Re: sBitx Mic input - assist request
Even with a dynamic mic, QD1's operating point is incorrect. The emitter and base should have a difference of .6 to .7 volts. The listed voltages are 3.9 and 2.3 volts or 1.6 volts. The transistor is not in the linear mode. I would replace QD1 and remeasure.
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73
Evan
AC9TU
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Re: Trying to update firmware in ubitx6.1
#v6
I just updated mine, and I had to use a new board. I have a programmer, and I was able to load the OG nano that came with the 6.1, but you have to be able to program via the 6 pin (which you have to solder on to the OG board) to do so. I think they programmed them without the stk500 bootloader.
Also, I tried the N8ME firmware, but the screen is unresponsive, and the pushbutton to menu didn't work either.
After loading the new 6.1 firmware, power on, holding the menu button down, so you can calibrate the screen.
--
-- J R Parrick (K0TBS)
Si vis pacem, para bellum!
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Re: sBitx Mic input - assist request
Exactly. ?
Dr.?William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch – K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner – Operator Villa Grand Piton - J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: www.VillaGrandPiton.com
email:??bill@... ?
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On Mar 9, 2025, at 9:31?AM, Gordon Gibby KX4Z via groups.io <docvacuumtubes@...> wrote:
? It is possible he’s trying a dynamic microphone
On Mar 9, 2025, at 12:23, K9HZ via groups.io <bill@...> wrote:
? Bad mic. ?Is drawing the bias provided by RD21 down from 11.9v to 2.1V.?
Dr.?William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch – K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner – Operator Villa Grand Piton - J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: www.VillaGrandPiton.com
email:??bill@... ? On Mar 9, 2025, at 9:03?AM, WF4RC Carroll <WF4RC@...> wrote:
? I have a new sBitxV3 board only. Everything is working except the Mic input. I started experimenting with some microphone I had and the recorded transmission has lots of noise and very low audio. I measure 2.1v on mic input tip. I think it should be 5v. Can anyone guide me as to what the issue may be and where I should look. Here are my measurements/ calculations.?
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Re: sBitx Mic input - assist request
It is possible he’s trying a dynamic microphone
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On Mar 9, 2025, at 12:23, K9HZ via groups.io <bill@...> wrote:
? Bad mic. ?Is drawing the bias provided by RD21 down from 11.9v to 2.1V.?
Dr.?William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch – K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner – Operator Villa Grand Piton - J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: www.VillaGrandPiton.com
email:??bill@... ? On Mar 9, 2025, at 9:03?AM, WF4RC Carroll <WF4RC@...> wrote:
? I have a new sBitxV3 board only. Everything is working except the Mic input. I started experimenting with some microphone I had and the recorded transmission has lots of noise and very low audio. I measure 2.1v on mic input tip. I think it should be 5v. Can anyone guide me as to what the issue may be and where I should look. Here are my measurements/ calculations.?
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Re: sBitx Mic input - assist request
Bad mic. ?Is drawing the bias provided by RD21 down from 11.9v to 2.1V.?
Dr.?William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch – K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner – Operator Villa Grand Piton - J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: www.VillaGrandPiton.com
email:??bill@... ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Mar 9, 2025, at 9:03?AM, WF4RC Carroll <WF4RC@...> wrote:
? I have a new sBitxV3 board only. Everything is working except the Mic input. I started experimenting with some microphone I had and the recorded transmission has lots of noise and very low audio. I measure 2.1v on mic input tip. I think it should be 5v. Can anyone guide me as to what the issue may be and where I should look. Here are my measurements/ calculations.?
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Re: sBitx Mic input - assist request
Yeah, tell us everything about the microphone!!!
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On Mar 9, 2025, at 12:02, WF4RC Carroll via groups.io <WF4RC@...> wrote:
? I have a new sBitxV3 board only. Everything is working except the Mic input. I started experimenting with some microphone I had and the recorded transmission has lots of noise and very low audio. I measure 2.1v on mic input tip. I think it should be 5v. Can anyone guide me as to what the issue may be and where I should look. Here are my measurements/ calculations.?
