I wish I had mounted the heatsinks on the rear also. I would move
them, if I thought I could unsolder them without ruining the PCB.
I'll have to check Mr. SolderFix and see if he has a process. I
may just build a new Main board.
On 12/24/2024 9:37 AM, Jack, W8TEE via
groups.io wrote:
Al and I were working on my
non-I2C version of the T41. Al suggested putting the two
voltage regulator heat sinks on the Main board on the backside
of the PCB. This is a good idea because the way those heat
sinks are mounted when done on the front of the PCB ends up
heating the Teensy as the warmed air rises. Just remember to
pay attention to the leads when installed on the back.
It is truly a pain to mount
other components on any board if you mount the IDC
components first. Indeed, a good general rule is to mount the
"single-story" parts first (SMD caps and resistors, diodes,
IC's, etc.) and then move to the "high-rise" parts (e.g.,
electrolytics, transistors, heat sinks, etc.). Since I use a
hot air gun for the SMD parts, I mount the small IC's first
(Si5351, op amps, etc,). Let them cool completely before
mounting any nearby SMD parts.
Jack, W8TEE
On Monday, December 23, 2024 at 11:53:14 PM EST, K9HZ
<bill@...> wrote:
Remember what I
said¡ you can add a second front panel board at a
different I2C address and two more encoders (or
just the buttons¡ or just the encoders)¡ and add
the software for two more dedicated controls¡ like
for the attenuators, or filter bandwidth¡ or (make
something up here¡)¡
?
?
Dr.
William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ
PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ VP2EHZ
?
Owner
- Operator
Big
Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC
Staunton,
Illinois
?
Owner
¨C Operator
Villa
Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ
Soufriere,
St. Lucia W.I.
Rent
it:
?
Moderator:
North American QRO Group at Groups.IO.
Moderator:
Amateur Radio Builders Group at Groups.IO.
?
email:?
bill@...
?
?
?
It is
such a pleasure operating the T41 with real power.
People hear
me, they give me good reports. A total homebrew
kilowatt! And I had a couple of long, satisfying
cross-country QSO's.
I finally got around to trying the K9HZ encoder
cards. They sure do
make a neat installation. My first mistake was
to solder the IDC box connector first. That makes
installation of all
the SMD caps pretty miserable. It was so hard
that on the second one, I *unsoldered* the IDC
connector and removed it.
Removing the IDC connector was a bit of a pain. I
sucked out the pins
with my Hakko, and then tried solder wick...it
wasn't going anywhere. Then I remembered "Mr
Solderfix". He's a guy
who is an absolute master at PC board repair. I
had seen one of his Youtube videos... I got a piece
of 14 gauge wire
and laid it down the middle of all those pins. I
soldered it to all the
pins, heated it up some more, and ....the connector
just fell out.
On this second board, I used solder paste and a
hotplate for the SMDs.
Piece of cake!
Second mistake was to put both the connector AND the
encoder on the
same side of the board... BAck to the radio - Nope,
that's not going
to work. I unsoldered the encoder and put it on the
other side.
Back out to the radio. Plugged in the
encoders...They work!
Interestingly, my current software DOES have support
for the
pushbuttons. I click the volume knob, and it changes
from VOL to AGC.
Then Mic, then STn ( what's that? ) and then NFl (
what's that? ).
If I spin the volume knob fast, it misses a lot of
pulses. I think
the .1uF capacitors have something to do with that.
Maybe .01's would make it more responsive?
- Jerry, KF6VB
--
Jack, W8TEE
--
73
Bob W3RDL
