[UK] Dunstable Downs Radio Rally / Car Boot / Flea Market 2017

[KJDS]

The power attenuators may be of interest to me, and if anyone has a 50 ohm load good for well north of 250W (Ideally 1.5kW CW or so), I am actively seeking one.

73 Dan.

It's been ages since I'd had a load that big. What frequency do you need it for?

[dmills]

HF bands to low UHF, push comes to shove I will get some 250W RF resistors and solder them to a bit of copper water pipe.

These things do come up on ebay from time to time, so I am not ruling that out.

regards, Dan.

[tggzzz]

Most of what I'm selling is lowish value, wouldn't even try and sell high value items there.

Last year I'm told scopes went for north of £100, but having said that I agree about high value items. I fully expect not to sell my scopes; hence my comment about a "half-hearted" attempt at flogging stuff

[mikeselectricstuff]

I will have a small inverter if anyone needs to test anything

[KJDS]

I've found a red hat, roughly trilby shaped that should make it easier for people to find me.

[mikeselectricstuff]

My van will also have a hat ( until someone buys it)

[Fraser]

Ooooooooh an 'X-Ray On' sign. Just what I need to place in the middle of the kitchen floor when using my Faxitron in the garage Allyson would love it !

[Fraser]

I have just got home from a busy day that thankfully included visiting the Dunstable Rally.

It was a brief 'fly-by' to rendezvous with Mike so I did not get to walk around all the stalls but they still looked well stocked at 11:00 when I arrived. There were also plenty of punters, but whether they were spending or not, I do not know.

It was a good day for my thermal camera collection....three more cameras added..... another Military type, an AUTOLIV FLIR Audi night-vision and the FIRE FLIR that Mike did a video about. I was so chuffed to see his FIRE FLIR for sale and it took about 5 seconds to decide to buy it .... that was how long it took for me to register the price label on it !  They are quite rare, so for a collector it is a bit of a 'find'. Not the most ergonomic to hand hold though  I got lucky on that camera as someone was haggling with Mike on price when I saw it and they decided to wait to see if Mike would lower his price at 12:00. 'He who hesitates is lost' and all that  By the same token, I missed out on buying some nice looking stereo close up binoculars that Mike had. I just did not see them soon enough. A bargain at £5 

Autoliv Thermal Camera video by Mike:



Fire FLIR video by Mike:



Thanks for the kit Mike, much appreciated   

Hope the DR X-Ray plates prove interesting/useful

Fraser

[grumpydoc]

Yes, it was a good morning although I resisted the urge to buy more junk - possibly too well in the case of one item. Decent number of stalls as well

It was also good to put some faces to names.

Annoyed, however, to have only spotted the second average speed camera on the way in on the A1081, plus thought it was a 60MPH limit along there but realised on the way home that it's 50MPH. Hmmph, it might turn out to have been an expensive trip even though I didn't buy much.

[lukier]

It was a good day for my thermal camera collection....three more cameras added..... another Military type, an AUTOLIV FLIR Audi night-vision a

What are your plans regarding the Autoliv FLIR camera? I have the same one and still haven't got time to reverse engineer it, without bricking it hopefully. Since I got the ThermalExpert I lost some motivation for that.

[Fraser]

Hiya,

No urgent plans for it. I have a good knowledge of the camera on which the Autoliv is based, so may have a poke around to see where the common design points start and finish.  I have the original controller as well, but to be honest, I know that this part is not essential for camera operation 

The lens and microbolometer related stages are what I am interested in at the moment. There will likely be no magic fix for the Autoliv cameras as they were designed to be a pig to transplant    I now have one to experiment with and it has not cost me the big money that is being asked on ebay, so I am happy 

Fraser

[KJDS]

Just finished unloading the few bits that didn't sell. Was good to meet a few of you, even if only briefly. I had a decent day, got rid of loads of stuff, though did curse when I realized I'd left my big box of RF attenuators at home.

Thanks to those that kept an eye on my stall for a bit whilst I took a comfort break.

[lukier]

The lens and microbolometer related stages are what I am interested in at the moment. There will likely be no magic fix for the Autoliv cameras as they were designed to be a pig to transplant    I now have one to experiment with and it has not cost me the big money that is being asked on ebay, so I am happy 

Let me know if you need any help with the experiments or a cross-check. I've only dumped the SPI flash so far, it contains the FPGA bitstream obviously, some unknown soft-core MCU firmware that listens to CAN and I guess NUC tables have to be there as well.

