Thanks for all the input.?

I put the power to the receive rail, so it now the filter is not powered during transmit. So not the RF feedback is gone.

But....I can’t here the CW side tone now. After looking at the schematic, I see that the side tone is injected right before volume high. The filter is inserted between V high and the volume pot, so I assumed that when the filter has no power then the side tone cant make it through to the speaker ?

it seems the right thing to keep the filter power off during transmit, so I think I’ll move the filter insertion point to right after R70 and before the side tone injection.?

Does this make sense?
thanks for all the help,
Joel

Having been in and out and back in ham radio several times since the late ‘50s, I have to say this Bitx group has been probably the most rewarding and fun time I’ve ever had with radio. ?I love radio kits and projects and tinkering. ?I read the entire groups Bitx digest daily and and find it to be very helpful, informative and educational and at the best cost ratio one could ever expect. ?It would, in my humble opinion, be a disaster to split this forum into segments. ?There are a few other forums that apply to QRP radio that are helpful also, but this one is far and away the most helpful and informative on-line group I’ve ever seen. ?Personally, I don’t make a ton of contributions here, but I am a loyal reader and absorber of the questions and answers available here. ?And, if it were split into segments based on Bitx model, newbies would loose the historical significance of the Bitx evolution and the contributions of others to that evolution, a valuable education in itself.

Just my two cents worth.
--
Sodypop?

I have a ubitx V5. It works fine with the 2-line LCD it comes with. I have the 3.5" Nextion screen as well. I updated the ubitx software to KD8CEC's 1.097 NX_Hex file with no problem. I then copied the 35.tft file onto a new 16 GB MicroSD card with no problem. When I insert the card into the Nextion and connect it, nothing happens. If I take the card out and reboot the Nextion, it plays the demo file just fine.

Does it just not like that particular MicroSD card? I was careful to format it with FAT32. Or am I missing something very obvious? Thanks for any help!

Note that CW-KEY unbalances the first mixer at D1,D2, allowing CLK2 out to the power amp.
CLK2 from the Si5351 is at the transmit frequency during CW transmit.
CLK0 and CLK0 are disabled during CW transmit.

Having a healthy signal in CW mode proves out the first mixer and the power amp from Q90 through Q95.
It does not demonstrate that the modulator, 11.059mhz crystal filter, 11.059mhz IF amp,
second mixer at D3,D4, 45mhz filter,?or the 45mhz IF amp are working properly.?

If the rig powers up without immediately going into CW transmit mode,
then there is probably a pullup resistor on KEYER line into the Nano.
On the V6, these pullups are included on the main board, labeled R2 and R3 in the lower left of the schematic drawing.
On V3,V4 and V5 uBitx boards, they had to be added by the user at the keyer jack.
The two different pullups give a different voltage to the Nano A6 pin for the dit paddle vs the dah paddle.
The ADC in the Nano constantly reads the voltage to see if a paddle has been pressed.
Since A6 (and A7) are analog inputs only (no digital IO cell), they do not have
a firmware configurable pullup resistor inside the ATMega328P processor like the A0,1,2,3,4,5 pins do.
?
Jerry, KE7ER?

Alex,

i modified my V6 with nextion display.the hardware modification is not that hard. I put together a post to explain all. Though you have to peogram your arduino in the kit to make it work.?

/g/BITX20/topic/ubitx_v6_nextion_2_8_display/69473862?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,20,69473862

73
Barb WB2CBA

Ted,
I tried keying CW as you suggest it all appears and sounds like it’s working I just don’t have a nearby receiver I know is working that I can verify with. Tonight I’m meeting with some local hams and I’ll try to set up a net with them. I’ll let you know the outcome. Thanks for the help.

73
Mick VA3EPM?

开云体育

I bought a screen for my v5 but had errors compiling the origonal v6 code. It just showed white screen on switch on so ill try your hex later tonight to see if that helps.?

