bike with APRS. I ordered the Byonics TinyTrak3, and they arrived ready to put together. I was surprised, both were easy to put together, once all the resistors were sorted, and the parts inventoried.

I did make a small modification for the bike tracker. I changed out the big T3 LEDs for some smaller, less power consuming SMT leds, and changed the current limiting resistors from 1K up to 3.3K. This reduced the intensity, and the power pulled by the LEDs, and saved me a few milliamps when operating. Getting the system working was easy, Byonics provides a free configuration software package in both Windows and Linux, to configure these guys. Hooking them up requires a null modem between the encoder and the computer...not a problem, I just used female to female jumpers and crossed Pins 2 and 3 on the serial ports, and passed Pin 5 (gnd) straight through. They connected to the computer instantly, and I configured them in a couple of minutes.

Finally I hooked up the cable I bought from Byonics to the UV5R handheld radio I have, applied power and checked my FTM-350 for a broadcast packet....in 3 minutes, success!

The GPS wasnt attached, so there is no location info, but I still need to whip up a serial cable for the GPS, in all accounts, this part is done! I have a handlebar bag, that all of this will fit nicely into. Im still trying to decide whether to add a small whip antenna, or just see how the UV5R does on its own. If I have time, I might whip up a little antenna, but its not necessary. Supposedly where I am riding in a couple of weeks is covered by some wide coverage digipeaters, so we will see how it works.

Also with the configuration software available for Linux, if I run into a problem, Ill have my laptop with me with the software on it, I can hook up a quick null modem, and reconfigure if necessary.

Finally the burn in for the console is about done. I had a wiring mistake on one of the controllers. I made the software serial pins 6 and 7 not 7 and 8.....so instead of unsoldering the headers and moving them one pin up, I just reloaded the code, and changed the software serial ports to pins 6 and 7....done.

The new finish is dried. I used a textured finish that adds just a little texture to the overall console. I didnt want to use glossy black paint, the texture added a nice touch

Next is to obtain the power taps for the cars fuse box, and run the wires. Since its Thursday, Im gonna wait until the weekend, when Im not rushed. So thats all for now

Happy coding!