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Re: Open letter to Afarhan et all
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Jack, W8TEE
Thanks, David...the kind words are sincerely appreciated. Jack, W8TEE
On Friday, November 3, 2023 at 12:11:10 PM EDT, david todd via groups.io <ac9xh@...> wrote:
Ashhar, Well said ole Master of electronics!!!!!!. Jack ,Well said to u too ole Master of electronics too. Remember folks, this is totally open sourced, and allowed to be ,odded and hacked. following the forum, you will get a sense of the development of the Sbitx. Following that, gives u an idea of what MAY be expected from a Ham buying it. Anyone, buying Ashhars transceivers from the bitx40 when he produced them thru the varoius versions of the ubitx thru v 6 and now the Sbitx, knows that there will be a slight learning curve on the units. its open sourced. Of course there will be mods, hardware changes upgrades and such. thats only natural. And to get this level of communication and support from Ashhar himself PROVES that he is always dedicated to make things right with the hardware, software. This is why this forum is here. it lists about every problem that has come up with ANY transceiver Ashhar has created.I agree with Jack. Ashhar and others who develop amazing products for the Amateur Radio Community COULD decide to just ignore everyone who bought their products, but they DONT. they work endlessly to solve even the small problems. This is what makes a good developer. CARING about their creation and taking pride in it and able to listen to anyone in regards criticism. I for one applaud these creators today. TO ASHHAR AND JACK AND OTHERS WHO DEVELOP NEW KITS AND SUCH: 3 CHEERS TO THEM: HIP HIP HURRAH!!! HIP HIP HURRAH!!! HIP HIP HURRAH!!!! 73 DAVID AC9XH
On Friday, November 3, 2023 at 10:45:08 AM EDT, Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...> wrote:
As I’ve said many times, this is an amazing development spearheaded by one extraordinarily gifted person. ? People who don’t see what has been accomplished are too quick to make complaints? I do have concerns about the cleanness of the signal. ?My own testing may be faulty, it has certainly improved, but my particular sBitx V2 (Ppurchased second hand) ?does not look like an ICOM 718 in terms of cleanness. ?? I have now demonstrated that a reasonably clean signal is very possible without any improvement at all of the amplifier chain. ? ? I think this is a foundational problem that must be solved. I don’t know how many units it affects nor where is the problem. ?My suspicions are that there is variability in the components utilized. ?Leading to variability in the production run devices. ? I would welcome others trying to replicate my studies. ? My next moves are to try to add, piece by piece, additional portions of the bandpass filtering systems, trying to add the most innocuous portions first. ? So far I’ve managed to show that the HV voltage doubling circuit does not seem to be a major issue at all Following suggestions by Evan and others, I think I will add diode input or output ?to the non-used filter sections next — to see whether by some unknown method the back biased diode‘s are adding harmonics. ? Then try adding the diode input to the filter in use. ?I suspect that may add some problems Then lastly add diode output from the filter in use, (which I have already shown produces a harmonic that appears grossly out of spec). If we can show that it is just certain 1N4007 diode‘s, then it is a relatively simple process to make some sort of a jig to test for “good” versus “bad” diodes, and put only good ones in the switching circuits. ? Or if we can show some variation of the circuit solves the problem then that would be the route I think the fact that I’ve been able to take a stock unit (as purchased second hand) and by simple circuit deletions, ?change it from noncompliance (bad) to generally compliant (good!) Oon the worst of the bands studied, demonstrates that the issue not only exists (In an unknown percentage of units and on some bands) ?but is can be caused by some certain portion of the schematic — thereby, fixable! ?? I’m guessing that not many people have the capabilities of making these exquisite measurements. ? I hope I’m making them properly. It has been a learning curve for me. My only confidence comes from being able to demonstrate success not only for commercial icons but for the sbitx ?after changes. ? This radio has fantastic potential and in my mind is one of the most amazing achievements in ham radio in the recent years. ? To bring some thing like this to market in large quantity and available with so much open source is simply amazing. ?But I think we have to solve the manufacturing issues completely. ? And it looks pretty simple to me to add Zener diode’s to the gates of the existing finals. ?I haven’t done that yet because I’m trying to keep this unit as stock as possible while I work on the harmonics. ?But once I get that solved I’ll simply add the zeners (Just ?as I did with the development unit) ?and I’m perfectly happy so far with the final MOSFETs. ?So others may wish to go with the 510s but I’m happy with what we’ve got If it turns out that my measurement system has some mess up, I’ll be **delighted** (and of course red-faced!) ?for someone to show me where I have made it! ? That’s one reason I produce pictures so everybody can see what I’m doing? Gordon Kx4z? On Nov 3, 2023, at 10:27, Gerald Sherman <ve4gks@...> wrote:
