Monthly Archives: July 2013

HackRF Lives!

Leave a reply

I managed to get the hackrf going on a linux vm with gnuradio a week ago but getting it going on SDR# recently has proved a more compelling simple demo.

I followed the rather thorough instructions on superfro’s blog to get everything setup.

Once I had the hackrf working in SDR# I tuned into local radio stations as a first test which went great. The reception was surprisingly good and it was able to pull the station name and (depending on station) song title as well which was quite neat.

As a next test I followed the RTL-SDR tutorial on decoding Pocsag (pagers) quite successfully which was rather neat!

I have received a 900MHz and order a 433 MHz antenna to try and improve reception as the onboard antenna is disclaimed as being quite poor.

Will be fun to try transmitting as well at some point but for a reception only situation this seems like a great start.

Practice Quadcopter

Leave a reply

As my videos may have indicated; although my tricopter is working reasonably well my piloting could still use some work.

I decided to get a mini/micro quadcopter that will work with my existing controller to learn on as they are so light weight crashes don’t seem to bother them.

After a bit of research the $18 diy quad by dave1993 looks like a winning option.

The recommended parts are:

  • WLtoys V939 RC Quadcopter Spare Parts PCB Receiving Board V939-05 $8.90
  • UDI U816 U816A Hubsan X4 RC Quadcopter Spare Parts Blade Set $1.20 (get 2+)
  • 5pcs x Coreless Motor Helicopter Motor DIY Part Size: 7×16 shaft=1mm $6.65
  • 300mAh Li-Po Battery $3.60 (get 2+)
  • Charger $2.90

Total for just the copter bits (no battery) was $16.75, with battery and charger you’re at $23.25, $28.05 with spare battery and props. Pretty cheap for a usable looking quad thats compatible with the 9x transmitter!

If you don’t already have a transmitter a cheap compatible option is the WLtoys V929 V939 V949 Beetle 4-Axis Quadcopter 2.4G Transmitter E728 $14.85. Its the same one pictured above. I don’t know what the quality is like on though it certainly appears to work.

You can also get the V939 bind and fly (so it doesn’t include a controller) pre-built. Its actually quite cheap on its own at ~$30.