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sBitx Mic input - assist request
I have a new sBitxV3 board only. Everything is working except the Mic input. I started experimenting with some microphone I had and the recorded transmission has lots of noise and very low audio. I measure 2.1v on mic input tip. I think it should be 5v. Can anyone guide me as to what the issue may be and where I should look. Here are my measurements/ calculations.?
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He could offset the carrier a bit one way or the other, (maybe by 1500 Hz ?) and then plot the response of the filter by looking at the noise pattern on any waterfall display
It would be a great learning exercise also!!
Gordon kx4z?
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On Mar 9, 2025, at 10:37, Evan Hand via groups.io <elhandjr@...> wrote:
? Hi Ted,
?
Since you have the Memory Manager software, I suggest you save the values to a file and do the BFO adjustment again.??
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I thought about the symptoms again and do not believe the modulator failure is the most likely cause.? The carrier is significantly reduced in the video.? If the modulator failed, I would expect a much higher value for the carrier (BF0).? Also, the SSB crystal filter would limit the output to a 3KHz span.? It could be that the SSB filter is damaged somehow.
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Hopefully, others can chime in here, as I cannot explain the data.
?
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Hi Ted,
?
Since you have the Memory Manager software, I suggest you save the values to a file and do the BFO adjustment again.??
?
I thought about the symptoms again and do not believe the modulator failure is the most likely cause.? The carrier is significantly reduced in the video.? If the modulator failed, I would expect a much higher value for the carrier (BF0).? Also, the SSB crystal filter would limit the output to a 3KHz span.? It could be that the SSB filter is damaged somehow.
?
Hopefully, others can chime in here, as I cannot explain the data.
?
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Re: zbitx update, shipping, pico, et al
Thank you Ashar! Thanks for all your hard work making our hobby fun, innovative, and affordable! Truly state of the art! Doing what no one else has done! I appreciate it greatly!
Jay NM2M?
Ashhar,
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Thank you for all the time you have put into the ZBitx. Hopefully, after this weekend you’ll get a much needed break
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Thank You again,
Robert AG6LK
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Hi, Evan, and all.
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I appreciate the leads.? Here are some answers to your queries -
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On Fri, Mar 7, 2025 at 08:29 AM, Evan Hand wrote:
Can you pull up the software settings page and note the BO value?? It should be close to 11.056 kilohertz.?
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See attached;? SSB is set tp 11.056875. That would have been a really good call, though I'm not against trying all over again.??
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If you think this may help, I happen to have a small "TinySA" that I've played with, but the best I can do while learning what it can do is to compare an IC-706MK2g signal on the same frequency, and see how they differ.?
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If the calibration values seem correct, then the only test I know for the modulator is to pull the diode and replace it with a known-good one.? That does require SMD rework skills.? I suggest not using discrete diodes for this replacement, as they may not have the matched characteristics.
I happen to have a previously-abused mainboard handy. Swapping out the dual diode would not be that much trouble here.
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Before you start tearing apart your radio, I have a question: The video clip shows USB as the communication mode.? Were you running a USB on 40 meters?
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I'd been working a number of other folks before and after this follower came along, so either the video fails to show his entire screen and something's missing, or, maybe he swapped sidebands on his end before gathering evidence.? And now at home - using the redundant radio - I can indeed hear equally well on both side bands from 2 feet away at least.
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So,? unless the collective believes the BFO or other calibration is off, I'm willing to swap the diode pair and will stand by.....
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72,
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Ted
K3RTA
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Re: zbitx update, shipping, pico, et al
Ashhar,
?
Thank you for all the time you have put into the ZBitx. Hopefully, after this weekend you’ll get a much needed break
?
Thank You again,
Robert AG6LK
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Re: zbitx update, shipping, pico, et al
Wow, that sounds like it was a puzzle to figure out.?
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Re: Sbitx v4.4 es Xiegu amp
I'll wire up an XT60 double fuse segment LEGO to go in line.? It looks like that PSU is a clone or has clones so I'll try this variant.
