Eggfinder LCD - Handheld Display Receiver for Eggfinder GPS Tracker

Received from eBay vendors today a HC-06 Bluetooth module and (2) 900MHz RP-SMA 5db Duck Antennas .

I also received a 915MHz Hope HF module from Cris. Had checked the TX kit and it was 915MHz..but had not checked the RX kits module..and it was the 433MHz , the mis-shipped one.

So thanks Cris ..you are quite the Wizard !

Kenny

Received the replacement 915 MHz Hope RF module today, finished up the LCD Rx kit, and it works like a charm. Thanks, Cris. Really nice job.

Mark

Today I put together the LCD Rx, it was such a breeze! Thanks again Cris for such a great product! I could not test it yet since I am waiting for a special case I am going to be using and some jumper wire. I will keep you guys updated and see how it turns out.

I want one, I just sent you an email, save one for me its my B-DAY!


TA

A really cool case would be something like this T-shaped instrument case from PacTec:

https://www.pactecenclosures.com/product-detail.php?productid=217&seriesid=59&classid=27

Unfortunately they're $13, so it would be a bit impractical to include one of these in a kit that sells for $55. I thought about not including a case with the Eggfinder LCD, but I decided that it would be a little chintzy on my part not to. I wanted it to be as complete as possible.

jus_rockets said:

Today I put together the LCD Rx, it was such a breeze! Thanks again Cris for such a great product! I could not test it yet since I am waiting for a special case I am going to be using and some jumper wire. I will keep you guys updated and see how it turns out.

Click to expand...

cerving said:

A really cool case would be something like this T-shaped instrument case from PacTec:

https://www.pactecenclosures.com/product-detail.php?productid=217&seriesid=59&classid=27

Unfortunately they're $13, so it would be a bit impractical to include one of these in a kit that sells for $55. I thought about not including a case with the Eggfinder LCD, but I decided that it would be a little chintzy on my part not to. I wanted it to be as complete as possible.

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This is the case I ordered, hopefully it gets here this week. Yeah the case was pricey but well worth it.
https://www.hammondmfg.com/1553T.htm

https://www.pactecenclosures.com/product-detail.php?productid=217&seriesid=59&classid=27
Those are NICE cases. I might have to get me one!

Any ideas where you can get a 16 pin ribbon cable so you can mount the LCD screen in a different orientation from the board?

bill2654 said:

Any ideas where you can get a 16 pin ribbon cable so you can mount the LCD screen in a different orientation from the board?

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Amazon,Ebay,Mouser,or DigiKey. It depends where you want to order it from, I got mine from Ebay.

Have to say, this has moved the Egg Finder to the top of my electronics list. I had been looking at combining it with BluetoothLE so I could plot the info on a map on my I device. Now not so much. Small tweaks that could make it even better could be either a compass module to tell you what direction your facing, and hey it would still be cool to be able to connect the receiver wirelessly to a phone or such.

Think this is at the top of the birthday wish list though.


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jus_rockets said:

Amazon,Ebay,Mouser,or DigiKey. It depends where you want to order it from, I got mine from Ebay.

Click to expand...

Do you have the link? I have looked and cant find a male to female.

I thought about putting a GPS module in the Eggfinder LCD so it could tell you which way to go and how far, but it would have jacked up the cost a lot. Since almost everybody that would be using it is already carrying around a GPS (in their phone or a Garmin), it seemed rather superfluous.

1tree said:

Have to say, this has moved the Egg Finder to the top of my electronics list. I had been looking at combining it with BluetoothLE so I could plot the info on a map on my I device. Now not so much. Small tweaks that could make it even better could be either a compass module to tell you what direction your facing, and hey it would still be cool to be able to connect the receiver wirelessly to a phone or such.

Think this is at the top of the birthday wish list though.


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Jwilder said:

A question to the community, what other feathers/functions would you like to see, is this something that you would like to have.
If there is enough interest, I'll give it away under GPL (Free )...

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One thing I would like to see is the ability to export position data to a handheld GPS device - such as a Magellan Triton.

