The Mechanical Construction of Ronja 115 Loopipe

I'm working on this just now. There are only the bare schematics here, the comments should be added slightly later.

Mechanical mouting options

Rooftop aerial pole mounting. You take a rectangular steel profile, cut a wedge-shaped cutting into the middle, place the cutting to the side of the pole and on the other side a short piece of the same profile. Tighten together with 2 strong bolts. Drill 2 holes into the ends of the profile which is positioned horizontally now. The holes are in the top and bottom side of the profile. Then you use four right-angle bended pieces of thick steel tin to fit the heels of the pipes to the profile in such manner the pipe can be moved in all directions.
Balcony railing or other rectangular horizontal structure. Instead of two right-angle bended pieces of thick tin you use one bended and one straight. Instead of horizontal profile, you use less thick vertical (which is also shorter) and tie the profile to some kind of table screw-clip. To fit the profile to the screw-clip, best use some nuts and bolts. Then tight up the clip to the railing so it can't move even a bit.
Wall mounting. This type of mounting is only conceptually designed.

Where can be adjustment done?

Focus. loosen the screws that hold the IR holder to the HD PVC pipe and shift the IR holder back and forth to get optimum focus. You need to replace the IR LED for visible temporarily to see the spot on a distant building. It is necessary to use for example HLMP-DL16 (which was actually used when testing the prototype) to get the spot bright enough.
When setting up the focus of Ronja 666 Lucifer, it is not necessary to replace the LED as the system communicates in visible light. As there are 6 strong auto-leds, the spot is visible very well and up to about 300 meters. However, it is necessary to adjust the 6 leds to a signel spot by bending the thick copper wires the LEDs are soldered on.
Left-right. Loosen the big bolt that points up/down and move the pipe. Then tighten it slightly and readjust. Then tighten totally.
Up/down. The same as left/right, but operate with the bolt that point horizontally.

Mechanical assembly of the electronics

Pavouk's version. It consists of HSDL1001 frontend, driver, and RS232 interface. The HSDL1001 frontend and driver must be placed into a metal housing, each into a separate one. Use for example nuts and bolts to secure PCB's into the housings. The housing must be wholly closed. Device may not operate correctly with lid open.
The RS232 interface in Pavouk's version is not shielding-critical. So use any housing.
Preamplifier. Must be in totally closed tin box. Recommended mounting is soldering parts directly into box using their ground pins, and then connecting them together with wire. Or you can make a PCB and mount it into the box. It is possible to collate amplifier and preamplifier into one box, but in this case a firm shielding tin must divide the space between them in the box.
Amplifier. Must be placed into a tin box. Either direct soldering or PCB is possible. It is possible to collate Amplifier and Preamplifier into one metal box, see Preamplifier for details. If not collated, they are interonnected using a shielded wire. Max. 50 cm of this wire's length is allowed due to capacity of the wire.
Driver. Must be placed into a tin box becasue big currents are swithced inside and omiting the shield could casue an interference to the sensitive preamplifier. Shielded wire must be used to connect the power infra LED to the drivr. Max. 50 cm of this wire's length is allowed (due to capacity of the wire).
HSDL1001 frontend. Shielding is recommend, because will increase the performance of the HSDL1001 chip. However, the device works without it. So place it into a metal box (either on PCB or directly soldered parts) and in case you don't have it, place it on a PCB into a plastic case of suitable size.
RS232 interface. No special requirements. Place either into tin box with direct soldering of the parts or use a PCB. Mount a cable to the RS232 through a hole in the box and place a DB9 or DB25 connector at the end. Don't use a wire longer than 1.5m for connecting with serial port.
IrDA interface. No special requirements. Place either into a tin box with direct soldering of the parts, or use a PCB. Don't make the cable to the PC longer than 1.5m. Use a shielded cable and place the filter (R1, R4, C1, C3) onto the pinhead female (J1) directlyand put the wire through some hole in your PC's case. Other possibility is ti take an old gameport (DB15) or other (DB9, DB25) riser card and place it into the slot. Connect the riser card's pinhead female onto motherboard IrDA. Then determine which pins are the right and place a DB9, DB15 or DB25 onto the end of the cable. Don't forget teh filter (R1, R4, C1, C3) and connect the ground of the wire with case (metal around) of the DB connector.
Either you mount directly on the pinhead or using a riser card, placing a ferrite core onto the wire is recommended (not essential, but improves EMI of your PC slightly).

Optics

The original glass lenses I used in my prototype were 88.6mm diameter, 205mm focal length glass lenses taken out from a magnifying glass bought in an ordinary shop. The manufacturer is signed as "Baloon" and the glass has been manufactured in China. You can use any other similar lens, but the bigger the better. If you exceed the 90mm dia too much ,you would have to use a larger pipe. But I wish you to exceed the 90mm much :-) If you have something smaller, the lens holders must be longer. This is about the glasses for the Ronja 115 Loopipe.

Sun

It's a pretty thing. If you omit the anti-sun measures, your house is gonna end in flames! So the aluminium foil in Ronja 115 Loopipe is absolutely necessary! Otherwise the sun's image will burn through the wall of the pipe and possibly set the device on fire. The hood serves as a sun and moisture shield. In suitable conditions, where sun doesn't shine in critical angles into the pipe, it is possible to omit the hood (consume less PVC material) and glue an A4 sheet of hard foil (from stationery shop) with corners trimmed. This will work only against a rain, not against the sun. If you get black foil instead of transparent, it will work also against sun.

Moisture

If you are placing the electronics outdoors, place the boxes into a plastic bag and use stotch tape to seal the bag around the cables. This will prevent water and moisture from flooding the electronics and causing it to cease working. Drying up the electronics in case of accident should resume normal operation.

It is also recommended to cover the rear end of the tube with some non-inflammable (there are concentrated sun rays), non-reflective substance like tin or metal foil. The foil must not tear otherwise parts of it could short out the power of the preamplifier or short out the transmitter. This prevens wind from going directly through the pipe and taking drops of water with itself. Or you may use also some fine metallic net or perforated tin.

Ronja 115 Loopipe is not resistant to moisture. Condensing water on optics drastically derates the Bit Error Rate so the link (if run for the maximum distance especially) will get unusably unreliable.

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