One more note. In the CEC setup on the display you and lower the brightness of the display to further lower the current draw. Doing this I¡¯m now down to just 200ma. Also you can set a timer o turn on the back light after 3 minutes. With the backlight off I¡¯m seeing 170ma of current draw (this is measured at the power plug of the V6) again with power (5v ) removed from the Nextion the current drops to 150ma.
With all the great work that KD8CDC has done I wonder why the V6 uBitx just didn¡¯t go with the 2.8 Nextion and the CEC firmware? It¡¯s just such a nice and more complete setup with a better foundation to continue to build on version recreating the wheel.
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On Jan 11, 2020, at 6:19 PM, bill richardson via Groups.Io <ng1p.bill@...> wrote:
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I did this mod to my V6 and with the Nextion display my current draw dropped from 350ma to 250ma (TFT draws 100ma more!) also I wired a on off switch so I could remove 5v from the display. With the display off I¡¯m seeing just 150ma. I will also add the 5v regulator is running much cooler. I like the option of shutting off the display to save on battery life.
One other thing I did differently was instead of using a angled display plug I just simply solder to the back side of the board (keeps the wires out of the way) I also drilled the Nextion mounting holes a little wider so all 4 mounting screws are in place on the front of the display.
73 thanks for the great mod. Bill ng1p?
On Jan 6, 2020, at 5:29 PM, bill richardson via Groups.Io <ng1p.bill@...> wrote:
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Sounds excellent. I may do what you did. I¡¯m looking at ways to save on current and I really like the CDC code. If you remove the 5v from the display I assume the radio will still operate? With your hookup it would be easy to add a switch.
On Jan 6, 2020, at 4:50 PM, wb2cba@... wrote:
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Hi Bill,
Before the mod I checked each display¡¯s datasheet to compare power consumption and ?both draws around 60 to 65 ma of current.
I didn¡¯t actually measure the current draw on the raduino board 7805 regulator but it does feel hot with both displays, stock and nextion. May be it is a good idea to swap the heatsink with a notch bigger one.
I used the rig continously for almost 3 hours yesterday for qso¡¯s and nothing smoked up so I think it¡¯s surviving the heat ?:)
Barb, WB2CBA
