Thank you for the replies.

I've looked at the CEC and JackAl expansions, they are nice but add unnecessary complexity for this specific purpose and neither seems to have all these minor but specific features I'm looking for. Looking for a "less is more" approach if possible.

@ John, thank you for all the information, that's very close to what I'm looking for. I like the way you use the limited display area, I think this is quite close to what I need. I need to spend a bit of time on it.

Razvan M0HZH

Do you think it's a good idea to put the S1 switch (the volume switch on GND instead of 12V ?

This way, it'll cut everything when powered off.

Thanks,
--
73's
Adrien F4IJA

Re how to get the RG-174 cable to connect gracefully with the SO-239 and the little Molex/Relimate plug for antenna on the uBITX board:

Strip outer coating of RG-174 about an inch (2-3cm to strip for those of you outside the States and Liberia). Gently separate ground braid and twist together.? Strip just enough of the center connector to make contact with center of your SO-239 connector.Center pin on the coax goes to center pin, ground braid goes to ground lug.? Solder.

There's really two ways to set up the other end:

a) Cut the brown and black lead close to the plug, leaving JUST enough both to strip and a bit more to fit some heat-shrink tubing on (so about 2 inches or 5 centimeters or so).? Strip and tin ends.? Strip RG-174 outer coating like noted above, though probably just need to strip to about 3/4" or 2cm.? CAREFULLY solder center wire to brown wire, then cover with heat-shrink.? CAREFULLY solder braid to black wire and cover THAT with heat-shrink.

b) Carefully strip about an inch of external insulation off the RG-174 and prepare as above.? Take a short length of wire (preferably something solid and around 20 to 22ga--basically about 1 1/2 times the length of the braid).? Cut off about half the braid, twist it with that wire, solder;? wrap the remaining wire around just beyond your insulation about 2-3 times and cut (this makes a strain relief).? Strip just enough of the center conductor to make good connection to the little connectors that go in the plug that came with Sunil's kit, crimp, optionally solder, stick in at the appropriate points where the black and brown cables would go.? (A good *pictoral* example of this (for a different radio) is at and yes, I've done this with Relimate/Molex connectors rather than soldering connectors directly to board.)

(That said--generally you do need special crimp tools to really get those Molex/Relimate female connectors crimped right--Radio Shack did sell a hand tool to do this once upon a time, hobby stores tend to have them, and both the usual Chinese sources (Banggood/Aliexpress/etc.) and Amazon tend to have the tools that are actually an improvement over the old RS kit (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OMM4YUY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1), or if you already have a crimping tool like this for RG-58/RG-8X cable just get the die sets...but honestly the die sets are nearly as expensive as the crimper itself, so might as well get the dies with bonus crimper. :D? And I do recommend getting a good ratcheting crimp tool or two with interchangeable dies; one of the decidedly more useful tools in the ham shack, especially if one messes with Relimate or Molex crimp pins or if one makes one's own coax runs for antennas and prefers not to use clamp connectors.)

-KI4QGJ

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This shd be interesting.?

On Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 09:01 AM, Razvan Fatu wrote:

- supply voltage indication
- forward power
- reflected power

Hello Razvan,

I had the same objective of creating a portable rig. The easiest and cheapest option I found was to add a second Arduino (a Mini in my case but can be a Nano, the sketch is the same). They communicate over the I2C bus with the 2nd Arduino a slave on the bus.

The advantage is that you get a lot of extra pins but most importantly a new lot of memory for per-processing the data you collect as the memory gets full pretty quick on the Raduino's Nano as you add features. The 2nd Nano can be set to sleep most of the time, adding limited extra current.

I added a FWD/REV and SWR measurement, a battery voltage indication on the display and a two level low battery alarm (with TX inhibit on the 2nd low level), plus a few other features that I thought were useful for a portable rig (Output power control in SSB, ATU, Android/iPhone style mic/headphone with PTT on/off via the call/hangup button, etc..).

I still use the same display (has some advantages on power consumption and readability in the sun) but I alternate the display between not urgent data (like battery voltage and Step Size+Key selection). On Tx I replace the second line by real-time Forward power and SWR. See attached pictures (no antenna handy, so no actual values, sorry).

This may give you some ideas:

For the SWR bridge I uses Don's (ND6T) design described here: http://bitxhacks.blogspot.com/2017/03/nd6ts-forward-and-reverse-power-meter.html
It is sensitive enough to give you readings from about a watt, so useful across the range. Not as precise as Farhan's solution in the Antuino, but ok for my needs.

