TronxII

12 hours ago, KhunLA said:

as no dedicated roof rack,

Oh no, don't do roof rack. I had one when we had babies and the diesel car would consume 20% more. It was cheaper to buy again the products you would put in the roof rack than paying for the extra diesel.

And with electric it would also reduce the range.

On 7/4/2025 at 6:12 AM, KhunLA said:

Spotted one of these (AWD) the other day at Makro, looking very nice.  Didn't expect it to be priced this low.

 

Quick Google, and specs aren't anything special, so priced about right.  Did look impressive.

 

too expensive.

Riddara RD6 now for 720 000. Other models also down 150 000. They promised they would not reduce price. But nobody said that they would not sell "second hand" show room cars with a discount.

Apparently there is also a cheaper model expected at the end of the year.

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

I don't know why these WEFAX stations continue to operate....

Might be the last ones which will still operate after a couple of high altitude nuclear tests wipe out some of the satellites. We take these satellites for granted like we believed that electric power, security, peace, cheap food and progress would always be there. But big parts of Europe have already no more GPS over the baltic sea, the electric grid breaks down, riots ... 

Today I modified my antenna, which was horizontal strips of 0.2mm thick and about 1cm large. My idea was that the signal comes from above and therefore I turned them horizontal. It seems however that this was not a good idea. In vertical position, a noaa15 pass was received better than the days before. Comparing the satellite picture on the right with the commercial weather radar website picture on the left, I would say, there is even more information in the noaa15 picture.

Still my antenna setup is not optimal. I'm not getting the nice signal in the waterfall like you posted in the other thread.

So here is a picture how the antenna should not be positioned - horizontally, but the metal strip should be turned 90°

17 hours ago, simon43 said:

Before weather satellites existed, weather reports and maps were sent out using shortwave radio, mostly intended for ships at sea.

This reminds me of the weather report pictures from the early 1980s in TV, they had such pressure maps.

15 hours ago, simon43 said:

Which weather satellite was that image received from?  NOAA-19 has the strongest signal, so you can use the n2yo.com website to see when there will be a high elevation pass over your location. 

Not sure anymore what satellite the previous picture was. The generated json always says noaa15, no matter which one passes. 

Thanks for the website, with this I could capture an 80° elevation pass of noaa19 today. However it gave me only a useful signal when the satellite was quite high, like above 30° it started to decode. Only received some clouds in Antarctica LOL.  Means my antenna is suboptimal. I'll try to play around with this antenna first, and then maybe the bandfilter with amplifier from Aliexpress. But over 20€ each! Glad that I'm not a HF affectionate, this must be quite an expensive hobby. 

I saw passive ones with only RLC which cost around 5€. That's tempting, but for 5$ I could order 5 PCB  in China and make it myself ... Would be a good justification to buy a set of smd inductors.

On 6/9/2025 at 8:34 AM, BritManToo said:

and the new panels produce for an extra 2 hours.

Why is this?

On 6/7/2025 at 6:51 AM, matchar said:

Even at 299k I wouldn't touch Neta with a bargepole.

On facebook they posted screenshots of second hand Neta V in china, all sell around 60 - 80 kBaht. So there is still a lot of room for discounted netas. 300k for a car  without warranty, spare parts and service points but with a history of failures in all components ...  not sure how many they will sell at this price

On 6/2/2025 at 12:35 AM, simon43 said:

Whereabout in the world are you?

 

A simple, fixed dipole is not the best antenna, since the satellite passes over and above you.  Are you able to physically hold the antenna to 'aim' it at the satellite position?

I'm in Spain. My antenna was a dipol for 162MHz, now I cut new metal strips and checked resonance at 137 MHz with a VNA. Its probably the best I can get before making such a complicated antenna like yours. With the new antenna, there is sufficient signal. The signal can be seen in the waterfall right and left to the actual frequency, and audio can be heard. This was not the case with my old antenna. 

The pictures of the clouds only are not that interesting, but the satellite also measures infrared or something and then colors the rain clouds. These are really nice. 

Thanks for your help with this, and I put my antenna here not because it's beautiful, but that others will be encouraged to try. Its minimal effort to make one. 

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

I can't see all of your Satdump screen, but the step by step process is:

 

....

 

Why might you receive nothing?

1 - You forgot to enter your lat/long or entered them incorrectly

2 - Your SDR/cabling has a fault

3 - Your antenna is not suitable (what antenna are you using?)

4 - Your view of the sky is obscured by trees, buildings etc.

 

Let me know how you get on!

 

To show what is possible, I received this image today when NOAA was only 5 degrees above my horizon, passing over India.  The image is not perfect, because it was way off 'illuminating' Thailand.

 

 

 

OK thank you for the instructions. Following these guidelines, I did receive something from noaa15, although no idea where this is, and no idea, if this picture is from the satellite or if this is some map overlay from the software. 

