Dreamcatcher Case for Travel

I explored this reboot issue a bit more, and found the EasyAcc 10,000mAh unit drops (less than a second) its output 5.0 vdc to 0 then back up to 5.0 vdc whenever you connect or disconnect external power. It doesn’t respond as a true UPS. Ken

These banks are a bit pricey but are advertised to support charge through.
https://www.amazon.com/Zendure-Portable-External-26800mAh-Technology/dp/B01AXZUMOK/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1486332040&sr=1-1&keywords=Zendure%2BA8&th=1

Actually not a bad price. I don’t think one would have to go to the $37.95 10,000mAh unit. 6,700mAh should give you at least 3 hours of UPS.

But unfortunately with my new EasyAcc 10,000mAh, I discovered this afternoon after running it as an UPS (with no external AC) for 4 hours without problem, it could not operate the Dreamcatcher and recharge simultaneously when I plugged the EasyAcc back into AC.

I’ll have to regroup - - that is recharge the EasyAcc, then try to operate in an UPS mode for 1 hour to see if it does the job. Ken

@kenbarbi tested for you and my 20,000 mAh power bank works seamlessly in UPS mode with Dreamcatcher:

This is: easyacc pb20000ms type. I know it’s probably too big for your setup :frowning:

regarding the power button you need to solder a wire from the bottomside of the button. Unfortunetaly it’s not exposed elsewhere. If you see the bottom side of the PCB you will find that trace and the button pad too. Right next to it the GND button terminal, that you can reuse too.

Zoltan

I’m thinking about the Zendur @demandzm mentioned, but it is .9 inches thick. I have to see if I have the real estate for that. It does look great in that it supposed to charge through.

I’m testing the EasyAcc 10,000 for a shorter period (1 hour) to see if it can handle the Dreamcatcher off the ac, then recover operation and start to charge and run the Dreamcatcher simultaneously.

Thanks for the pin-out info. I’ll do that later today. Ken

I found another option. The USB port only provides 1A but the 5v out port is suppose to provide 2A. It should be easy enough to adapt. I am looking at other options now that i have the correct search terms.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072NRXMN2/ref=psdc_764572_t3_B071YF26JT

Here is the case I settled on (for now)
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/22-24140

It holds the antenna, dreamcartcher, 12v battery, 12v-5v regulator.

I unscrewed the relief valve and fed a 12v power cable from my 24watt solar panel, then a little stand holds the solar panel that is at the same azimuth and elevation as the pointing for the antenna to the satellite (not perfect for sun tracking…but ok). The stand is oversized to also provide shade for the equipment box. Total cost
-Case $17, Battery $24, Volt reg $13, Solar panel $37, Stand $6, uv wire $2 = ~ $99

That link returns a access is denied error. Even if i just go to mcmelectronics.com and search part number 22-24140 i get the same error. What is the name of the case so i can do a search?

10" Yellow Tactical Weatherproof Equipment Case

I got the link to work.

Thanks, the website must of been having issues. The link is working now. Thats a great price.

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@Syed What are the planned marketing options for the production release of the v 3.03 ?

I’d rather buy the necessary accessories from outernet. Maybe make a few bundles.

1- The DC main board.
2- Compatible ac power supply
3 Required sd card - pre-loaded
4 An lbnf with all necessary cabling
5 generic indoor or outdoor operational case
6 optional battery
7 display options
8 mount for the lnbf
9 generic traveling case for all of the above
10- and important – some advertising sign for what the setup is – multi lingual
11 Operating/setup manual

We made several attempts to solve your point 6: “optional battery” in the past. With the current nearly 5W consumption for a 24h reception 5x24=120Wh would needed. Even huge power banks aren’t close to this (from solar cells for self sustaining operation also a huge sheet would needed as some calculated in the past).

