Re: Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
Ron,
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Unless a reason comes up for not doing this in the meantime, I'll do it tonight and let you know.
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73!
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Anyone who can run a command-line on their zbitx want to try the following bash script to see if it improves keying latency:
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# isolates the sbitx process to CPU core 3
PID=`pidof sbitx`
echo $PID
for pid in $(ps -eo pid | grep -v "$PID" | grep -v PID); do
?? ? sudo taskset -cp 0-2 $pid 2>/dev/null
done
sudo taskset -cp 3 "$PID"
#
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No warranties implied. You may have to reboot to undo this.
73, Ron, n6ywu
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Re: Second display on sBitx V2
#sBitx
What are the other connectors for?
--Ed, N3CW--
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Re: zBitx +-2 MHz transmit spurs? --> SHOWSTOPPER for transmitting
Yup. ?I meant tinySA but typed nanoVNA. ?The boxes look too similar. ?73, Ron, n6ywu
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Re: Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
First:
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sudo apt install cpuset
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Then, is anyone willing to try the following shell script to see if it improves keying latency:
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#
# run sbitx process on CPU 3 and move all other processes to other CPU cores
#
PID=`pidof sbitx`
echo $PID
for pid in $(ps -eo pid | grep -v "$PID" | grep -v PID); do
?? ? sudo taskset -cp 0-2 $pid 2>/dev/null
?? ? echo $pid
done
sudo taskset -cp 3 "$PID"
#
# end
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No warranties implied. ?You may have to reboot your zbitx if this doesn't work.
73, Ron, n6ywu
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Re: Alternate power source for zbitx
The voltage from that four cell LFP back is much too?high for the sBitx. A three cell LFP would be a better option, though even that is a bit outside the specified 6-9V range when fully charged. Three cell LFPs are not as widely available as the four cell models; Bioenno makes them in three sizes, all of which are expensive for their size.
We should be looking at LiFePo4 packs:
Mike N2MS
> On 04/17/2025 9:44 AM EDT Giuseppe Stancanelli - IU0OYC via <g.stanca=[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Hi
>
> I have some LiPo power packs, 2S, with various power (capacity) ratings. Some are rated for a discharge rate over 20-30 times the rated nominal capacity.
> I have no economic reason or interest in suggesting this, but i think that can be a smart solution to power the zbitx.
> Only for example, the following battery as 7.4 nominal voltage, 3600 mA capacity, size65 x 50 x 28mm and weight 165 g. Price under 13 €
>
>
> Another interesting option is the hardcase batteries: this one has a capacity of 3000 mA, size 93 x 47 x 19 mm, weight 143g, and price a little more than 11€.
>
> 73 from Italy
> Giuseppe IU0OYC
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Jeff,
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I have a tiny drok in it now. ?3amp. ?It¡¯s woking fine and cuts the current draw on receive in half. ?I didn¡¯t notice any substantial increase in the noise floor. ?I do have an rf quite switcher evaluation board for another project. ?Its awesome and has 2 outputs. ?You can combine them together both at 5vdc and it¡¯s good for 8 amps! ?The actual IC and aux components are tiny. ?
Also I need to recheck but I am pretty sure the finals are already on the 12v rail not on the regulator. ?The linear regulator would not be able to handle the current of the finals. ?The problem seems to be in the way the bpf switching happens. ?It needs to likely be rebiased. ?I would need confirmation from farhan. ?At 13vdc with different finals that have been re biased I get 10w out on all bands including 10m. ?But it¡¯s still not right.
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Ryan
KK6DZB
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Re: Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
Jody,
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I finally got around to changing my display name.?
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The videos I shot for Iambic A were at 650 delay. However, I also toyed around with the the latency down to 200 still worked fine. I have been under the weather and the keying mistakes on the video such as the L with the extra dit were my own fault. 30 wpm worked fine at 650 as well but if I'm being honest it makes no difference to me because I will unlikely contest with this rig. And if I do it'll be remoting in and the software keyer works perfectly for me up to 40 wpm. Admittedly I haven't test past 40 wpm because I'm never going to send that fast.?
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For straight key, the video I shot was also at 650 and I am having the same difficulty as you. Normally I send European style but decided to display the key for the video and I am not used to that. There is that odd delay when T/R switch and I tried the delay between 150 to 750 and had no luck in overcoming that initial delay.?
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So, other than what I mentioned above and not updating the pi (should it even matter? I would think not) I haven't changed anything else.?
