Good evening everyone. I received my radio a couple weeks ago and was able to use it for a couple minutes. Long story short steer clear of Chinese bench power supplies. While updating and installing some of the addon software, the ps malfunctioned an went from 13.8 to full 35volts before I could shut it down. At that point I shut the power but not quick enough. After powering back up, or should I say, attempting to power back up, the radio wouldn't power back on. I have been able to check the pi and display which work. The issue is there is no power going to the pi. I have attempted to troubleshoot the issue but can't seem to get anywhere.?
So..... Is there anyone that works on these boards or would it just be cheaper to put down the $200 for a replacement board.?
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Nextiin screens - Alternatives to KD8CDC?
I've had three working V4 or V5 radios since 2019 and have done the CDC screen on each. I even modded the 2.4" graphics to work on a 2.8" screen, played with the 3.5" graphics a bit, and have uploaded them somewhere. It's been lots of fun.
But that's another story.? I'm sure I've seen other work made available to the community, other Nextion screen programs by other writers.? A bit of web searching has turned up only the CDC works; nice as this collection is, I just want to play and see how some other stuff works.
Anybody have a download link or just have some 2.4" screen files they'd like to share?
Tnx.
K3RTA
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Re: Interacting with sBITX v3
Steve,
Thank You very much,
Robert Guentz, AG6LK
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Re: progress report on re-hosting KD8CEC to Pico & Teensy with standard tft style screens
Ashhar,
Yes I am using the Arduino IDE v2 latest.?
Challenges:?
1. Got to configure the preferences of the gui builder (squareline studio) to put the code in the right spot. (the "src" subdirectory of your project)
2. You have to generate a main program from the GUI builder and rewrite the initiation code for your app. (one time effort)
3. The tft-eSPI library has to be directly configured to use the appropriate pin and aft driver board. ?(This part is really annoying as you actually have to go in to the libraries directory and modify the header of the tft-eSPI library (which incidentally has to be re-done at every library release....). I "think" that the lvgl folks are going to incorporate their own tft eSPI driver. Need to check this one...
I think with the current configuration it is really getting to the limits of what can be done with the Arduino IDE. For example, I am not sure how I will support multiple screen drivers (tft-eSPI) with just #ifdefs within the CEC source code. ?Fortunately, lvgl seems a little more configurable. But still going to have #ifdef for different screen resolutions. (need a compatible GUI builder for this...) Hopefully lvgl has its own drivers and this will be simpler...
The lvgl and squareline folks are having a fallout so not sure how this will shake out long term. At the moment squareline only supports V8 of lvgl and v9 is incompatible. Watching how this one plays out.
I am thinking that with this complexity, we are getting to the edge of being able to use the Arduino IDE. I am trying to hang on because the learning curve for something like platform io is a lot harder for the typical Ham ?that dabbles in software mods. My github branch:??is unstable but up to date. The libraries subdirectory above the code has the copies of the lvgl and eft libraries that I use.?
73
Mark
--
AJ6CU/7
KD8CEC 2.0, Nextion Screens,? and open source uBITX Raduino boards for Arduino IOT, BLE, RP2040, Teensy 4.0, and Raspberry Pi Pico
https://github.com/aj6cu
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Re: Writing the ICOM EMULATOR for the sBitx
Brighter people than me might know how to make this easier to install, and create an icon for the desktop, etc etc.?
I'm not an expert on the Xiegu (which several in our local club have purchased) but apparently it has the same problem and the same solution.??
As early as 2019, users of the Xiegu product were using ICOM emulation, but reported it was not that great:? ?
Users were making their own UART-based CAT control cables for the Xiegu back in 2021 and FLRIG had started to include Xiegu as one of its supported transceivers?
Well known author Julian OH8STN back in 2022 was explaining how to use WINLINK (one of his favorites) on the Xiegu, with ICOM emulation.? ?
Had I known about those solutions for the Xiegu, I could have figured out the UART-UART cable more quickly!? ? ?However, I don't think Julian is a Winlink sysop nor a user of ION2G ALE.? ?So as time becomes available, I can test out and make the sBitx solution proven on additional pieces of legacy software that will likely not get tried on the Xiegu....giving us a bit of an edge there.? ? The huge advantage of the sBitx in this regard -- especially for the HIGH SPEED SCANNING of ALE -- is the lack of relays.? ? ION2G uses the "split" feature of ICOMs to get around that problem but my friends here in Florida always forget to turn that back OFF and this causes the 7300 to appear non functional....we may be able to avoid this on the sBitx.? ??
