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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, June 24, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
Calling CQ and listening on 7.277
WS4JM
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Re: Keypad for Raduino...?
Mark Pilant
Hi Jack.
That whole idea of using voltage to determine keyer state makes me nervous.True. But then again I figure if I know how it works, and with some appropriate debug code always built in, it would be pretty easy to track down a keypad problem. Partially to address this issue, my SNA code has a min and max for each key value and includes a calibration menu item to determine the average value to use (which is then used to calculate the min and max). Not only does this work for resistors that are slightly different values (but still within tolerance) and can handle a slight variation in contact resistance as well. If I wanted to really minimize contact issues, I'd use something other than a (USD) $5-$10 keypad :-) I used the cheap one because the SNA started out as not much more than a simple proof of concept. Funny how proof of concept projects become the final project :-P You are right, however, in that the problem has caused people to rethink theI couldn't agree more. Maybe other will get some ideas from my SNA code. (I haven't done a whole lot more with it since I picked up an HP 8591E spectrum analyzer with a tracking generator. Although I was pleased to see my little SNA agreed with the HP SA :-) 73 - Mark N1VQW
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Re: Understanding Spurious Emissions
ajparent1/KB1GMX <kb1gmx@...>
Rahul,
I came to the same conclusion a while ago. Your estimates of loss are a bit higher than my measurements but we are talking maybe 2-3db but its all the same in that there is way too much TX path gain. However the spur is visible when the input to the last mixer is -10dbm. Also the balanced mod can be pushed harder to maybe -13dbm is not bad and it helps the carrier to signal ratio some. The 12mhz filter in mine measures under 4DB loss when modded for 2160hz bandpass. My 45mhz us less than 5db loss. I have the gains for TX 12mhz of 7db and 45mhz of 8db and its still high but closer. That much gain is not needed as the modulator is already a fairly large signal. Allison
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f1mqj
Thanks Jerry, Vince, Ralph and others
I cutted the pcb to disconnect capa and socket REF pin from the AREF processor pin (if the problem have been a short capa or short circuit on this part of PCB it may erase the problem) BUT no change : i've still contact (0 ohm) between AREF processor pin and ground (and 220mA if powered !) So it looks like a bad nano board and i might have to change it (main problem is to extract it without destroying raduino PCB as we discuss early) 1-Do you know if I can get spare Raduino and how (#ubitxsupport #ubitxwarranty) ? perhaps i could get one as warranty feature, because mine never worked fine (if possible with nano socket, or without nano board -i've already some) 2-i'll try to borrow an air heater (looks fine for the job, Vince do you have a link to yours ? 852, 878) or use diagonal cutters (perhaps dremmel but i fear leaving a lot of small metal particles) I'll give you news 73 - Remi
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Re: Understanding Spurious Emissions
ajparent1/KB1GMX <kb1gmx@...>
Farhan,
The filter are fine. They work as they should for a low pass filter. The problem is 28mhz makes it though the respective low pass filters and everything below 28mhz. Allison
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Re: KD8CEC - Nextion Display - IAN questions
Kevin Timm
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Re: I need a V3 or V4 uBitx board.
Roy Appleton
Those remaining kits where sold weeks ago. Roy WA0YMH
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018, 5:58 PM Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote: Tried again to post to kd1jvdesigns.
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Re: ubitx code version 4.3 for review, testing
Craig Wadsworth <cwadsworth@...>
Neophyte question: The code is in several files. May different files be merged into the Arduino IDE as desired?
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Re: I need a V3 or V4 uBitx board.
Jerry Gaffke
Tried again to post to kd1jvdesigns.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
This time I noticed a "Your message will be sent when it's approved by the moderators" at the top of the webpage after submitting the post. So kd1jvdesigns is configured a bit different than this bitx20 group, though they are both hosted by groups.io. I tried voting again, this time from the individual message webpage of post #161. My vote was added immediately without review. Steve doesn't often respond to email. But seemed odd he wasn't responding when he apparently still had a few boards to sell. Perhaps he had a bunch of promises, but was waiting till the checks arrived. I've bought 4 other KD1JV kits, first one in 2006. They were all winners. Manuals are very good, my only criticism is that schematics seldom quite agree with the board you get. Steve seems to edit the design within his board layout program, then draw up the schematics without a netlist check. Used to be he coded exclusively in assembly language, and I seldom find it worth the bother to get my head into somebody else's assembly code. Or my own. Steve has recently taken up residence in ArduinoLand, the Slop Bucket is coded in C. To bring this discussion around to some sort of Bitx relevance: The Slop Bucket is comparable to the Bitx40, is a single band SSB/CW transceiver at 7W, offered at a comparable price. It's a full on surface mount kit using lots of 0805's and Sot23's. You get to solder down your very own Si5351, wind your own toroids. Jerry, KE7ER
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 02:34 pm, Roy Appleton wrote:
Jerry, don't get too excited, between projects he often goes on extended hikes. He may be gone for a couple of weeks.
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Re: RFI from uBitx TX after AGC and other mods installed
FB Alan! Got my fingers crossed. -Don
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Re: RFI from uBitx TX after AGC and other mods installed
alans77@...
Don: I am referring to the AGC. My next step is to run shielded cable instead of a twisted pair between the volume control terminals and the the AGC board.
Alan
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Re: RFI from uBitx TX after AGC and other mods installed
Rowland,
With the AGC board mounted so far from the volume control (and right near the high RF area) it might be best to run shielded cable instead of just twisted pair. Some RG174 or similar small cable (impedance unimportant) might be the answer. I think that you may have found it! Or at least one of 'em. The two others with problems were also using that spot! That is something that I had not considered. My builds are all right on the front panel, just a couple of inches for the audio run. -Don
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Re: RFI from uBitx TX after AGC and other mods installed
RowlandA
Hi Don - thanks for your speedy assistance.
