Hello Doug, and everyone,

I just fixed it, with the help of Tom, WB6B. Tom suggested that I go
into the Config > Tone menu and reset the 700MHz frequency. That did
the trick! I have uploaded a new video to the YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZZJJu5DxI
I have a box full of various size speakers, so I will different ones
to see what happens.
The current speaker is labeled 8 OHMS 0.25W, and it is ~55mm in
diameter (2.25 inches).

Regards,
Ken, KM4NFQ "Not Fully Qualified"

On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 8:56 AM Doug W <dougwilner@...> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 06:04 AM, Ken KM4NFQ wrote:
>
> The Audio is extremely poor. The A10K Audio Volume Pot works. I can
> turn the volume up and down. But the Audio Output is just clicks and
> chirps. I have another PAM8403 that I can try.
>
> Ken,
> I have mine half apart and it isn't in front of me but I would start with basic troubleshooting first.  Get rid of you whole audio amp circuit.  If you have a little buzzer connect it right to pin PA2 and ground.  If you don't have a buzzer try your speaker.  If that works you know the problem is in your amp circuit.  If you still have the same problems at least you have eliminated one variable.
>

Greetings,

I have a very short video of my Work-In-Progress Morse Code Tutor V2
up on the YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtWGiHvwpt8
This is an unlisted video, meant for this group only, so please don't
share the URL with others outside the group.

These comments are meant to be constructive, so please don't get too defensive!

The MCT2 circuit is breadboarded. Blue Pill, programmed with Jack
W8TEE's software and an ST-LINK V2 dongle, 2.2 TFT 320x240 display,
Rotary Encoder, PAM8403 Mini Audio Module Amp, small speaker. Powered
with bench power supply. Display works. Audio is just clicks and
chirps.

It took awhile to get the display working properly. Tom, WB6B was a
great help in getting that sorted out. I have been adding one thing at
a time to the circuit, getting it to work, then moving on to the next
item. Divide and conquer!

The Rotary Encoder works, except it is quite touchy, and wants to skip
over menu items. That may change when it gets bolted down to an
enclosure?

The Audio is extremely poor. The A10K Audio Volume Pot works. I can
turn the volume up and down. But the Audio Output is just clicks and
chirps. I have another PAM8403 that I can try.

When I first started the MCT, and chose Receive > Letters, it came out
at 65535 wpm! Those letters were zooming by. I was able to adjust it
down to +/- 20000 wpm in the Config menu, and after that, it was at 20
wpm. Maybe a default wpm other than 65535 wpm would be nice?

The Blue Pill Reset Button works for stopping a choice. Pushing the
Rotary Encoder switch maybe works, sometimes?

I would like to see a short clip of some other people's Morse Code
Tutor V2 builds if there are any? I remember someone mentioning that
the Audio was too loud? The clicks and chirps in the video are with
the volume turned all the way up!

I would really like to see a good working Morse Code Tutor V2. It is
an open source project, but not all of us builders (especially me) are
expert programmers.

Regards,
Ken, KM4NFQ

Ken:

I disagree with some of your comments. First, if you accept the MCT as it is, you don't need to be a programmer. If you don't like the way something works, ask your XYL to change it, or pay a professional programmer to do it. The code speed complaint arises because you didn't understand what was going on. Had you asked your XYL about it, I'll bet she could have given you an answer in less than 2 seconds.

Second, there is no documentation because the MCT is the basis for a chapter in my new Projects book being written with Al Peter, AC8GY. There are a lot more details there, and more were given at the FDIM presentation I did on the MCT last May. I only made the code and schematic available because a number of FDIM people asked for it.

Third, the comment you made which I highlighted in green is repeated in your last response:

            ...meant to help a beginner, who is interested in learning the Morse Code, and also interested in
            building a 'good' working Morse Code Tutor

I take offense because you're implying it wasn't "good" in the first place. Not correct. It is "good" for its intended purpose and does what I said it would do. Because its not exactly what you wanted and you were having problem wiring it does not mean it is not "good". Your judgement results from you not understanding 1) the binary number system, 2) how rotary encoders work, 3) the difference between polling and interrupt driven devices. Had you understood these things, there would likely have been no need for an MCT2.

Fourth, the comment:

    I finally got the TFT display to do something after days of wiring, rewiring, programming the Blue Pill.

Whose fault is that? It took me less than 30 minutes to wire the display and write the code from scratch. To make that as issue is simply bogus. What explains the difference between your "days of wiring, rewiring, programming" and my 30 minutes? My guess it is experience, so why is that my fault? If you connect things according to the schematic and compile the code, it will work...probably less than 30 minutes for most people because the code's already done. To me, the comment comes off as you struggled because of something I did or did not do. Simply not true.

