Christian – holdmybeer.io

Hardware Raspberry Pi

How much power does a Raspberry Pi 4 draw?

Interesting question, no? In preparation for some of my hardware projects, and since I still haven’t received my CM4’s 🤬, I needed some estimation for what the real power draw is likely to be. Yes, there are spec sheets, but they are vague because the actual draw depends on the Read more…

By Christian, 5 months5 months ago

Raspberry Pi

Make Raspberry Pi 4 Fast

This is total overkill. But it’s fun and makes the Pi 4 quite zippy! Here’s a description of my setup on one of the Raspberry Pi 4’s around here. I’m using the following parts in addition to a Pi 4: 52Pi Ice Tower heatsink Noctua NF-A4x10 5V, 3-pin (40x10mm, Brown) Read more…

By Christian, 5 months5 months ago

KiCAD Raspberry Pi

KiCAD 6 on Raspberry Pi OS

Ok, I lied. KiCAD 5.99, which will become 6 sometime in 2021! Nightly builds are produced for a bunch of platforms but not for Raspberry Pi OS. I needed KiCAD 5.99 to work with CM4IO schematics. While there are instructions provided for Linux, the prereqs aren’t documented best I can Read more…

By Christian, 5 months5 months ago

Amateur Radio Audio

Heil RS-1 no-drill clamp mount

Heil makes an accessory for the Heil PL2T microphone arm: The Heil RS-1 riser (~$29 @ B&H). The RS-1 riser gives you more degrees of freedom. You can place the microphone arm’s base behind some of that equipment and extend the boom’s reach. And you can also use the additional Read more…

By Christian, 6 months6 months ago

Amateur Radio

Antenna Part 7: Got pole?

Now that the tilt over mount is in place, it’s time to attach the pole. I eyeballed the tube lining up with the bracket. The clamps attach to the support slightly offset to one side. Staring at the picture, you have to remember this misleads about where the tube is Read more…

By Christian, 10 months6 months ago

Amateur Radio

Antenna Part 6: Hinged

Now that hardware is all cleaned up, we’re ready to go. Well, not so fast, it has been unhealthy outside for some time now. On hold for several weeks. Finally, the awful western U.S. wildfire smoke of 2020 has cleared out, and it’s time to do work again outside. Dry Read more…

By Christian, 11 months6 months ago

Amateur Radio

NFARL Code Practice Oscillator (CPO)

A few weeks ago, I participated in a zoom call named ‘CW-CHAT.’ CW stands for continuous wave, by the way, which is another term for morse code transmissions. The zoom call is a sort of check-in and Q&A for anyone who wants to learn morse code and get feedback from Read more…

By Christian, 11 months9 months ago

Amateur Radio

Arrest that (key) slide!

UPDATE, 10/6/2020: I found a better option! For ~$10 USD, you can find this on Amazon: round, thin silicone mat (x2) This is a very thin silicone mat (two actually) that offers a lot more friction and is easier to live with. And as a bonus can be used with Read more…

By Christian, 11 months9 months ago

Amateur Radio

Antenna Part 5: Recovery

Time to recover from the galling incident. I bought new stainless hardware from ACE Hardware and replaced the fully threaded bolts with partially threaded. Perfect for 2″ OD tube. I don’t want to take the chance that these threaded bolts that come with the kit seize up again later. Dimensions Read more…

By Christian, 1 year6 months ago

Amateur Radio

Antenna Part 4: A galling shame

The picture above shows what it looks like when I screw up. It was time for me to relearn an old lesson about stainless, even though it was somewhat unexpected. It is different than what I had ever seen before. I went to put the new shiny black parts on Read more…

By Christian, 1 year6 months ago