The next satellite noaa19 gave some islands which I cannot identify either.

Therefore I imagine that "3 - Your antenna is not suitable (what antenna are you using?)"  is the next thing to address. I'm using a dipole built some time ago for 162MHz for AIS ship position, which worked well for that purpose. So the SDR and cables might be good and I'll remake the dipole next.

On 5/28/2025 at 2:43 AM, simon43 said:

I use an SDR to receive the satellite signal and Satdump free software to decode the satellite signal.

Could you have a look how your waterfall compares to mine? I seem to get a weak signal, and sometimes it decodes, but I feel there is something missing. This morning, I also had the automatic thing connecting when the satellite passed, but only grey in the decoded picture. At the moment I think, maybe my signal is too weak?

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

I just bought a 7 foot diameter satellite dish to receive the weather images from a geostationary satellite (GK-2A), which produce the 'whole Earth' view (well, one side of the Earth) as shown in one of my previous posts. 

 

 

Before this dish, what antenna and software did you use for the previous pictures?  I played around with this stuff some months ago, IIRC the frequency was around 160MHz ? , made only a simple dipole  but could not get any good reception with the SDR. 

20 hours ago, Pib said:

but I wonder if price-cuts may be coming to Thailand BYD dealerships soon....triggering another round of cut-throat price cutting in Thailand. 

I would not really call these reductions cut throat. In china, they can sell the BYD seagull for around 10k$, and I
m sure they dont sell at a loss. The Dolphin which is similar, was 799kB at the beginning, and now they are producing in Thailand. The cost of labour in TH might be even cheaper than in China. Therefore reducing the car to 500k, would seem to me just normal price. Its not that they are making losses. 

I m waiting for an electric pickup reasonably priced. The Riddara 6  entry level model at 900k is still way above ICE pickups and that cheap model can only go 300km or so. Electric should be cheaper to produce than ICE with 10 000 moving parts only in the motor. And therefore the cars should also be much cheaper. 

1 hour ago, UWEB said:

May be BYD Shark, but that is a Hybrid.

No the shark is too expensive for me and I dont want plugin hybrid for the same reasons KhunLa explained. 

Wife says, she saw somewhere that BYD announced a full electric pickup in TH for the end of the year. Did anyone see this? 

I m reluctant to buy the riddara rd6 seeing the issues Neta V owners have now. Neta even had dealerships, but very little repair centers and no spare parts. Geely seems in the same situation to me.

Therefore my hope for something affordable pickup size from BYD. 

1 hour ago, Pib said:

 

I agree that it appears the "cut-throat" battles in the price war are probably over. 

If you see the prices in China for exactly the same vehicles, and if they are produced in TH, then there is still room for nice discounts.

10 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

SAIC / MG / MAXUS, should be arriving to TH soon, in 2.5M price range.

Yeah well, this is a little bit out of my budget. Lets see if the price war continues and the shark falls to 1M.

And yeah @Photoguy21, I m running a Diesel where you could do 1000km without stopping. But I d rather have something that goes 300km which I can charge for free. Solar is a no brainer if you have a house or land and if you are not completely unable to do manual work yourself. 

But if you can pay for petrol, it is nice, unfortunately not everyone is rich. 

On 5/9/2025 at 1:16 PM, KhunLA said:

Saved ฿900k today ... peeked at the Riddara RD6 and didn't buy it 

 

Nice truck ... but ... not enough leg room for me, and I'm only 175 cm, w/71 cm leg inseam.   That was with seat all the way back, and down a bit.   Too far down, and when adjusting up, does move even a bit more forward.

Oh this is really bad news. I was looking forward to the RD6 and I m still 8cm taller. 

On 4/28/2025 at 10:25 AM, helloimwillbro said:

oh gosh, I wouldn't even try that 

They will not ask you if you want to try or not. They will mix it into the bread, cheese, yogurt whatever.

The underground cable with the digital meter is probably better quality for cable size, so I would keep this. Then you do like the guys said: ATS automatic transfer switch. You install the inverters near the new house supply and run your own underground cable to the old house.  Old counter and line will be removed there.

If you ever run down your batteries in the new house, you switch both houses via the ATS to grid.

And let a guy who knows about electric installation draw it all for you.

18 hours ago, Pib said:

the A/C is almost totally used to cool the cabin and not needed to help cool the battery except after running the EV continuously for around 45-60 minutes. 

Thanks Pib for providing so much detail, this is really interesting. I wonder if the other chines brands also have such sophisticated cooling options as BYD. I see a lot of complaints about Neta V mechanics and aircon, but nothing about battery cooling. This makes me think, they might just not have it. 

Isuzu electric pickup.

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

That's nice, but I'm waiting for the Atto2. When will it come?