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Re: SPLIT won't activate
#zbitx
SPLIT and RIT are not working with my zBITX.
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Re: Alternate power source for zbitx
I use them for my 12 volt radios. It would be nice if we cold find a 3cell LiFePo4 battery. LiFePo4 is safer and has a flatter discharge curve.
Mike N2MS
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On 04/17/2025 12:00 PM EDT Joel Caulkins/N6ALT via groups.io <caulktel@...> wrote:
Those are nice packs Mike, but they are 12V and would have to be Stepped down to make the zBitx happy at 8.4V.
Joel
N6ALT
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I've been looking into building an RF quiet DC/DC converter for the zBitx.? I've found some ICs that might fit the bill.? But after April 5, not sure I would be able to make them at a price that people would pay.? I've been trying to find the time to get the
design complete and boards sent for fab, but don't think I'm going to make it before the de minimus execption is removed.? Cheapest US based board house I can find is 2-3x more than what I was getting.
Jeff KF7YDU
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Ryan,?
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Looking at the schematic, what if you separate the 9v input for the finals drain and feed 14v to it. That way you can use just one 8v regulator to the rest of the system.
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Juan WP3DN
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Re: Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
Gordon - Yes, I was just trying to suggest why we may all be reporting different results with my simple comparison test.?
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santiagom5678 - your results are undeniably what I would like to get.? Have you done something to your software that I have not done ??
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Ashhar - Yesterday I did the 'upgrade' to my RasPi OS.? I also ran ./update_sbitx to get the latest and greatest from github.? ?So, I am up to date on all of my software.? ?That actually made my zBITX system worse on CW.?
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I'm only using a Straight Key - that is where my interest lies.? I was running with a 500 delay - I changed it to a 600 delay.? That did not make any difference.? Nor did a delay of 1000.? Just for fun, I set the delay to 50 - no difference.? ?I did note with the delay set to 50, the system did not seem to get right back to Receive Mode after I sent just a single Dit.? There was a significant delay before I heard audio.? So, something else seems to be impacting the speed of T/R switching.
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I also noticed that I am running a 32 Bit RasPi OS.? ?If there is a 64 Bit RasPi Zero 2 W being used in the zBITX, it is probably being throttled by that 32 Bit OS.
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Just trying to be useful here - I have a (tr)uSDX which is more than likely another derivative - it is great with CW.
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72,
Jody - K3JZD
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Re: Alternate power source for zbitx
Those are nice packs Mike, but they are 12V and would have to be Stepped down to make the zBitx happy at 8.4V.
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Joel
N6ALT
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I tried to activate SPLIT using the on-screen keypad (in CW). Neither pressing the button nor turning the VFO knob with the selected SPLIT button turned SPLIT ON. Did I forget to do something?
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Re: Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
Hello Farhan
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My feedback on your question...
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Iambic A with a delay of 350 works for me safely up to 28 wpm, mistakes up to that and with higher speeds are mostly made by myself ;-)
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Straight key works with slow keying and no pauses between words, but with an external K3NG keyer only from the third letter onwards, a lot is lost before that. If I key VVV in a row, the first 2 Vs are incomplete. This happens after every T/R switching and regardless of the speed.
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The T/R switching is generally too slow and makes full BK, DXing and Contesting very difficult if not impossible. But keying without BK operation and iambic A is now possible.
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These are my observations regarding cw operation with my zBITX-2501051. Hope this is of any help.
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73, Gerald - HB9CEY
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Ryan,?
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Looking at the schematic, what if you separate the 9v input for the finals drain and feed 14v to it. That way you can use just one 8v regulator to the rest of the system.
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Juan WP3DN
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Re: zBitx +-2 MHz transmit spurs? --> SHOWSTOPPER for transmitting
On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 06:34 AM, Joerg DB2OO wrote:
As a final proof, that the TinySA results in this specific scenario (we are NOT measuring IMD of the PA, but spurs) are trustworthy, I connected my Hermes-Lite-2 to exactly the same attenuator chain (20dB Weinschel 0-3GHz power attenuator, 30dB SMA attenuator) and measured the output spectrum on 18.1MHz:
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Wow!? I have certainly learned a LOT about the TinySA (I think ron meant this when he wrote "nanoVNA") in this discussion!? ?Joerg has apparently proven conclusively on his unit that there is an issue.? ? I had similar problems early on with one of my sBitx's which were subsequently resolved -- after a LOT of effort!? ?Hans is giving us lots of engineering advice here.? ? Need to have some measurement of the "distribution" of these difficulties with production units (could range from miniscule to "most" -- and so far no one knows that percentage) -- and gotta FIX IT as well.? ? That Ashhar's unit does NOT have the problem is certainlly encouraging!!? ??
