Eggfinder RX LCD PRO

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
While the Black Aero case is slick, it seemed to me that it would be a bit tight to fit EVERYTHING that Cris offers for the LCD tracker, so I fab'ed my own case. Doesn't have a handle, though it does have a loop for a belt clip. Screen controls (BL and mode button) are on the face, as is the audio jack. Power switch and jack for charging are on the left side. No fancy charge/use switch -- why do I need that? Replaced BT right-angle connector with a short straight connector that allows it to tuck under the LCD module and plug directly into the LCD board without a connecting cable. Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Not sure if fully relevant to the original post, but wanted to add as another example of case design for the eggfinder products. Someone had mentioned making a case to hold two LCD receivers to be used for both GPS and telemetry.

The case is a commercial ABS plastic project box. Momentary push button switches on the left and right sides for each LCD receiver. Locking push button switches on the top for power, backlight, and RST for each, as well as for the bluetooth module on the GPS receiver. DPDT switch controls master ON/OFF/Charge and another for selecting which LCD receiver is connected to the voice module (3.5 mm jack accessible from the top) so can listen to either the tracking data or the telemetry data. Two openlogs record the data received by each for analyzing in case there is an in-flight anomaly and the data can't be obtained from the GPS transmitter or eggtimer quantum/proton/etc itself, and the micro SD card is easily accessible.

Power is from a 2S 4 Ah lipo battery, which should easily handle the added load if using the backlight x2 and bluetooth at the same time. Connectors for power and data/programming are the serial and Ethernet ports at the front. The Ethernet connection has the ground, 3.3 V, RXD, and TXD for each LCD receiver. The serial port has all 5 battery connections and the aux connections on the voice module. All programming of GPS and telemetry transmitters, firmware updates of the LCD receivers, and battery charging can be done without opening the case.

My dremel work isn’t the best so the through holes have some gaps, but it’s functional as a dual base station. I don’t have a photo of the inside but imagine the worst wire nest when they try to diffuse a bomb in action movies! My goal for this was to have as much functionality without having to open the case, so making the inside organized wasn’t top priority (next rainy day project). I also need to put the eggtimer decal on it!
 

Attachments

  • Untitled.jpg
    Untitled.jpg
    154.8 KB · Views: 23
  • IMG_9137.jpg
    IMG_9137.jpg
    209.6 KB · Views: 25
  • IMG_9138.jpg
    IMG_9138.jpg
    243.7 KB · Views: 23
  • IMG_9142.jpg
    IMG_9142.jpg
    197.4 KB · Views: 24
  • IMG_9143.jpg
    IMG_9143.jpg
    123.7 KB · Views: 26
  • IMG_9147.jpg
    IMG_9147.jpg
    180.3 KB · Views: 25
Not sure if fully relevant to the original post, but wanted to add as another example of case design for the eggfinder products. Someone had mentioned making a case to hold two LCD receivers to be used for both GPS and telemetry.

The case is a commercial ABS plastic project box. Momentary push button switches on the left and right sides for each LCD receiver. Locking push button switches on the top for power, backlight, and RST for each, as well as for the bluetooth module on the GPS receiver. DPDT switch controls master ON/OFF/Charge and another for selecting which LCD receiver is connected to the voice module (3.5 mm jack accessible from the top) so can listen to either the tracking data or the telemetry data. Two openlogs record the data received by each for analyzing in case there is an in-flight anomaly and the data can't be obtained from the GPS transmitter or eggtimer quantum/proton/etc itself, and the micro SD card is easily accessible.

Power is from a 2S 4 Ah lipo battery, which should easily handle the added load if using the backlight x2 and bluetooth at the same time. Connectors for power and data/programming are the serial and Ethernet ports at the front. The Ethernet connection has the ground, 3.3 V, RXD, and TXD for each LCD receiver. The serial port has all 5 battery connections and the aux connections on the voice module. All programming of GPS and telemetry transmitters, firmware updates of the LCD receivers, and battery charging can be done without opening the case.

My dremel work isn’t the best so the through holes have some gaps, but it’s functional as a dual base station. I don’t have a photo of the inside but imagine the worst wire nest when they try to diffuse a bomb in action movies! My goal for this was to have as much functionality without having to open the case, so making the inside organized wasn’t top priority (next rainy day project). I also need to put the eggtimer decal on it!
Very slick and attractively packaged, though the more sophisticated we make our ground stations, the larger they become. Whatever. Like the way you switched the Voice Module!
What did you use for the OpenLogs (I'm only aware of the SparkFun OpenLog) and how did you wire them to receive data, while still allowing the LCD-RX module to also receive the same data?
 
Very slick and attractively packaged, though the more sophisticated we make our ground stations, the larger they become. Whatever. Like the way you switched the Voice Module!
What did you use for the OpenLogs (I'm only aware of the SparkFun OpenLog) and how did you wire them to receive data, while still allowing the LCD-RX module to also receive the same data?
Thanks! Cris had previously mentioned to just get two voice modules but realistically, I can only listen to one at a time. And this is bigger than the single LCD receiver handheld, but just about the smallest possible box having functionality for both GPS and telemetry. I also am a huge fan of acquiring data, even if I don't always use all of it, so having the ability to record what is received was paramount for me.

They should be the same as the Sparkfun openlogs, just non-branded generic. I also have them wired up to the Eggfinder TX and Mini TX.

Yes, connect only the two power wires and the RXD line on the OpenLog. Do not connect the TXD line on the OpenLog... it's receiving data only.

I followed Cris's instructions above with wiring them. They just need three wires: 3.3 V, ground, and RXD. On the GPS LCD receiver, the four outputs get split in parallel between the bluetooth module, the openlog (except TXD), and the programming ethernet port. For telemetry LCD receiver, same except no bluetooth module, just openlog and programming port. Hopefully this picture makes sense. IMG_9830.jpg
 
Thanks to all for the good info and pics; it helped me a BUNCH when building my Eggtimer LCD-GPS w/voice module and mounting it in a Black Aero v3 Pro case.
Used 6mm fiber optic cable for the LED view port, in a 1/4” hole, drilled thru where the indent is on the inside of the case.
Phone jack mounted on right side, in the lid, just above the On/Off/Charge switch.
I did manage to break one of the nut-retainers on the case (over tightening; my fault), but a little bit of Testors model glue/plastic cement fixed my mistake.
B487C285-F3A0-4285-85E4-DDFA420D6F0C.jpeg98E09B94-4CE1-44A9-979E-E0F73D987C7D.jpeg
 

Nice build video for the BlackAero case. The one thing that I would add is that the backlight switch terminals need to have heat shrink over them to prevent them from shorting anything on the LCD receiver board... there's not a lot of clearance there.
 
Nice build video for the BlackAero case. The one thing that I would add is that the backlight switch terminals need to have heat shrink over them to prevent them from shorting anything on the LCD receiver board... there's not a lot of clearance there.

ACK - I will add that note to the description on the YouTube channel and do that myself on my builds, thanks!

Edit: The note has been added to the description
 
Back
Top