This is with regard to Jack's comments about those who know what it is like to take a bunch of components and turn them into that first contact.? I did that over half a century ago.? The parts came from what was scavenged from everything from a war surplus TVI generator to an old automotive air filter (that last provided the perforated cover for the 1625 PA tube "doghouse").? My programming experience is largely with the RS274 G-code used in machine tool control - not easily transferred to C, C++, Python, etc.? Unfortunately, for some of us, our years catch up with us, and we have to pass the tools to the next generation.? My eyes aren't what they used to be, and the hands aren't very steady any more.? My abilities are largely confined to something like assembling a uBIT 6 and yes, I have a couple.? One is assembled as it was shipped, the other one is a much-modified unit from Howard Zehr. Gerry Sherman Sent by the Windows 11 Thunderbird On 2023-11-03 08:57, Jack, W8TEE via
groups.io wrote:
All:
I'm pretty sure that Hans
agrees with me that some people here have been far too unkind
to Farhan and have ignored all that he has brought to QRP
operators all over the world. Farhan, Hans, and myself, are
trying to cater to a different type of operator than someone
who is "an appliance operator". We want to market to the
operator who enjoys not only operating their radios, but also
the journey of taking a bunch of components, piecing them
together, and feeling the thrill of making that first contact
with something that was just a pile of parts only a few days
ago.
Open Source is a partnership
where others join the originator to extend and improve the
project. Those who see it differently are probably better off
buying a commercial radio. Anyone who knows Farhan or Hans
also know that they strive to make their customers happy and
are deeply saddened when that's not the case. They should also
know that Farhan will work tirelessly to "make it right".
Given all that he has brought to our tables, we need to show
patience while he does just that.
Jack, W8TEE
On Friday, November 3, 2023 at 09:26:36 AM EDT, Ashhar
Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:
Dear All,
I must apologize for the late reply to this
thread. I am getting two threads on my inbox so I am
not sure which one to reply to, I will probably copy
paste this into both the threads.?
Before I address the problems themselves, I must
explain my own behaviour of being quiet in all these
emails.?
To begin with, I have written about 95% of the
code on my own. I borrowed some code from Phil Karn,
KA9Q's sdr receiver and some libraries like the FFTW
and the Mongoose. All in all, as of today, there are
approximately 30,000 lines of code. The industry
average productivity of a systems level programmer
is 50 lines of production grade code per day. This
amounts to about 600 full working days of work. I
work erratically, so on good days I manage even 300
lines of code and on other days I am just staring at
some unexplained html bug for hours. All this code
is not just open source but all free. It can be used
by anyone to produce their own commercial radios, it
can be modified, extended, and contributed to. I
have also taken great care to keep the code simple
and understandable.? The code belongs to the
community.
I have also always acknowledged and credited the
software ideas, code and the circuit origins to
where credit is due. Hams build radios, learning
from others. However, I have to keep track of what
can be easily replicated by others as well in the
bitx radio designs. Though HF SIgnals does produce
bitx radios, neither their name (bitx) nor is the
circuitowned by anyone in a proprietary way. We
would like to actively see more people adopt the
architecture and build radios around them. Earlier,
Hendricks kits and now Inkits produce these designs
and their modifications. We never had any commercial
dealings with any of them. I do meet Bob Hendricks
on the sidelines of Dayton who was kind enough to
present me with one of the original?BITX20A kits, I
have never met Sunil of Inkits. (The only kits that
I do enjoy and build are from QRP Labs!).
