Yesterday I did some craigslist shopping to get the pieces and parts needed to add racks to my truck topper. I was going to weld up custom racks but liked the flexibilty of these commercial track systems. The towers and crossbars I found are Thule, but the tracks I found are Yakima. Everything I found online suggested the tracks are identical, but that is not true!  The plates used in the Thule system are too thick to nest correctly in the Yakima tracks. Using them like that could lead to serious failure. So, I machined the plates down a little to fit correctly. 

This was my first year as a vendor at the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Hamfest.  I did pretty well with 1 table and a bunch of junk!  I managed to sell almost everything I brought, and made enough money to fund a kegging system for my homebrew beer endeavors.

So far behind on this blog, but it is still active and I hope to update it more in the near future.  I have many projects that I would like to document here.

Bryan N0BCB

Due to recent vandalism at my cabin in Maine, I decided to add a video camera to watch the entrance area.  A friend gave me this Foscam FI8904W IP camera and an older Verizon Mifi 2200 hotspot.  I activated the hotspot for an additional $20 on my current account, sharing our 8gb data plan.  In order to route outside traffic to the camera, I am using a Cradlepoint CTR35.  The CTR35 connects via USB to the Mifi, powering the Mifi at the same time.

The system is going to run from my solar power system.  I already have a 150 A/h bank, but need to add additional solar panels.  My calculations show 105W of solar is needed for my location; I’ll add 200W to cover other use.  The total load for this entire system varies from 9.5W to 11.5W depending on whether the IR lights are on or off.  It should also go higher than this when sending an image.  The amplifier itself draws ~5W so if I can get by without it, I’ll leave it turned off.

Image viewed through the free Foscam iOS app on my iPhone

Cradlepoint CTR35.  I have the Ethernet port configured as a LAN port, which connects to the camera via a cable.  I didn’t care to use the Wifi function on the Foscam camera.  If I add additional cameras, I can put a switch here.  USB cable is going to the Mifi.  Power is to the 12V solar battery bank.

I have this Wilson cellular amplifier that came with my truck when I bought it.  It uses ~ 5W of power, but I think I’ll need the boost at the cabin.  Cell service is generally poor out there.

I have everything terminated in Anderson PowerPoles to make connection easy once I get to Maine and do the installation.  It also makes it easy to disconnect devices during troubleshooting.

The Foscam camera requires 5VDC for power.  I picked this DC-DC converter up from Amazon.com for $8.  So far it does the trick; we’ll see how long it lasts!

The Wilson cell booster.  This device uses an external antenna (I’m using a Yagi), and provides a local hotspot to the cell phone cradle.