I just enter the Rx coordinates into my hand held Garmin 12 and it takes me right to it. I chose the hand held GPS option because you may not always have cell phone or internet reception like in Argonia!

I might be the only one here, but even with my phone, I would love having a single device that would show me distance and direction to the rocket. Just a thought, but if others were interested it could go on an optional board.

I will be ordering one if my wife doesn't buy one for my birthday. I would also gladly pay an extra $50 for the option board. At the same time, I recognize that I could be the odd one out here.


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bill2654 said:

I just enter the Rx coordinates into my hand held Garmin 12 and it takes me right to it. I chose the hand held GPS option because you may not always have cell phone or internet reception like in Argonia!

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Just make sure you practice with your chosen GPS and set it up to select the appropriate coordinates. Decimal Degrees? Degrees, decimal minutes? Degrees minutes, seconds? I know it's elementary but I've witnessed more than once, someone inputting the wrong parameters. Practice before a launch.
That was one advantage with APRS trackers. The prospect of having the coordinates automatically entered into a compatible handheld mapping GPS via an interface cable. Nice, but I paid a royally high price a couple of years ago for a compatible radio and Garmin 60Cs to do it. I believe the EggFinder trumps this by price, even if it involves manual input of coordinates.

Now for those with Android phones, GPS Rocket Locator will shoot a line to your rocket in real time. If it doesn't have access to online maps, it will still shoot a line to the rocket one can follow. With a B/T connection, one can have a fully automatic real time tracking station they can carry out to recovery. Maps out on the lakebeds probably aren't a help but for those in the central part of the nation, it can help to know which road the rocket is closest.

For flyers who are hams and already are doing APRS tracking, one can plug the EF receiver into a laptop as the "station" GPS and have their attached TNC crossband repeat their EggFinder position via an APRS packet. Can send out a packet every 2.5 to 3 seconds that will also have the GPS altitude in there that
the EF sends back. The MapSphere program can't read the altitude but Xastir, UIView and YAAC can do so and retransmit as APRS. Example in this message:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...st-GPS-RF-Tracking-System&p=682603#post682603

Folks who have APRS radios, (D7A(g), VX8GR, D72A FT1DR) can use them to read out position and altitude coming from the Eggfinders by having the position retransmitted by the tracking program to APRS on their laptop base station.

Just a neat little caveat one can apply to the EggFinder system to squeeze a little more info out of the returned packets.

Yeah, the perfectly capable bare minimum works with the EF LCD and a handheld mapping GPS for manual input.
Have an Android device already that has a GPS in it? Add a cheap B/T module to the EF LCD receiver and one can track automatically in
realtime on the Android device. Kurt

I'm still waiting on my B/T module to get here but when it does I can just plug it in and I'll be able to track in real time.

Just finished putting my transmitter together and have a question. Is the green ready light and amber light supposed to be just as bright as the red light? Everything seems to be working fine but the lights are a little dim. Also should the extra shrink wrap be trimmed off the antenna or left on.

Thanks

The green & amber LEDs will not be as bright because they are powered by GPS module outputs, so there's not a lot of current available to light them. The amber 1S LED is only driven with about a 10% duty cycle, so all other things being equal it would have been very dim. The current-limiting resistor is much smaller on it in order to get more brightness, and it's a high-brightness LED. I tried a number of them before settling on the one I use, but I agree with you that it would nice if it was somewhat brighter.

As far as the shrink-wrap, it's up to you. I trim it because I think it looks prettier, but it won't hurt anything to leave it on.

jus_rockets said:

This is the case I ordered, hopefully it gets here this week. Yeah the case was pricey but well worth it.
https://www.hammondmfg.com/1553T.htm

Click to expand...

Did you go with all black or the two tone? And assume you did the battery door model ?

Would like to see pics when complete - curious to see how it fits together .

Kenny

Thanks Cris, no biggie on the brightness of the leds, I just wanted to be sure. I'm still surprised I put it together and it seems to be working. Now I have to build the receiver.

Thanks again,

John



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Has anyone found a small case to put the transmitter in? I planning on attaching mine to the shock cord as opposed to making a sled.