Fifth, this comment:

    This morning I made some progress, and finally got some decent sound to come out of the speaker

This would have probably been more truthful had you explained how you got it to work. Indeed, my guess is it should have read:

    This morning I finally got some decent sound to come out of the speaker after I corrected my wiring mistakes.

Big difference how this comes across to the reader.

Like you said, these are not criticisms of your posts, just constructive comments. However, ungrateful comments like this makes one wonder if contributing to Open Source is even worth the effort.

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 11:08:54 AM EDT, Ken KM4NFQ <km4nfq@...> wrote:

Hello Jack, and everyone,

Thank you for the video of your 'good' Morse Code Tutor 2 working
'good'. That is what I wanted to see. It is the first one *I* have
seen. Also, thank you for the constructive comments. All of your
comments are part of the documentation of the project.

'Good' science is science that has results that are
reproducible/repeatable. Not all of us builders are programmers
(especially me), so what may seem obvious to a programmer, is not so
obvious to me. Making a project 'open source' does not make me more of
a programmer than I already am (I am a hobbyist computer programmer).

In the very beginning of my post, I said that the comments I made were
meant to be constructive.  They ARE constructive! I am constructing a
Morse Code Tutor 2. These are some of the problems I am running into.
I do not feel that I should be AFRAID to share my Build Notes.

I am a beginner, and from I have read, this project is to encourage
beginners to learn the Morse Code. IF the Morse Code Tutor 2 is only
meant for professional programmers, and advanced builders, then DO NOT
say that it is meant for beginners!

Many professional C programmers that I am acquainted with (my XYL, for
one) feel that documentation is unnecessary. They say, read the source
code, that's all the documentation you need. Well, I have some news
for you: some of us need documentation other than the source code!

For that reason, some of us have been trying to put together some
semblance of rudimentary documentation at a GitHub repository:
https://github.com/TemporarilyOffline/MorseCodeTutor

There you will find, all in one place, source code, wiring diagrams,
and other hopefully helpful things that are meant to help a beginner,
who is interested in learning the Morse Code, and also interested in
building a 'good' working Morse Code Tutor 2 circuit to use as an aid
in learning the Morse code. From my own experiences, so far, building
a 'good' Morse Code Tutor 2 is NOT as easy as building a Morse Code
Tutor 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qQ7FWoIcU

I have published these videos at the YouTube about constructing a
Morse Code Tutor 2:
I finally got the TFT display to do something after days of wiring,
rewiring, programming the Blue Pill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaZ9iIteBkM

Yesterday, I hooked up the Audio Amp, and a speaker and a Volume Pot.
It clicked and chirped. This morning I made some progress, and finally
got some decent sound to come out of the speaker. Read the
descriptions of the videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtWGiHvwpt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZZJJu5DxI
In this one, I got the display to stop blinking by turning DOWN the volume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h7vzMhK_jQ

I will continue posting my Build Notes of the Morse Code Tutor 2, just
in case another 'beginner' finds them helpful. I do not believe that I
am the only one having any of these problems.

Once again, there is some help here:
https://github.com/TemporarilyOffline/MorseCodeTutor