Even ARRL W1AW is now a WINLINK RMS gateway.? ?(I've connected to them.)? Back in 2008 when this system was rather infantile by today's standards, there were 12,000 radio users.? Today it is a staple of the "emcomm" crowd after basdically winning the bruising battle in front of the FCC over PACTOR.? ?The 300-baud HF limit is now history as a result (we won!) and PACTOR 4 is finally legal here in the USA as it has been in much of the world for much longer time.? ?VARA HF is at the same speed level as Pactor III, and suffices for most users.? ?Pactor 4 has always been available to the SHARES users, and that group has grown by leaps and bounds after some of the wildfires in the western USA toppled telecommunications towers and state after state embraced WINLINK as a backup communications strategy.? ?There are now almost as many government-affiliated SHARES Winlink gateways in the USA, as there are HF ham radio gateways.? ? ?The State of Florida is encouraging each county emergency operations center group to gain ALE capability via ION2G and my group (Alachua County) has done so.? ?(The software is a PAIN to configure and only supports a very limited number of radios, the ICOM series included.)? ? ?
The availability of ICOM emulation for the sBitx will allow a few more users to enjoy this wonderful relay-free radio.? And it will make my talk about the radio at the upcoming WCF TECHCON conference (a very small conference, to be sure) much easier!
73,
Gordon KX4Z
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Re: Sbitx rig control from laptop?
Jack, I now have the "0.1" version of CAT control for the sBitx from legacy programs, via an emulation of an ICOM, available. I believe it does what you were looking for. See:? ? /g/BITX20/message/108957You will need to make up an interface cable with a UART at each end, and then just connect the TX line from one to the RX line of the other.? ?Don't connect the +5V lines at all.? ? Just the signal lines (crossed) and ground.? ? ?? This is a very simple beginning so it isn't fancy at all.? ? Others might know how to make it much more "user friendly" with an icon, changes to ports etc.? ?I don't.? ?I just have it working quite nicely with the legacy program of interest to me, Winlink (and their server programs should work also, and soon ION2G should work). Let me know any comments, 73 Gordon KX4Z
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Re: progress report on re-hosting KD8CEC to Pico & Teensy with standard tft style screens
Have you used Arduino IDE to write this code?
On Tue, Feb 13, 2024, 12:03 PM Mark Hatch < mark2382@...> wrote: On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 05:35 PM, DaveW, KL7HJF wrote:
Mark,
It looks great!
Question: Will your Raduino boards be compatible with the Nextion screens, in addition to the standard tft screens?
Several months ago, after changing to the 3.2" Nextion screen, I couldn't see myself going back to the tft screen. But I still have the factory screen. So, it would be good to have a backup Raduino board that could play with either screen (with the appropriate firmware, of course).
Thanks for the progress report!
DaveW, KL7HJF
?
Dave
i have no intention of not supporting the Nextion screens going forward (I think I have perhaps 10 in various sizes and ubitx motherboard versions myself! ?
I see the tft screens providing a lower cost option that also better utilizes the increased power of the 32bit processors like the pico and teensy
73
Mark
--
AJ6CU/7
KD8CEC 2.0, Nextion Screens,? and open source uBITX Raduino boards for Arduino IOT, BLE, RP2040, Teensy 4.0, and Raspberry Pi Pico
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Re: progress report on re-hosting KD8CEC to Pico & Teensy with standard tft style screens
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 05:35 PM, DaveW, KL7HJF wrote:
Mark,
It looks great!
Question: Will your Raduino boards be compatible with the Nextion screens, in addition to the standard tft screens?
Several months ago, after changing to the 3.2" Nextion screen, I couldn't see myself going back to the tft screen. But I still have the factory screen. So, it would be good to have a backup Raduino board that could play with either screen (with the appropriate firmware, of course).
Thanks for the progress report!
DaveW, KL7HJF
?
Dave
i have no intention of not supporting the Nextion screens going forward (I think I have perhaps 10 in various sizes and ubitx motherboard versions myself! ?
