Category Archives: Wireless

Cyberdeck Introduction

I realize I am late to the Cyberdeck build, but I was inspired by a number of builds I saw online. The one good thing about being late to the build game is you can take inspiration from the other builds and add in your own ideas. As everyone has a slightly different use case, […]

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Measuring Cable Length Using an Oscilloscope and Signal Generator

Measuring Cable Length Using an Oscilloscope and Signal Generator In this article, we’ll look at the basics of measuring the length of a cable using an oscilloscope and a signal generator.  You may ask yourself, why on earth would you need to do this?  The short answer is you wouldn’t.  So why go through the […]

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Setting Bluetooth Range Expectations

When I was looking at designing the Level Up module I wanted to get a sense of any pain points and the reasons that would trigger purchasers to return their products. It didn’t take long before I noticed a common thread. The commenters were clearly frustrated with two aspects, but we are going to focus […]

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USB 2.4GHz ISM Spectrum Analyzer

Introduction As with most of my projects this one has been on the drawing board for a while.  Well over two years in fact.  This project is looking to scratch a very specific itch, specifically to augment Wi-Fi measurements with noise measurements. If along the way we happen to add additional features that extend the […]

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RF Power Meter – Part 5 (Mobile Application)

Mobile Power Meter Application So in this article, we’re going to switch from the power meter itself to the mobile application that serves as the remote display.   The power meter application is a cross-platform application for Android, IOS, MacOS, and Windows.  The application starts up by searching for any and all power meters that are […]

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RF Power Meter – Part 4 (Calibration)

Background Welcome to Part 4 in the RF Power meter series. Today it’s all about calibration. In the original design of the RF Power Meter, I had planned on using slope and intercept values from the datasheet to calculate the displayed RF level.  The approach was simple to implement, however, the slope of the graph tended […]

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RF Power Meter – Part 3 (BLE Contamination)

Bluetooth LE Measurement Contamination I know what you’re thinking… is it a really a good idea to have a Bluetooth LE module paired with an RF power meter?  Wouldn’t the integrity of the RF measurement be compromised by the Bluetooth LE module?   It turns out the answer is no, well no in the sense […]

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RF Power Meter – Part 2 (Hardware)

Hardware Description and Schematics The main RF Power IC is the Linear Technologies LT5538 Power Detector and the Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 Bluetooth SOC module. Linear Technologies LT5538 The Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 SOC module or more affectionately the RFduino RFD22301 is used as the microcontroller and Bluetooth LE module. The RF power detector module is a […]

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RF Power Meter- Part 1 (Introduction)

Introduction This is a multi-part series on the RF power meter I developed for insertion loss testing.  While this series will get into the details this article starts with the why.  In future articles, we’ll cover the hardware, schematics, battery options, Bluetooth contamination of measurements, calibration and mobile software. The What and Why Insertion loss […]

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Welcome

My name is Jef Brink, welcome to my blog. If you want to know more about me click here. If you want to contact me, send an email to jbrink@sigmaiq.ca or follow sigmaIQ on bluesky This blog will focus on my interests in electronics, RF, RV’s, camping, equipment reviews and anything else I find interesting.

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