72
Ken, KM4NFQ "Not Fully Qualified"


On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 9:57 AM jjpurdum via Groups.Io
<jjpurdum=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
>
> All:
>
> I created a short video that shows how the MCT works. See:
>
> https://youtu.be/B2Kp_lzoVh4
>
> I have some ideas on the issues mentioned below. See the comments below.
>
> Jack, W8TEE
>
> On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 7:04:30 AM EDT, Ken KM4NFQ <km4nfq@...> wrote:
>
>
> Greetings,
>
> I have a very short video of my Work-In-Progress Morse Code Tutor V2
> up on the YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtWGiHvwpt8
> This is an unlisted video, meant for this group only, so please don't
> share the URL with others outside the group.
>
> These comments are meant to be constructive, so please don't get too defensive!
>
> The MCT2 circuit is breadboarded. Blue Pill, programmed with Jack
> W8TEE's software and an ST-LINK V2 dongle, 2.2 TFT 320x240 display,
> Rotary Encoder, PAM8403 Mini Audio Module Amp, small speaker. Powered
> with bench power supply. Display works. Audio is just clicks and
> chirps.
> Sounds like a bad board to me, or it could be hooked up incorrectly. The board is capable of stereo output, so check the wiring carefully. As the video shows, the audio is acceptable even with a small, inexpensive, speaker.
>
> It took awhile to get the display working properly. Tom, WB6B was a
> great help in getting that sorted out. I have been adding one thing at
> a time to the circuit, getting it to work, then moving on to the next
> item. Divide and conquer!
>
> The Rotary Encoder works, except it is quite touchy, and wants to skip
> over menu items. That may change when it gets bolted down to an
> enclosure?
> Not all encoders are the same. Some produce only one pulse per detent, others produce as many as 4. Also, you can trigger the encoder on RISING, FALLING, or CHANGE state changes. The CHANGE state will generate the most pulses per rotation. You might try different constants instead of CHANGE . Also, keep in mind that most encoders may need to be "debounced". Think of the encoder as a contact arm sliding along a road surface. When it hits a speed bump, it rises, makes contact with a pad above the road, and sends a pulse to the microcontroller. However, some contact arms "vibrate" after the initial pulse, sending a vibrating, false pulse chain to the processor. You can lessen this by adding a delay immediately after sensing the contact, using:
>
>    delay(100L);
>
> Note the letter 'L' at the end of the number. That's to make sure the compiler knows that the number is a long data type. If it continues to "bounce", increase the number. If it doesn't bounce, lower the number. You want the delay long enough to stop the bounce, but as short as possible so the user can't sense the delay.
>
>
> The Audio is extremely poor. The A10K Audio Volume Pot works. I can
> turn the volume up and down. But the Audio Output is just clicks and
> chirps. I have another PAM8403 that I can try.
> As shown in the video, mine works fine...can't be sure of the problem here.
>
> When I first started the MCT, and chose Receive > Letters, it came out
> at 65535 wpm! Those letters were zooming by. I was able to adjust it
> down to +/- 20000 wpm in the Config menu, and after that, it was at 20
> wpm. Maybe a default wpm other than 65535 wpm would be nice?
> What's wrong with 65K wpm? When you first run the program, the EEPROM is "virgin"...it's never been written to before. Most chip manufacturers set all memory to 0xFFFF during production, as that's an easy value to test for. Of course, that is also 65K. If you haven't run the Config memory, why would you expect it to be some realistic value? If this bothers you, add these lines to EEPROM.CPP at line 134:
>
>  if (wordsPerMinute > 90 || wordsPerMinute < 5) {
>    wordsPerMinute = 15;
>  }
>
>
>
> The Blue Pill Reset Button works for stopping a choice. Pushing the
> Rotary Encoder switch maybe works, sometimes?
> There's no "sometimes" about it...it works, you're just not at a program point where the code can sense it. My guess is that you don't understand how the encoder is programmed. The reason is because I chose to use polling rather than interrupts for sensing switch closure. The difference is significant. My best example of the difference is to assume you're putting fire sensors into the Empire state building, 100 sensors per floor. Further assume that it take 1 second to "visit" a sensor, read it, and report back "No Fire" (0), or "Fire" (1). After all sensors are sampled on the 1st floor, it proceeds to sensor 1 on the 2nd floor. This goes on until the top floor is read, and then it starts over on the first floor. It does this until: 1) power is removed, 2) a reset is performed, or 3) a component fails. This is how polling works. The problem: Suppose you have crappy luck and just as you leave the first floor, a fire breaks out on the first floor. By the time you get back to the first floor, almost 3 hours have elapsed! You'd be amazed how PO'ed people get when they have to wade through 10 floors of fire to go to lunch.
>
> Interrupts work differently. With interrupts, each sensor has the ability to send a message to the controller if a fire breaks out. The message from the sensor is read by an Interrupt Service Routine (ISR) and causes the processor to stop whatever it's doing and immediately service the ISR. Anyone who's raised a 2 year old knows how an ISR works. Interrupts means an almost instantaneous (i.e., 1 second delay) response to a fire.
>
> I chose to use polling because they are easier to use and understand. Feel free to change this to ISR processing if you're unhappy with the response.
>
> I would like to see a short clip of some other people's Morse Code
> Tutor V2 builds if there are any? I remember someone mentioning that
> the Audio was too loud? The clicks and chirps in the video are with
> the volume turned all the way up! See my video I just posted. Good God, man, if the audio is too loud, turn down the volume!
>
> I would really like to see a good working Morse Code Tutor V2. It is
> an open source project, but not all of us builders (especially me) are
> expert programmers.
> I don't take kindly to that comment, because it already is "a good working Morse Code Tutor". It may not be exactly what you want, but that's why I made it Open Source. All of your complaints are either hardware related (i.e., the audio amp) or arise because you don't understand how the controller works (i.e., why did it come up at 65K wpm). Always remember: You can always shit-can an existing design, design your own circuit, and write your own code. That's the best way to get exactly what you want. For most people, however, it's easier to start with a working design, even if it doesn't fit your needs perfectly.
>
> Regards,
> Ken, KM4NFQ
>
>
>
>