I see the tft screens providing a lower cost option that also better utilizes the increased power of the 32bit processors like the pico and teensy
73
Mark
--
AJ6CU/7
KD8CEC 2.0, Nextion Screens,? and open source uBITX Raduino boards for Arduino IOT, BLE, RP2040, Teensy 4.0, and Raspberry Pi Pico
https://github.com/aj6cu
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After getting that board to generate the tone I would measure its frequency with a different computer. ?Just measure the audio frequency
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On Feb 12, 2024, at 20:38, Dean Souleles <dsouleles@...> wrote:
?On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:22 PM, Gordon Gibby wrote:
Can you command the audio board to generate a 4 kHz tone and measure it on the waterfall? That might allow you to check the crystal.??
?
Or do the reverse ?
Hi Gordon - I'm trying to understand what you are suggesting. Something like generate a tone through the DAC to line-out and loop it back to line-in and look at it on the waterfall? .??
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On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:22 PM, Gordon Gibby wrote:
Can you command the audio board to generate a 4 kHz tone and measure it on the waterfall? That might allow you to check the crystal.??
?
Or do the reverse ?
Hi Gordon - I'm trying to understand what you are suggesting. Something like generate a tone through the DAC to line-out and loop it back to line-in and look at it on the waterfall? .??
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Re: progress report on re-hosting KD8CEC to Pico & Teensy with standard tft style screens
Mark,
It looks great!
Question: Will your Raduino boards be compatible with the Nextion screens, in addition to the standard tft screens?
Several months ago, after changing to the 3.2" Nextion screen, I couldn't see myself going back to the tft screen. But I still have the factory screen. So, it would be good to have a backup Raduino board that could play with either screen (with the appropriate firmware, of course).
Thanks for the progress report!
DaveW, KL7HJF
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On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 05:12 PM, Evan Hand wrote:
I burned the Si5351 in my DE.? I repaired it with an Adafruit clone board.? I found two lines (45 and 46) in the si5351v2.c program.
? ? ?//int xtal_freq_calibrated = 25012725; // crystal oscillator?
? ? ?int xtal_freq_calibrated = 25000000; // tcxo
Thank you Evan - I have already done exactly as you suggested.? That is how I got the receiver display frequency to align at? exactly 10MHz.? But it is still off at 5MHz and 15MHz and not linearly, its more like a bell curve. I've done much more analysis than I described at first.? I have?measured the BFO to make sure it is exactly on 40.035 - and I still see a delta between the displayed frequency and the tuned frequency that vaires with frequeny as you saw in the original post.? I have looked at both clocks with multiple frequency counters, the FFT mode of the Rigol scope, and the TinySA Ultra and both clocks are all fine and on frequency with no stray harmonics.? ?The results don't make sense but they are what they are.? There is something deeper going on. 73, Dean KK4DAS
?
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Re: Writing the ICOM EMULATOR for the sBitx
OK... Here is Version 0.1
The executable is testclient.? ?You may have to fiddle with the permisssions to be sure it is executable.
There are some .c files and a .h file.? ?Compiles with gcc.
sBitx needs to be running on the same machine (127.0.0.1) and you need a cable between the winlink machine and the sBitx that implements com ports on both sides
In winlink, properly pick whichever one it is.
On MY sbitx, it was /ttyUSB0? ? I can't guarantee it will stay there, and it needs to be that one to work with the current simple code.
It implements frequency control, bandwidth control for upper side band data, and TX and RX control.? ?
So the only thing you need between the winlink computer and the sbix is a soundcard (or equivalent) to handle sending and receivng audio.
I have not yet tested it with ION2G.? ?
Or anything else.
I was just thrilled to get SOMETHING to work.? ?It controlls my DE nicely and operates frequency and TX/RX control etc.? ??
Ohters I am CERTAIN could do much much better than this.? ??
I'm a poor programmer and this is the level of my skills!!!!? ?
Thanks for everyone who contributed,
Gordon KX4Z
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Re: Interacting with sBITX v3
Learn Linux system administration.? An excellent resource is:
The price is right as well!
