Category Archives: DIY – distributed technology and innovation

“Glowing Tooll Handles” – reduce loss of critical tools during crises –

From user jolshefsky at the always-outstanding site Instructables, this simple technique for making tools hard to lose in the dark, Glowing Tool Handles – a technique helpful during mionor inconveniences, but which may rise to the chllenge and become more useful the serious the situation.

We recommend the following: ig you’re only going to do this for one type of tool, do it for flashlights and around light switches.

But think of other applications: first aid equipment, any tools such as paintbrushes,

Popular Logistics proudly adds link to Kirk Blattenberger and RF Cafe

In one of those amazing discoveries that makes one appreciate the thousands of years of human information (and other) technology that have led us to the internet, which, admittedly has its share of chaff, it also has some golden wheat: in this case RF Cafe, an amazing reference website which will be of great use to neophyte and expert alike, from experienced had operators to Make: Magazine readers and confirmed addicts of Instructables, by one very smart and when you’re not looking very funny electrical engineer named Kirk Blattenberger. How many bloggers can get Marconi, Johns Hopkins (he scientist, not the university named after him) onto one page and quote Chico Marx without it being a non sequitur?

Two. Us, because we told you about him, and the other is Mr. Blattenberger. For those who aren’t sure, “RF” in this context means “radio frequency.” Which can refer to many things, depending on the context, but is the over-arching category which includes wireless communications, garage-door openers, shock collars for dogs (which, in our experience. are only rarely a good idea, but as a philosophical matter, we believe in positive reinforcement training of dogs and children and even some adults, but that’s a longer conversation for another day), two-way radios which carry voice, data, medical data, help manage air traffic control, help rescue people in all manner of situations, and even provide entertainment and education and news in more languages than we can count. Plus all manner of serious and cool remote control from Predator drones to remote control toy boats. Mr. Blattenberger has well-researched information on these topics and more, and has also written software on related topics.

He’s also got a job board;

Pages (multiple) about renewable energy resources; one generally about green energy;

another principally about photovoltaic energy (think solar turned into electricity, rather than, say, heating water);

And one entitled “Solar Power/Energy Websites;” to use Mr. Blattenberger’s own words,

Solar energy is the radiant light and heat from the Sun that has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation along with secondary solar resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass account for most of the available renewable energy on Earth. Only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used.

Solar energy is the radiant light and heat from the Sun that has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation along with secondary solar resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass account for most of the available renewable energy on Earth. Only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used.

RFCafe is an outstanding resource; as we try to build our own knowledge of RF technologies and to make useful information available here on Popular Logistics, we’ll try to resist actual plagiarism and instead properly credit Mr. Blattenberger. Which may mean naming any “Radio Communications” reference pages after him.

Homebrew software analyzer for digital radio signals (OP25)

Under the headings of democratizing and demystifying technology, here’s a group of open-source folks making ways of receiving the digital signals with which, under what’s called “P25” (Project 2025), public safety agencies will be conducting their radio communications by the year 2025. Those handy with soldering irons and reading circuit diagrams will find this especially interesting. Those of us with a less sophisticated understanding will, for the moment, stand in awe and admiration:

OP25 is a not-for-profit project to bring together folks that are interested in implementing APCO P25 using a software-defined radio. Our goal is to build a software-defined analyzer for APCO P25 signals that is available under the GNU Public License (GPL).

APCO Project 25 is the digital communications standard used by many police and emergency services throughout the world. Most notably the US, Canada and Australia deploy systems based on P25. Compared to existing analogue systems P25 offers improved spectrum use, coverage and flexibility. Provision is made to ensure the confidentiality of traffic, to allow the use of trunking and the provision of data in addition to voice services.

Hardware scanners such as the Uniden BCD996T offer APCO P25 functionality but software-defined radio (SDR) offers significantly improved flexibility. For example, software radio approaches can receive many channels at once, handle both voice and data (including the trunking control channel), decrypt encrypted traffic when the key is known and log traffic to disk for later analysis. With the right software an SDR is a powerful analysis tool for debugging and monitoring of P25 networks.

That’s the sales message. The reality is software-defined radio isn’t yet as simple as the plug-and-play of hardware radios. You will need a lot of patience and a fair amount of software skills to get working. To get an idea of the work involved you can check out Hardware for Your Software Radio By Stephen Cass. In that sense this really is an amateur radio project and requires the same kind of skill and dedication but we’ve a few people who will help out if you run into trouble. A project like this needs many different skills so even if you’re not technical you maybe able to help in other ways.

A short video that demonstrates OP25 transmitting audio from a PC’s microphone input, then to a USRP being received by a GRE scanner is available on Youtube.

via OP25.

Thanks to Dangerous Prototypes for the link.

Cassidian Communications has a helpful explanation of P25 in .pdf (Acrobat) form; see also their P25 Land Mobile radio page. If this subject is of interest but daunting, start with Wikipedia’s excellent Project 25 entry.

OP25 itself notes that there are other projects exploring these issues: “OP25 is only one of a number of projects in this area and you should check out Project54, OpenP25 and Unitrunker for related work. “

User-Invented: the firefighter’s pole

The firefighter’s pole – now often omitted from firehouse design for safety reasons – is worthy of our consideration for a number of reasons:

They perform their intended function – getting a group rapidly towards its mission in readiness with little notice. In other words, firefighters don’t have to sleep in all of their uniforms, on their trucks, and can get rest when not needed. The pole has also been used in military pilots’ ready rooms for the same purpose.
They take up very little floor space;
Fire poles don’t fail during power outages, and in fact require no energy input.
The fire pole was invented in the 19th century by David Kenyon, an African-American firefighter in Chicago. For a better account, see April 21, 1878: Thinking Fast, Firefighter Slides Down a Pole – by Randy Alfred on Wired.com

See also:

Fire Pole! – videos and more on Instructables.

McIntire Brassworks of Somerville, Massachusetts makes several models, and offers a safety door so that there’s no open hole for children or animals to fall through:

Different configurations of McIntire’s Model 20

While this is clearly a technology only suited for the able-bodied with some practice, consider the evacuation of an crowded structure. Those that can descend and exit by pole, and who are not assisting others, can free up the bandwidth, so to speak, of other means of egress.