So far after scratching my head I didn’t see other cost effective way then an old car battery and a 12V to 5V buck converter. Even a smaller 44Ah 12V car battery can do like 12V x 1h x 44A=528Wh if I’m calculating right.

http://forums.outernet.is/t/what-are-you-using-for-battery/3156/2
image

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Let’s go back and look at the EasyAcc 20,000 mAh device. Clearly it won’t run the Dreamcatcher for a whole day off charge, but it will give at least 12 hours of portability between charges.

easyacc20000

The EasyAcc 20,0000 mAh can be charged at a 5 watt rate from a double 2.4 amp USB wall charger through the 2 micro USB ports on the top, and has 4 standard size USB ports on the bottom - - although you only need to connect 1 of them to the DC. It also allows reconnecting the unit to a primary power source for recharging without causing a DC reboot.

This is my choice for a portable DC unit - - in fact that’s what I’m using now to power the DC. It produces sufficient dc voltage to keep the LNB running reliably. The small power board shipped with the DC and a Boston Power Lipo; or a standard power cube and cable are problematic. Ken

Travel Case

My current idea for a travel case is to re-purpose the ABS Plastic Outernet Lantern enclosure

I have the Dreamcatcher board, the EasyAcc 20000 mAh charger, and a high wattage dual USB charging cube already enclosed. I have an on/off toggle switch on the back of the case to cut power to the Dreamcatcher when I want it fully off. The entire assembly will be powered by an ac cord plugged in where the old USB cord used to go on the back side. With the pegs on the back, I have a range of elevation angles I can easily achieve. It doesn’t have to be pointed quite as accurately as an off-set parabolic dish/LNB setup, so I have some elevation to play with.

With the 20000 mAh EasyAcc, at a current draw of 1.1 amps, I should be good for about 18 off charge, and continuous on charge.

The Maverick LNB will fit well after I drill a big hole on the left side of the front cover, and it will protrude out about 1 inch.

I’m planning to take the Maverick apart to get a smaller assembly to embed in the case. Has anybody opened up a Maverick yet to see what’s inside? Ken

I am still going to look at BWEI BT-682
26cm flat panel ku band satellite dish antenna for USA market

I think somewhere in the forums it was looked at during fall 2017

The only supplier has expensive shipping ($35 + $19 shipping = $54)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/flat-panel-ku-band-satellite-dish-antenna/32819781911.html

I’d love someone to spend the bucks and try it out. Who is the mad experimenter?

I have two of those antennas; they didn’t work. I don’t think it was a gain issue; this was before we were able to manually adjust large frequency offset caused by a standard crystal oscillator.

Do you think the flat antenna failure is because of polaization?
or just the stability of freq conversion since it is not pll ?
Did it use the 13v or 17v or 21v bias ?

snip/paste from sale brochure
LNB
Input frequency 11.7-12.2GHz
L.O. frequency 10.75GHz circular polarization left
Output frequency 950-1450MHz
Gain 60db(min)
Noise 0.9db(max)
Output Impedance 75Ω
Output Connector F female connector
Operating Temperature -40C to +70C
Relative Humidity 0-95%

as Syed said it was not calibrated yet. Perhaps now it would be working after a quick calibration process (by the time we tested we were not developed our calibration process yet)

It could possibly work, unfortunately I can no longer test it because I did a tear down of the antenna and lost many of the little helicals.

I ordered one of the 26 cm flat antennas because I have for no use for a fixed dish installation… The delivery of 19 to 39 days means it will quite some time until I review it.
The pointing and snr of just the maverick lnb has led to unsatisfactory performance and intermittent usefulness. I can’t demonstrate the system when it takes me an hour (if ever) to acquire the signal.
I have all the ‘cool’ tools from compasses, angle measures, sat finders, and still can’t just plunk down the antenna and expect it to work.
I don’t need motorized -motion- tracking and the cost for an automatic aiming is out of the question.

If I read correctly the ‘beam’ aperture of the maverick or similar should be standardized for the typical 1m dish focal point and around 4 degrees (that means +/- 2 degrees). I have no idea what the “flat” antenna is going to do, as you noted it may be too frequency unstable to find the signal, or the beam width may not be wider.