General Operation:
Add an antenna:
A proper antenna is necessary to use the full range of the transmitter. The tinderbox supplies two antenna connections: 1) a simple female header into which you can insert a piece of solid hook-up wire with the appropriate length, or 2) a 50ohm BNC connection to connect a home-brew dipole antenna or a commercial whip antenna.
Plug the tinderbox into a power source:
This can be the supplied 9VDC adapter or a mini USB connection to a computer or USB charger. With a little more elbow grease, you could fashion yourself a 9V battery-to-2.1mm power plug and run it from an alkaline or rechargeable battery. (Adafruit has one pre-made)
Plug in an audio source:
The audio input jack accepts a standard 1/8in. stereo plug. This is a line-level input that can accept audio from many sources (phones, mp3 players, computers, radios, etc...) Plug in your source, but make sure your volume is not too high to introduce distortion in the broadcast from over-modulation.
Stand-Alone Mode:
The loaded firmware should boot when power is supplied. The initial frequency will be 103.9FM. If you change the frequency, it will be stored in memory. The transmitter will default to the last good frequency on restart.
To change the frequency up and down, use the UP and DN buttons to tune in increments of 200kHz. For example, pressing the up button once while tuned to 103.9 will increase the frequency to 104.1. Hold the button down to scroll. You must press the EXE button to accept the new frequency.
Turn the transmitter on and off by pressing the TX ON/OFF button. This does not reset the microcontroller. IF you want to do that, press the RST button.
Tethered-Mode:
Coming soon...