Re-purposing DreamCatcher 2.03 and SDRx boards:

Othernet Hardware
41

Good Morning
Thank you very much, for bringing this important news to our attention, which will affect everyone monitoring these satellites.
This will obviously mean re-aligning our satellite dishes?
Away to read more on this and take notes.
Kind Regards
Graeme mm5iss

42

Hello ALL,
anyone working with the v2.03 dreamcatcher
andā€¦ ADS-B

or maybe point me in a good direction,

tnx
keep up the great work.

the Chicago dudeā€¦

43

If you havenā€™t, youā€™ll flash this image to your sd card: https://archive.othernet.is/Dreamcatcher2%20Armbian/
(readme file in that folder useful to get started, guessing youā€™ve done this part before though)

Then youā€™ll want to run the commands on this post before considering updating any software via apt-get upgrade: Dreamcatcher - DONT UPGRADE KERNEL BEYOND 5.27! - #4

Then a search of adsb or dump1090 on the forum here might yield useful info. Otherwise if youā€™re familiar with dump1090, install it and youā€™re ready to go.

HTH

1 Like
44

Hello there.

J7st was thinking of how to repurpose both of my sdr v1.10s. So did a search and came across this little thread.

What I am hoping to find is a way to bypass/remove the filter but keep the lna intact and then use these for GOES imagery reception up at 1691 MHz.

Anyone do this mod yet or tried to see how much the filter desenses above 1600 MHz?

James W8ISS

45

Hi James,

  1. remove the shiedling cap above LNA section
  2. carefully remove SAW1 (hot air blower, take care for calm air flow not to blow components)
  3. make a short jumper in these two pads marked by blue:
    image
    image.png1920Ɨ1040 30.1 KB
1 Like
46

Thanks.
Now seeing about borrowing a hot air gun.

James W8ISS

47

You could also probably find a SAW filter for the GOES frequency on aliexpress/eBay with a close-enough footprint that it would go on there. Most of them are pretty close.

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48

I found a nice SAW filter for the 430-440 Ham band ā€¦ great for receiving cubesats.

ā€“Konrad

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49

need to mention that the LNA is optimized for the L band use (1550 MHz and around) however still have some gain in hte 70cm band down, just donā€™t expect the same performance (not to mention reflections from mismatched at those out of bands of the LNA ports etc.)

50

It worked reasonably well, but I was able to find only one.

I would love to find one for the Ham Band at 1240-1300 MHz, or for the 902-908 MHz band. Iā€™ve just not seen any on E-Bay, etc.

ā€“Konrad

51

Unixpunk:
Would my sdr v1.10 work with the flightaware software?

BTW - havenā€™t gotten back around to trying to remove the saw filter yet. Life got in the way. Just now getting back around to considering doing it.

52

I think it will work fine but receiving is an issue until you make the mods.

1 Like
53

Thank you so much for your contributions to this thread! Been wanting to start a home RF project and woke up this fine Saturday morning and thought ā€œOuternetā€. After stumbling around the web a bit I figured out that my v2.03 (active patch) hardware is no longer supported. And then I found this really relevant thread - Thank You!

I used 2.03 successfully a few times in the past but my home does not have good Southern/98W exposure so it has mostly sat in a box. I have had good luck with ADSB via Pi / RTL-SDR at home; I seem to be under a SeaTac (Seattle area) approach. Thanks @unixpunk for your comments above - will start down that path. I wonder how well the active patch antennaā€™s pattern will serve meā€¦

@Konrad_Roeder - thanks for starting/pushing this thread! Would have direct messaged you but did not see how to do that. I am in Sammamish and saw your footprints on aprs.fi - I got my tech license years ago just to play with APRS. Iā€™m interested in working satellites and have an unused VHF/UHF radio just sitting there all connected and ready to goā€¦ Thanks for the tip on the NOAA/LUT stuff; sounds interesting but there are these tall pine trees; will definitely read up. Do you have any hints/tips/tricks on homebrew 2.03 enclosures? Thanks! KD7UBJ

Thanks all!
Greg

54

I love this video/concept and have often entertained replicating. Looks like they have a couple new vids doing the same but for WiFi.

1 Like
55

Hiā€¦can someone explain the advantages of this vs a regular rtl-sdr dongle with RPI? That would cost around $60 and have a more capable compute platform at a slightly larger form factor.

circuit card assembly

56

Its more about if you already had an older dreamcatcher and wanted to use it for something besides collecting dust. Since you canā€™t really buy them anymore, and even if you could, not sure why you would choose it over a pi3 (or better). Just my opinion.