I was planning to do more reverse engineering, but as I remember you've mentioned in other threads that ROIC can brick itself if it detects tampering. So I was thinking that making various interposer boards (between Autoliv boards, between the main board and ROIC etc) with the Tek logic analyzer probe landing pads would be a good way to go first - just listen to all the signals and poke CAN only with ROIC disconnected.

In the end it is a lot of work and in the meantime I bought Thermal Expert Q1 Plus that satisfies all my thermal camera needs (mostly electronics repair) so the Autoliv camera will have to wait .

[CJay]

Yes, it was a good morning although I resisted the urge to buy more junk - possibly too well in the case of one item. Decent number of stalls as well

It was also good to put some faces to names.

Annoyed, however, to have only spotted the second average speed camera on the way in on the A1081, plus thought it was a 60MPH limit along there but realised on the way home that it's 50MPH. Hmmph, it might turn out to have been an expensive trip even though I didn't buy much.

Poiund to a pinch of you'll be just fine at 60.

[Fraser]

Hiya Lukier

ROIC is safe, it is dumb. The security surrounds the FPGA I understand. As you know, if the FPGA is disabled by a defensive measure, the unit becomes scrap. I understand the camera operates in a challenge and response manner where the FPGA asks for some unique data, when it receives it, the FPGA effectively 'unlocks'. If the expected data response is not received, i.e. no data response, the FPGA will not 'unlock' but neither will it brick. If the challenge is met with 'illegal' data as a response the camera records a 'strike'. IIRC after a certain number of 'strikes' occur the FPGA permanently locks , never to 'unlock' again. In truth the FPGA just needs its configuration firmware to be replaced. If a strike is recorded but then a valid data set, the strike count goes to zero again. This is done because data errors can occur due to an issue elsewhere on the CAN bus.

This information is correct for another 'secured' camera that I have worked on. I believe it is also the most likely MO for the Autoliv camera, but that is not confirmed by me.

The good news, and reason I wanted the camera, is the microbolometer and thermal lens are standard parts that I can make use of even if the FPGA is locked. There is also the possibility of putting a new firmware into the camera if one that I have in a similar camera is compatible.

Fraser

[dmills]

Good to meet a few of the locals, and spend more then I should have...

Best score of the day for me was a Korg MS-20 for £70, it needs some minor fettling (A replacement key, and from the sound there is a dry electrolytic in the power supply somewhere, no biggie), also wants a bit of a stripdown and clean but is clearly working, not my usual sort of rally gleaning but too good to pass up.

The old synth market is **INSANE**, no way should these be worth what they are selling for, still, whatever folks want to pay I guess.

I shall have fun tarting it up, then move it on, should easily pay for the rally (and Kempton too).

Regards, Dan,.

[grumpydoc]

Poiund to a pinch of you'll be just fine at 60.

I said I thought the limit was 60, not that I was doing 60 

[dmills]

Hate it when that happens.
I was had last year for 35 mph in a 30 zone, £100 and 3 points , stupid thing is I KNEW that camera was there .....

[CJay]

hahahaha, I see, the devil is in the detail

[artag]

I had to go on to something so rushed around and missed too much. Saw Mike's stand (and had some of his freebies), missed KJDS unfortunately. My main bags were some reels of heatshrink and a soldering fume extractor that's heading for a new life as a laser extractor.

[tggzzz]

I too missed KJDS.

Of my stuff I didn't really expect to sell the "decent stuff" because I wasn't prepared to drop prices too much. OTOH I did sell more than I expected of my "tat" (e.g. not very nice and/or and partially functioning DMMs, CATV amp), because it was in the "pocket money" price range. That seems to be the flavour: pocket-money car boot sale.

My attitude of paying £7 (£10 - £3) for a pitch worked out: I sold more than that and didn't have to walk.

Unfortunately I also "blew" the profits on another of those "rather tasty" 0-69dB attenuators that I picked up last year; I suspect the vendor has more as well.

[Keicar]

The old synth market is **INSANE**, no way should these be worth what they are selling for, still, whatever folks want to pay I guess.

<sigh> - I had three MS-20s that I let go for a pittance in the mid '90s when no-one except me thought they were cool...

[stj]

so the next Kempton thing is november - how much does it cost for buyers to get in?
and how much to park?

i may have to be there to buy some junk - i mean classic test gear! 

[CJay]

More to the point, is there one up here in the civilised North?

[tggzzz]

More to the point, is there one up here in the civilised North?

Many: http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/