Gear

Seems I had made a mistake a few months while back. I was attempting to push another ancient netbook back into service running Linux so that I could mess around with setting it up as a webSDR using my Nooelec Smart v4.

While I was playing with some settings in the software, the dongle locked up and I couldn’t get it to work again. It got a bit toasty and I figured I had fried the thing. All troubleshooting pointed towards that being the case. No amount of reinstalling the software, unplugging/re-plugging the dongle, or rebooting the PC seemed to work. This project was put on the back burner.

Fast forward to this past week, I found the dongle after a recent move and had the idea to see if maybe it could be coaxed back to life. I installed the dongle and SDR# on another, more powerful laptop. No dice. It wasn’t being detected by the software. Defeated, I made the decision to order a new one. This time the Nooelec Smartee v5 (the one with the bias-tee that allows in-line devices to be powered directly from the dongle).

Installed the new dongle and it didn’t seem to work either. What the hell?!

I double-checked that the firmware was installed. It was. Reinstalled SDR# just in case. Pressing the start button wasn’t doing anything. Then I remembered the source settings in the menu, set that to “RTL-SDR USB” and it fired right up. Phew! The new one wasn’t dead!

Then I had the idea to try the older dongle again. You guessed it, it worked too! Not sure why it’s still not being recognized by the ancient netbook, but it’s a good lesson in checking your settings, even if you think you’re right.

The Smart v4 dongle working in all it’s glory!

So now I’ve got 2 Nooelec SDR dongles. I was planning on getting one with a bias-tee for some futures projects anyways, so it’s not like it’s really an issue.

Time for some new gear. I found this little wonder about a month ago while investigating some options for making go-juice in the field.

It is similar to the standard pour-over coffee solutions that are out there, but it channels all of the hot water into a small perforated cup containing the coffee grounds. Thereby (in theory anyways) making the coffee stronger than what the other pour-over setups can produce. It also has the added benefit of coming apart and fitting inside a GSI Infinity mug.

And yes, I’ve found it to make a stronger cup of coffee, but with one major flaw.

All that space where the top of the cup and the bottom of the rocket meet allows for cooler air to get in and cool the coffee down quite a bit before it hits the bottom of the cup, resulting in some cold coffee! While I do hate boiling hot coffee, I still prefer it to be quite warm while drinking it. I’m planning on using this during the colder months, and if it can’t keep up with the air temperature of an air-conditioned apartment, it definitely won’t be able to hold up to the cooler outside air during the autumn and winter months.

I found a cheap solution to this issue. The top of the mug will fit the lid from a cream cheese container, with the lid being slightly wider than the cup. I cut a hole in the lid just a bit larger than the coffee pod on the Rocket. This allows the pod to sit in the cup, but not for the heat from the coffee to escape while waiting for the full drip to complete (which is usually a few minutes). Works like a charm and takes up a negligible amount of extra space in my camp kitchen setup.

I managed to find a smaller lid from a Starfucks cup I had kicking around with a straw cutout which also sits perfectly on top of the Rockets water reservoir and allows the snorkel to still do its thing. This allows for even more heat to be retained.

I’ll be fielding this during my usual autumn excursions coming up and will provide an update on this, should one be required.

Category: Gear

Mistakes Were Made

New Gear – GSI Coffee Rocket