[amsat-bb] Re: Satellite tracking programming ideas

Nate Duehr nate at natetech.com
Fri Feb 1 00:43:40 PST 2008


On Jan 31, 2008, at 8:17 PM, Anthony Monteiro wrote:

> At 10:57 PM 1/30/2008, Phil wrote:
>
>> ...
>> I've been thinking some more about this serial problem and  
>> wondering if the
>> radio might be at fault or, more likely, that I should be doing  
>> something
>> between
>> read frequency commands.
>>
>> If I read the frequency once per second while spinning the tuning  
>> knob,
>> occasionally I'll see an incorrect value. That same value persists  
>> until
>> the knob is moved again. I can see the problem but not the answer.
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> Here are a few suggestions.
>
> 1. Try putting a loopback plug instead of the radio (TXD to RXD) and  
> sending
> contiguous 256 byte blocks. Use an incrementing pattern so you can  
> see if
> there are any errors as they come back in. You should be able to do
> this indefinitely
> (i.e. test it for several hours) with no errors

See Phil?  That guy who taught you to talk to yourself when working  
through problems, was RIGHT!

(GRIN!)

Sigh... loopback plug... why didn't I think of that?!  We do this  
DAILY in telco... (grumpy look...)... when the bits aren't acting  
right... see if you can talk to yourself.

The old telco joke... telco engineer goes to the firing range for his  
first day of shooting ever, can't hit anything, holds his hand up in  
front of the gun and pulls the trigger, blowing a hole in his hand...

"Trouble's not at my end!  Must be down-range!"

--
Nate Duehr, WY0X
nate at natetech.com



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