I am just mentioning all this to put into
perspective that we are not just a "Vendor", we are
_also_ a vendor of open source radios. In the last 9
months, I have released three updates to the
hardware and three updates to the software. The
software was, of course, free. The hardware changes
needed (for instance, the one that made DE use diode
T/R instead of the relays) was posted as an upgrade
of parts and PCB to all the existing customers.
However, from sbitx v2 onwards, the spurs are under
the FCC limit (in all our own testing, however,
Gordon Gibby's tests are worrying). The main
hardware challenge has been to prevent blow out of
the PA. I think we have a fix. I am just nervous to
lead everyone through yet another change. However,
it is a simple fix, swap the IRFZ24Ns with the
trusty IRF510s. They will give 25 watts on the lower
bands and more than 10 watts even on 10 meters. A
few changes of resistors are in order with the
predriver. I will publish the mod after a few more
days. Three friends extensively used this radio
during WW SSB contest this weekend. The results have
been heartening.
A new version of software is ready as well. I am
cleaning up the HTML UI. My aim with this release is
to make it usable even on a raspberry zero, this
meant that the native UI should work as well (Chrome
doesn't open on zero due to low memory). I am
working to tweak the HTML UI? in addition to making
the native GTK have complete functionality of the
HTML UI as well.? So, here is where the new version
(V3) is:
1. Circuit Changes: There are no changes, except
that sooner, we will swap the IRFZ24Ns with IRF510s.
The maximum power will be reduced from 40 watts to
25 watts. This is far less of a consequence than we
think. On the oscilloscope, the peak voltage is 100v
instead of 125v. However, the IRF510s have 100 V
rating instead of the IRFZ24Ns that are rated for
60V. Some resistor values are tweaked to keep all
the spurs down to within the FCC limits (-43 db
below the peak output). Additionally, the higher
bands like 10M and 12M will have higher power output
of 10 watts.
The new software will work with all previous
versions from sBitx DE onwards.
2. FT8: The FT8 has been fixed. I have been
running FT8 on native UI as well as HTML. The timing
issue has been fixed, some bugs that confused the
sequencing of the messages is also fixed.
3. CW: I wrote a new CW decoder that works very
well. I have been using it to Run as well as Search
& Pounce. The new logger, logbook, macros and
the decoder works pretty well. I have gone back to
being a QRP CW operator with this.
4. Apart from this, the Hamlib's NET Ctrl allows
all external programs like the WSJT-X, FLDigi can be
used if the native CW/FT8 are not good enough. The
issues with interoperability has been fixed.
I am going to host this version as a different
fork so as to not confuse the regular users. A few
of us will try this out before declaring it done.
This update has taken far more time than I
thought (the software takes more time you think it
would, even if you have taken this into account).
There were many niggling hardware troubles including
some problems with our? SMD assembler, they have
been sorted out too though for a few days we were
despondent enough to consider ordering SMD assembly
from China instead of our regular SMD assembly shop
(the moment passed).
I am grateful to the community that supports all
of us who develop sbitx. I request you all to be
kinder to criticism of the radio. There is no excuse
as a programmer to ship out buggy code and I
personally take the entire blame. Perhaps I have
been ambitious to pull this off as a single
contributor. We must collectively identify and fix
the bugs and keep adding features. Our endeavour
will be to make the basic radio as stable as we can,
and then make it extendible in easy and simple ways.
This is a radio that can grow younger with age, that
is the magic of free software.
73, and cu on 7015 soon.
de f.
?
On Sat,
Oct 28, 2023 at 3:23?AM Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...>
wrote:
-- Jack, W8TEE -- Jack, W8TEE |
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