Morse Code Trainer

Hello everyone,

i wanna show you my small projects for all the nerds out there that like to learn how to morse.

My friend and i came to the glorious idea of learning morse at a wednesday noon, so we looked for ways how to train it and started learning the alphabet. But just learning it isn't enough, so i looked online for morse keys or similar and didn't find anything like i imagined or legal in my country, bcs of the stict radio laws. So i tryed to make something myself in hopes of having some fun. And ohh boy did we have fun, but maybe a little too much for the people around us. We did make quiet some noise. That's why i came up with my second version of the close range morse key trainer, which im about to show u now.

This device is inspired by oldschool morse keys and does a beeping sound when pressed. When the switch is flicked, it will not beep, but instead send a infrared light, which will light up a LED in the other persons morse trainer and in yours as well. This way u can communicate in sight without people hearing you or noticing that you're communicating.

The cool thing is, that u can see if the other person recieves ur messages, because if u just press the button, nothing happens, but if the reciever gets the signal, his device sends it back, making your LED light up as well. This way u can see what your sending and be sure the other person recieves it.

Because i wanted to keep it as simple as possible, im using just basic tools, components and a 3D printer.

The Tools i used:

1. Soldering Iron
2. Screwdriver (flathead)
3. Pliers

Components (per unit):

1. 2x M3 flathead screws 10mm long
2. 1x M3 screw nut
3. 1x LED Green (color can be changed to liking)
4. 1x LED Infrared 940nm
5. 1x Infrared reciever diode
6. 1x mini slide switch
7. 1x active buzzer
8. 1x 220 Ohm resistor
9. 1x CR2430 3V button cell
10. 1x 3D printed parts (button, arm, body and plate)

I bought the screws and nuts from a hardware store. I had the LED and the resistor laying around, but i ordered the other parts from amazon. Imma put the links in here if u need stuff.

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DNMFXJ11

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07Y2RK1FF

www.amazon.de/dp/B09RFH1T8J

Print the 4 parts with your 3D printer. Takes a little bit more than a hour with my printer.

Im using my Anycubic 3 V2 with a 0,4mm nozzle, 0,2mm layer hight and a 20% infill.

Im printing it with PLA but it should work with anything but TPU XD

(This step is optional)

My parts needed a little fitting, so i used a plier to bend off the little wings on my switch and broke off the little extra material around the LED to make it a little more slim.

Now that we have everything we need, its allready time for the assembly.

To save material, i just used my pliers and cut the rubber of the red cable from my buzzer, to later solder the parts there. Then just stick all the parts shown in the picture together. They should all have a tight fit and stay where they are. Also be sure to check the orientation of the diodes. The LED's get their input from the longer pin, the IR reciever diode gets it from the shorter side tho.

First i soldered the 220 Ohm resistor from the long pin of the IR LED to the cut in the red wire. Then i soldered the long pin of the IR diode to the long pin of the green LED.

Now solder the remaining pin of the IR reciever to the red cable. The two left over pins will then be soldered to the most left connector of the switch. The Black cable will be soldered to the most right connector. As a last step i soldered a cut off piece from the resitor and connected it to the middle of the switch. This wire and the red wire are then put through the small designated holes in the body of the morse key.

Screw the M3 through the hole and pinch the red wire between screw and nut.

Next screw the button with the second screw from the other side.

Push the arm into the cutout on the back and insert the button cell.

Congrats! You're done. Now u can communicate with sound or light in morse.

I recommend, if you're not using it, to leave the switch on the sound position (right), because the light position might drain some power over time, also if you touch it, it beeps. Thats the reminder to start morsing aigan!

To recieve a message when using the IR, the reciever needs to push the button constantly. This is a sign of "I am ready to read". Without the sender gets no feedback and the reciever gets no signal.