To be clear - what I am hearing when I transmit SSB is RFI - loud garbled sounds from the speaker or headphones, not a clear rendition of my voice. The offender seems to be the wiring to the volume control (audio). If I unplug the audio pot from the audio pins on the board, the RFI goes away. I am using a twisted pair from the pot to header pins on the AGC board. With the pot connected, the RFI is heard when I transmit into a dummy load or an antenna, no difference. Independent of the RFI, I noticed my use of J1 to drive the S-meter was giving a reading of zero. I checked the voltage on J1 (with everything hooked up to the AGC board) and it never deviates from zero, so I must have a problem with the AGC board. This happens even if I disconnect my AGC off/med/long switch and just check the voltage at J1 - it's zero regardless of signal level. So I think I have (at least) two problems - RF being picked up by the cable going to the volume control pot, and something wrong with my assembly of the AGC board so there is no voltage across C4. I'll see if I can re-route the audio cable - I was trying to keep it on the short side so it is routed across the board, not along the case as you recommend. I'll try that. I do have a second AGC kit so I can try assembling that and see if my "no voltage across C4" issue goes away. 73, Rowland K4XD
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Ralph Mowery
I had to replace mine twice due to letting the wrong wires touch. I used one of the hot air rework stations that can be found on ebay for about $ 60 including shipping. Just use the hot air wand and the nano comes right out. I did have to heat some of the holes and use a solder sucker on them to get all the solder out.
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 4:31 PM, Vince Vielhaber <vev@...> wrote:
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Re: Keypad for Raduino...?
Arv Evans
DuWayne Might work fine but one of my objectives is to reduce parts count to just what is necessary for the functionality I want. That is what drove me to using just one ADC input for the keypad. Arv _._
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 3:26 PM DuWayne Schmidlkofer <duwayne@...> wrote: One of the easiest ways to do this might be to use a I2C expander
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Re: RFI from uBitx TX after AGC and other mods installed
I am a bit overwhelmed, perhaps. Alan, are you referring to the AGC board, not the "Click eliminator"? I'm not finding where Kees posted any photos of mounting the click eliminator. That would be the board that I would expect to cause the problem (if the receive audio gate was always on). The AGC board (the one that plugs into the receive RF trace) would have the devil's own time passing microphone audio into the speaker.
Mark, your observations may really help Alan and I understand what's going on. I doubt that you caused any problem on the board by running the +5 volts to ground. The Raduino regulator would have been stressed but seem to remember the 7805 has a thermal foldback feature for short duration faults. You may, however, try removing that +5 ground lead, I don't know where you ran that from but it shouldn't be necessary and inserts another unknown variable into the mix for me. The volume control connection, however, is essential. The high side should NOT be connected to the wiper. Aside from swapped leads, about the only thing that I can think of is improper grounding. If anyone is using a plastic panel or case they need to go to extra lengths to provide short and solid ground returns. This is especially important where large signals or currents are present. The antenna RF connector needs to have its own additional ground back to the BITX board connection, not relying upon the panel or chassis. Same goes with the speaker and headphone jacks. The AGC and RF manual gain control should have the best grounding possible with connections to the BITX ground plane. Aside from that, I'm out of ideas for now. What did you find Mark? -Don
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Programming Issues and Questions
Howard Fidel
I am integrating my uBitx into an old HA 350 receiver chassis. It has a band switch on it, so I want to program A7 to read the switch. I downloaded several different versions of code to find a good starting point. When I use any of Farhan's versions, I get a compile error:
return-statement with no value, in function returning 'int' [-fpermissive]
It is a return in ubitx_menu in the if(!btn) statement that causes this.
I tried Ron, W2CTX's ubitx_V2_00R and i see what looks like coding errors, although it compiles. The error is that A7 is not declared, and digital dash is declared as A3. A3 is PTT KD8CEC's uBitx_20 compiles. Any input on which code is best would be appreciated. I would also like to know how to fix the compiling error so I can reinstall the factory code if I need to. Thanks, Howard
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Bad Relay
#ubitx
In case anyone sees a similar issue, I took me a bit of head scratching to figure out what it was. Add to that the random nature of it, more than one cup of coffee was consumed.
Either K1 or K3 has bad/dirty contacts on it making the switch from XMT to RCV.. Keying the mic or key transmit to get the relays to cycle (sometimes takes more than once), fixes the problem by getting the contacts to close fully. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until it misbehaves again, and then manually force each relay to cycle independently to figure out which needs replacement. Not looking forward to desoldering... (pic attached)
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Re: I need a V3 or V4 uBitx board.
Roy Appleton
Jerry, don't get too excited, between projects he often goes on extended hikes. He may be gone for a couple of weeks. Roy WA0YMH
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018, 4:29 PM Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote: Well, I tried to jump in.
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Re: I need a V3 or V4 uBitx board.
Jerry Gaffke
Well, I tried to jump in.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
Clicked the 40M option on his poll, no response. Clicked VoteNow, and it said ThankYouForVoting, but still not in the list an a couple hours later. Tried posting to the kd1jvdesigns@groups.io, clicked the green ReplyToGroup button, looked good, except still not seeing it on the website an hour later. Had sent email to Steve a few weeks ago when he said he had 10 remaining from the previous run, never got a reply. Well, I now see that the poll shows up a bit different in my browser if I click on the individual message rather than try to vote using the web interface into the the "messages" page. https://groups.io/g/kd1jvdesigns/message/161 But I'm not so sure I want to promise to buy one if I can't communicate with him. Could be some of this explains why Steve's not sure there's enough interest to do another run. Jerry
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 10:56 am, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
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