The latest drawings and sketches for both the main Arduino and the 2nd one are in the file section at; /g/BITX20/files/Variations%20on%20KD8CEC%20Software%20%28by%20VK2ETA%29%20+%20ATU%20sketch
They are highly configurable by enabling/disabling the functions you want.

The post describing the functions:
/g/BITX20/topic/16657839#46254
and the latest version:
/g/BITX20/topic/17836001#46953

Please be mindful that these sketches are for V3-V4 boards. For V5, the relay switching function and the 2nd IF frequencies need to be changed.

Hope that helps.

All the best,

73, John (VK2ETA)

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That did remind me of another possibility. Look up the JackAl board. It is a replacement for the Raduino with a higher power processor and I believe more IO.?

Search the the web for it.?

Evan
AC9TU

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 02:13 PM, Lorne Barber wrote:

ar57@...

Would you be interested in building the uBITX 80-10 Meter QRP transceiver kit including the InKits universal case featured in the September QST magazine?

Ashhar,

I believe that Razvan is looking for a Summits On The Air capable rig with battery and SWR monitor. The Antuino would be a great portable instrument to measure the antenna, but not too good as an SSB/cw transceiver. That is unless you have plans to replace the Raduino with a modified Antuino? ?That would be very interesting.?

Evan
AC9TU

The short answer is yes, I have read post on members implementing what you are planning. I do not have the threads saved, however a search by topic might get the for you.

In the meantime, check out the hams key web sight by Dr Lee, KD8CEC. He has implemented expanded functionality through a second Nano connected through I2C from the one on the Raduino. The second Nano gives quite a few options.

FWIW
73
Evan
AC9TU

I tried to search the specs of various Raduino alternatives, but I couldn't find the right one, so ...

I'm thinking about building a portable uBITX mostly for SOTA activities and information on battery status and antenna matching is very important. To avoid reinventing the wheel, I'm looking for an alternative Raduino design / kit that has already implemented these readings:

- supply voltage indication
- forward power
- reflected power

The standard Raduino only has one unused analog pin, which with minimal switching could be used for two roles (to read supply voltage on RX and REF indication on TX) and a bit of code rewriting would get that information on the display. An even better solution would be to add an I2C ADC with multiple inputs that would also allow reading RX signal strength level and maybe other useful information (final stage temperature, current drain etc), but the 1602 display quickly becomes too small for that.

So before I fire up Kicad and start designing stuff, has anyone else been on this path before ?

Cheers,
Razvan M0HZH / YO9IRF

Albert,

The problem you describe is what I had with an off center fed dipole. For me it was rf getting into the nano control lines. I was able to solve with grounding and rf chokes on the antenna coax and mic/ptt cable. ?I also cleaned up the wiring and installed some small snap on ferrites on the digital lines to the Raduino.

The above solved it for me.

73
Evan
AC9TU

Hi Dexter,? ZL? to VK on 20M seems to come up out of the noise in mid afternoon AEST,? a few hours before sunset,? but away fades rapidly,? ?that's the way? it generally seems to me anyway.

If you search pskreporter.info? for spots from ZL2RX to the east coast of australia,? they all seem to be around 02:00Z to 03:00Z??

73?
Ray VK3YNV

I have a Rev 5 board running stock 5.1 version software/firmware.
I am having a similar issue with the mic PTT.

Using a 50 ohm dummy load, radio works as expected.

Using an antenna, I have intermittent issues with the radio staying in transmit when using the Mic. No issues using a manual key, or paddle.
The radio is connected to an antenna tuner and SWR is 1:1.
I also notice the display will change to the menu selection "Band Select" when the failure occurs. (I have not touched the knob.)
Monitoring the PTT line (Orange Wire of RADUINO), it toggles with the PTT button, in failure mode as well as normal operation.

Monitoring the collector of Q15 proves interesting results.
With my voltmeter on the collector, I can't get it to fail. It toggles from 13.65 volts to ground. Which is what I would expect.
The voltmeter is a digital high impedance type.
The connection of my voltmeter appears to adds enough capacitance/inductance to prevent the problem.
I have noticed that, if the radio sticks in transmit, touching the collector after the failure has occurred, WILL NOT correct the issue. I must do a power-cycle to correct it.

I operate the radio on 13.8 volts input. I have tried lowering the supply voltage to 12.6 but it made no difference, still fails.

Will continue more testing in the morning.

Albert