Steve Barkes
W5RRX
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I have been checking out the new Macro Manager and i really like it. I think that it is a feature that I will get some use out of.? Thank you for your hard work, I greatly appreciate it.? -- '72
Aaron?
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Hi Dean, I burned the Si5351 in my DE.? I repaired it with an Adafruit clone board.? I found two lines (45 and 46) in the si5351v2.c program.
? ? ?//int xtal_freq_calibrated = 25012725; // crystal oscillator?
? ? ?int xtal_freq_calibrated = 25000000; // tcxo
I uncommented the first and commented the second.? I still had to use different values of the xtal_freq_calibrated = line to get the sbitx frequency to agree with my CW frequency counter.? You can do the same with another receiver or spectrum analyzer.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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progress report on re-hosting KD8CEC to Pico & Teensy with standard tft style screens
A quick progress report on my efforts to improve KD8CEC to support modern 32 bit MCU's and standard tft screens like found on uBITX V6 and sBITX.
In terms of board support, my current Raduino clones support both Raspberry Pi Pico and Teensy 4.0. Although I have not assembled a board,? I suspect that Teensy 4.1 board will work too. The Gerbers out on my Github are out of date and shouldn't be used. I have one pin change required (to fix a tft voltage issue) as well as I want to put in an optical-isolator on the TX/RX output signal.
The following screen shots show both sets of boards:
 
These boards are both for V6 and are compatible mechanically. I have designs for? v3-v5 Raduinos that need to incorporate the latest changes.
I am also happy to report that I have made great progress rehosting the user interface from the Nextion screens to standard, common tft screens with SPI interfaces (like found on V6, and other Ham experimental platforms. These screens are build with the lvgl toolkit (lvgl.io) with a lot of help from the Squareline Studio GUI Builder ().? The following screen shots so a UX similar to the KD8CEC original design. I am going to make some improvements before I am done (e.g. add a Copy VFOA->VFOB button, and some indicators of what the tx and rx frequencies are when in split.? Also want to add a field that tracks the offset of the RIT frequency from the VFO.
Having a lot of fun with this, so I am not in any hurry to get this wrapped up. Perhaps sometime this summer. :-)
?
73
Mark
   
--
AJ6CU/7
KD8CEC 2.0, Nextion Screens,? and open source uBITX Raduino boards for Arduino IOT, BLE, RP2040, Teensy 4.0, and Raspberry Pi Pico
https://github.com/aj6cu
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Interacting with sBITX v3
Hello all,
I¡¯d like to know what your ideas are for the best way to learn to interact with the sBITX v3. Should I learn Linux, python, C+ etc¡. What i¡¯m?trying to do is learn how to download programs that can work with the sBITX v3, keep the programs up to date, general housekeeping. I¡¯m not looking to really build programs. I guess I¡¯m just looking to learn the commands I need to just to keep up with what everyone is discussing when it¡¯s pertaining to the sBITX v3 in general and how to implement some of the ideas. I hope I haven¡¯t been to vague or confusing. I¡¯m not sure how to explain my ideas any better.
Thank You,
Robert, AG6LK?
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On Mon, 12 Feb 2024 at 18:28, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote: If you removed a turn from the vfo, it should work... I have a Bitx20 which was built from a Hendricks kit it is the 10 watt version. At the moment it tunes from 14150 to 14300. I would like to try and use it for POTA and SOTA, but most of that action tends to take place between 14300 to 14350. My question is there an easy way to move the coverage to 14200 to 14350. I asked on another forum and they seemed to think that I would have to change several components to move the coverage. I am not very good with the soldering iron.
thanks Nigel G7luo
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Re: Where is the wsjtx_log.adi file?
#sBitx
I guess I'm confused still.? I understand that the sbitx FT8 built-in software saves it's log to a SQL file.? I have been using an exporter to convert that file to an ADIF file.? I use that to upload contacts to qrz and LotW.?
But I tried using WSJTX rather than the sbitx FT8 software.? I made a few contacts.? Those contacts do not show up in the SQL log.? As far as I understand, WSJTX has it's own log saved as wsjtx_log.adi.? If you go to WSJTX under Settings, the option 'Open Log Directory' opens a directory with multiple files, but none of them are .adi files.?
Where can I find the contacts made in WSJTX?
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Charlie, W4CLV
Ted
Aaron K5ATG