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Ringo said:

Has anyone found a small case to put the transmitter in? I planning on attaching mine to the shock cord as opposed to making a sled.


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Interesting mounting dilemma. Would one use a floppy stranded wire antenna with the EF wrapped in foam padding to sort of "free float" inside the container
with the battery mounted securely? Or securely screw mount the EF to the case along with the batteries? I would suspect that attaching the EF to the apogee
shockcord might lead to quite a bit of shock being subjected to the case if used in a dual deploy situation.
Another point of concern would be if one is using a duck antenna with an RP-SMA connector. If the antenna hits the ground "just right" could snap the connector
of the EF board and brick the unit.

I have a BeelineGPS riding the in the aft end of an ebay, facing forward with an internal connector wire feeding an SMA-through-bulkhead-connector on the aft bulkhead. If the antenna hits just right, I'll just be out the antenna and no damage could occur to the BLGPS itself due to the wire bulkhead connector. Looks something like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/6-Inch-Mal...423?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item462140d7e7
Why am I doing this? Rocket is metallic painted and the 70cm Rf won't get out of the ebay when the antenna was facing forward into the main chute bay. The MAWD plays just fine with the low powered BLGPS and with a duck antenna facing aft, it will be exposed out of the airframe at apogee. (Plus the G-switch still
is functional with the BLGPS facing forward at the aft end.)

I suppose if one can tolerate a larger mounting box for the EF, one could isolate the EF RP-connector by using a similar connector. If the antenna hits too hard,
it justs dorks the bulkhead connector/antenna and the EF remains unscathed. (The BLGPS uses a male connector on the cable. The EF user would need to get the RP-SMA female connector cable, not the one at the posted link above.) Kurt

One of my beta testers had it in a BT-55 size tube with a 300 mAH LiPo, taped to the drogue shock cord. He just had the wire antenna sticking out. Unfortunately, he used electrical tape and the tape melted enough that it came loose, we actually found it a few hundred feet away from where the rocket landed, nested among the scrub brush at Eagle Eye (after a 6,500' flight). Fortunately for him, he had a Walston in the AV bay too, so he got both the rocket and the Eggfinder back even though they separated. The wire antenna was bent somewhat, but not broken; don't know if it was from being tangled with the shock cord or from the impact on landing.

My recommendation if you're going to use a separate tube is to tape it to the shock cord with some duct tape until you think it can't possibly come loose, then wrap it three or four more times around for good measure. As far as the antenna, You might want to go with an external antenna with a short cable, taped to the shock cord, or make the tube long enough to accommodate the antenna too. Keeping it straight is a priority.

KenRico said:

Did you go with all black or the two tone? And assume you did the battery door model ?

Would like to see pics when complete - curious to see how it fits together .

Kenny

Click to expand...

I purchased the black case with no battery compartment. I am working on it now and should be done today or tomorrow. I already have the LCD mounted on the case and I am working on wiring and mounting the receiver, stay tuned!

Ringo said:

Has anyone found a small case to put the transmitter in? I planning on attaching mine to the shock cord as opposed to making a sled.


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Click to expand...

This has worked for me in 3 flights, you just have to make sure you use enough tape:blush:

jus_rockets said:

I purchased the black case with no battery compartment. I am working on it now and should be done today or tomorrow. I already have the LCD mounted on the case and I am working on wiring and mounting the receiver, stay tuned!



This has worked for me in 3 flights, you just have to make sure you use enough tape:blush:

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Thanks for the picture, what is the thin wire?

Looking forward to seeing the receiver picture.

Ringo said:

Thanks for the picture, what is the thin wire?

Looking forward to seeing the receiver picture.

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That is a Marshall transmitter for RDF tracking.

I got the LCD wired up and turned it on, it looks like it's working! I still need to mount the receiver, wire the power switch and momentary push button, and add Bluetooth.


Parts laid out!


The clip is sold seperatly, a good thing is that it comes with a hole template.




LCD wired to the receiver.


At first the LCD was too dark and I could not see any reading. Went to the manual and it said to adjust the trimmer, slight turn and it worked!

Are you going to bring the programming button outside? I know you have more than one frequency...