TAPR JAMSAT TRAKBOX Questions
I am on a mission to complete all my nagging projects.
I have a TAPR JAMSAT TRAKBOX that I modified for Y2K and Turbo a while back and I am now going to replace the ancient BR lithium battery with a fresh one and install a backlighted LCD display. I find today the 16 position alphanumeric BCD switch seems flaky and unresponsive. Is that the electronics ignoring it for some reason or do these switches fail?
If the latter, does anyone know of a source of that specific pushbutton BCD switch?
Also has anyone used a USB to serial adaptor with th TRAKBOX?
Well it is definitely not the switch. The BCD values are correct. What is happening is that rather frequently it will misread memory position 3 as position 1 and then will hang with that satellite regardless of the BCD values of the switch. When it does work, it will properly select all the memories until I pass terminal mode and then , even with a reset, it wont read properly past position 2 again. I re-seated the IC where the BCD inputs are buffered, but no joy. The bus voltage does look a bit shy of 5V but I don't think that should be a concern. Has anyone with the turbo upgrade reported this?
This TrakBox is a real clean build so I doubt any problems with bad solder. I will check the power regulator tomorrow. Just really curious if anyone is using these still and if they are having troubles. Yes I know there are more modern solutions, but this is entirely standalone and does have doppler correction.
Joe
On 7/18/2018 1:39 AM, Joe Leikhim wrote:
I am on a mission to complete all my nagging projects.
I have a TAPR JAMSAT TRAKBOX that I modified for Y2K and Turbo a while back and I am now going to replace the ancient BR lithium battery with a fresh one and install a backlighted LCD display. I find today the 16 position alphanumeric BCD switch seems flaky and unresponsive. Is that the electronics ignoring it for some reason or do these switches fail?
If the latter, does anyone know of a source of that specific pushbutton BCD switch?
Also has anyone used a USB to serial adaptor with th TRAKBOX?
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Joe Leikhim