Thanks and good work

73
MM0BEF____Brian

?There is always the possibility of a bad mic element though I'd think it rare. Double check polarity, etc.? Yes, a nearby receiver may hear a touch of carrier in the background especially if there are a few inches of wire poking out of its antenna connector [which I recommend]. As long as we're speaking of carriers, have you wired in the CW pull-up resistor to the CW wires?? If so, try grounding the end that would have gone to a key. That will hopefully put out tons of carrier!? If that works, then we only have to worry about the mic wiring.?

If you did get carrier for CW, then try de-soldering the mic and separate the mic "hi" away from the earth/ground. Key the radio while listening to your backup receiver on freq and touch the mic "hi" line with a moist finger. You should hear some light buzzing from stray electric mains energy.? If not, that's troublesome. If you do, then check that there is voltage (+/- 12vdc) on this mic "hi" line, which it needs to have. No volts on this? Also troubling.? If Yes, then the element might be bad after all.

How about if we do these things and report back, please?


Ted
K3RTA

--
Jack, W8TEE

Thanks Ashhar, us newbies would appreciate this very much!
73
Mick VA3EPM?

--
Jack, W8TEE

Alex,

IF (BIG IF) you plan to purchase and then build the v6 uBitx, My recommendation is to go the KD8CEC and Nextion display for your current build.? You will need to purchase, build or modify a case regardless.? I have also read on UBITX20 of efforts to move the v6 to the CEC/Nextion.? This would suggest that the CEC route might live on.

If you do not want two rigs, then the v6 is the future, as the v5 is no longer offered.

Following are my reasons:
1 - The current state of the CEC path is more developed than the v6, with all kids of software and hardware additions to help with CAT, S meter and other features.? I am sure that the v6 will catch up and probably surpass the prior versions,, just not there yet.

2 - The display is more graphical, in that it is not just numbers and letters.

3 - The screen response time of the CEC/Nextion appears to be much faster, at least as far as I can tell from videos of v6, as again, I do not own a v6, however I have 2 CEC/Nextions built (a v4 and a v5).

4 - I really like the MemoryManager for the CEC/Nextion combination.? Allows to quickly get back to a known state when experimenting.

5 - there is CAT control capability as part of the current CEC release.

I would expect that both are about the same level of complexity to upgrade from a stock v5, though on the CEC side you will need to load two devices with firmware (the display has it's own micro controller).

Check out the HamsKey.com and Ubitx.net web pages for more information.??

FWIW, the above are my opinions. Others can differ as they will have their own experiences that drive them.

73
Evan
AC9TU

Thanks Ted,

I wondering if my mic element isn’t working should I hear a carrier on 40 meter LSB? The mic led lights and the relays switch when I key it, but no audio that I can discern.
:-)

More power to you, Andy! Thanks for everything that you are doing for the hobby and for the youngsters around you.

Very 73,
... Martin VE3OAT

--
Jack, W8TEE

Some comments for clarification, and a couple questions.
step 2 above: for example I hear WWV on 14.85 MHz but I know it should be at 15.00Mhz so I tune the V6 to exactly 15000 as stated even though at 15000 I cannot hear the signal.
Step 3 above: once I hold the button in ( for about 7 seconds) to get the setup menu I get the selections:
? ? ? Set Freq....
? ? ? Set BFO....
? ? ?I assume for this step you want us to select Set Freq....?
? ? ?Once selected it confirms the Frequency you are tuning ( 15000 in my example )

Now for the question.
In step 4 you say tune for zero beat. For us newbies that term has no meaning. I know what it looks like on an oscilloscope but I’ve never heard what zero beat sounds like. I tuned until I could hear the WWV signal the best. And the numbers displayed while I tuned were around 78000. Again I assume this is correct. They seemed like big numbers but it seemed to work.
I also found after this tuning if I went to the?
Set BFO menu item I could then set the BFO from the 11.053.00 setting to the best audio I could get. I my case it happens to be around 11057.6.

I also noticed if I repeated these steps I could get better results as I closed into the correct settings.

I hope these clarifications are correct and help.

73
Mick VA3EPM?

?

On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 06:41 PM, Mick wrote:

Unfortunately I don’t have an HF SWR meter to test with.

Free shipping:

* No snark intended; it's just a good buy and is a good part of any ham station's inventory.

-Ted
?K3RTA
?