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Thanks for the info, everyone.
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Re: zbitx update, shipping, pico, et al
Thank you for the update!
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Take your time! I believe that we all rather have the issues solved in advance and in house.?
excellent work and laser focused dedication!!
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73 de CR7BOG?
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Re: zbitx update, shipping, pico, et al
Thanks for the update.
Gerry
On 2025-03-09 03:16, Ashhar Farhan via
groups.io wrote:
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Hello all,
At the risk of sounding lame, here is why we haven't yet
shipped last week.?
First, the radios are all tested and ready to ship. We
ran into a problem with the Pico, Let me explain this. Get a
coffee and sit down...
BEFORE:
The original zbitx had just a small crummy OLED display.
The idea was that you read an IP address shown on the OLED
display and type it into your phone/tab/pc and use it as a
remote head from your favourite device. That continues to
happen. However, if you have seen the pictures of the zbitx,
we have also added a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display to the radio.
This is a? 480x320?TFT touch display. It is not as common as
the 320x240 display that is used in uBitx, it is half the
resolution of the standard sbitx v3.We insisted on this
display as FT8 needs at least 10 lines of decodes to be
useful. There was a shortage of these from January onwards,
we started getting them only by February last week. These
are apparently commonly used in ebikes and they got wiped
out in the Christmas sales.
THEN:
The Raspberry Zero 2, that powers the zbitx (zero bitx
because of? the RPI zero in it), can't handle this display
as the GPIO pins on it are all used up. Hence, the zbitx
sports a new microcontroller, the Raspberry Pico W (with
Wifi and Bluetooth on it!) that handles the front panel.
This offloads the user interface to this microcontroller
that handles the 3.5 inch TFT display. The two talk to each
other over the I2C bus (Pi is the master, Pico is the
slave).
NOW:
Future updates to the front panel (like moving the comms
between the zbitx and the front-panel to bluetooth or even
wifi to make it a remote head) will need a way to update the
firmware to the Pico. It is usually done with an Arduino IDE
running on a computer with micro USB cable from the PC to
the Pico. That is the easy part. The hard part was that
getting the Arduino going on a PC, installing the Pico
package and then the TFT display libraries is like pulling
teeth. There has to be a better way. We realized this last
week when I shipped out the Pico firmware to our folks at HF
Signals. If they(HF Signals) couldn't get the Arduino IDE
setup on their PC within minutes, I?was very skeptical and
most users of zbitx would.
SO, the Plan is ...
First, we are shipping the micro USB cables with the
radios that will allow the raspberry pi zero to move the
latest firmware from zbitx's sbitx folder to the Pico.
Second, we are getting a new update script that will copy
the latest firmware over from the Pi to the Pico. That is
taking this weekend. I took a break from writing it to post
this email, I will work through this weekend and hopefully
get it shipped to HF Signals in the next 24 hours.
?
I hope this explains the further delay. Thanks for the
understanding. We will of course keep the list updated with
the progress.
73, f
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I changed K1 relay (somehow) so will see how it goes from now. If remain the same I will go for mic socket and also other relay too..
Thanks for the good advices, guys!
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73,
Vule, E78CB
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Re: Sbitx v4.4 es Xiegu amp
On Sun, Mar 9, 2025 at 02:43 AM, K9HZ wrote:
Current limiting an amp is not necessarily a good thing… can generate compression for no good reason.? Its better to drive limit an amplifier.
When the current limit comes into effect, I immediately reduce the drive value. With this setup, this is the best solution.
It can be complicated, but when the person is there, work, not just the radio.
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Gyula HA3HZ
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Re: Sbitx v4.4 es Xiegu amp
On Sun, Mar 9, 2025 at 08:45 AM, Gordon Gibby KX4Z wrote:
That power supply looks like it’s here.
Yes, that's exactly what I use.
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Gyula HA3HZ
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Re: Sbitx v4.4 es Xiegu amp
That power supply looks like it’s here.
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J R Parrick (K?TBS)
K9HZ
Ted
Kevin
tzsantos CR7BOG
HA3HZ