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Might want to come up with a simple test that people can do with a general purpose receiver, or using WebSDR receivers, to make a general estimate of whether a given unit has the difficulty.? ? The existence of the 2MHz spur might make an easy way to do this:? ?a simple low-pass circuit and then a diode for a detector and measure the level and bingo! you know whether your unit has the issue.? ? The low pass filter would need to be sufficent to separate the -30 to -40 dBc 2MHz signal from the carrier.? ? So it might need to have several cascaded sections, but not difficult to build.? ? ? ? However, many users will have a second receiver or some sort and even using an S-meter they can get a "general" idea knowing where to look and comparing the s-meter readings using some simple secondary antenna.? ?None of this will be "accurate" but it will help the installed base of users figure out their unit without needing a spectrum analyzer.? ? ?
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Meanwhile, I'm down in the weeds of the source code of hamlib's rigcontrol to try and get it to properly control an 820h's two vfo's.? ?The writers clearly left hints that they didn't understand the radio architecture and I have been unable to get it to properly set the two halfs of the radio for satellite work -- yet I can easily do it using RIGCTL from the keyboard, accessing MainA and SubA.? ? So I'm going to try and "adjust" their code so I can get their system to work the radio properly.? ?Thanks to an Austrailian ham I learned how to compile hamlib!
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Gordon KX4Z
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Re: zBitx +-2 MHz transmit spurs? --> SHOWSTOPPER for transmitting
Good question. ?I do not have a test & measurement lab; nor am I a qualified test & measurement technician.? I know what those are, having worked up at HP Labs in the distant past, with access to building-sized anechoic test chambers for RF isolation. ?However I prefer the hobby projects and radios on my bench to have enough statistical margins so as not to suggest that they are significantly outside the regulatory limits, via multiple independent quick and dirty tests, that do not require a proper measurement lab.
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Note that a nanoVNA isn¡¯t the only way to detect large spur signals. ?As a cross check, after noting the frequencies of the spurs with the nanoVNA, I shut off and disconnected the nanoVNA, and then verified the that those spurs were still present and within the non-overloaded dynamic range of an air-gapped Hermes Lite 2. ?There should have been over 7 S-units of difference to meet regulatory requirements, and on multiple bands, the differences in S meter readings were not even close enough to be a statistical error. ?Thus, IMHO, there is a reasonable likelihood that the spurs are real in my sample of one. ?Confirmation by several others using slightly different measurement methods increases that likelihood, even without more expensive lab grade test equipment in anechoic chambers.
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So my current hypothesis is that there are manufacturing variations in components, and Ashhar is testing a sample on the plus side of the bell curve. ?This perhaps suggests that either HFSignals got a bad batch of components that need to be replaced, and/or that a moderate redesign with higher manufacturing margins is in order. ?More testing by engineers with better labs will be required to confirm either of these hypothesis.
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The zbitx is a very interesting radio architecture, and I hope to eventually have one that I can connect to an antenna with the confidence that I am operating within the privileges of my amateur radio license.
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73, Ron, N6YWU.
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Re: Alternate power source for zbitx
We should be looking at LiFePo4 packs:
Mike N2MS
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On 04/17/2025 9:44 AM EDT Giuseppe Stancanelli - IU0OYC via groups.io <g.stanca@...> wrote:
Hi
I have some LiPo power packs, 2S, with various power (capacity) ratings. Some are rated for a discharge rate over 20-30 times the rated nominal capacity.
I have no economic reason or interest in suggesting this, but i think that can be a smart solution to power the zbitx.
Only for example, the following battery as 7.4 nominal voltage, 3600 mA capacity, size65 x 50 x 28mm and weight 165 g. Price under 13 €
Another interesting option is the hardcase batteries: this one has a capacity of 3000 mA, size 93 x 47 x 19 mm, weight 143g, and price a little more than 11€.
73 from Italy
Giuseppe IU0OYC
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Re: Alternate power source for zbitx
They should work great, I'm using these, ? and they run the zBitx for a longer time compared to the 2 cell pack that failed after 2.5 hours of RXing only.
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Joel
N6ALT
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Shirley Dulcey KE1L
Joel Caulkins/N6ALT