Re: FT8 time differential - how to resolve?
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I use either bench supplies on my workbench, or I use a USB-C to coaxial DC barrel, fixed to 9v and a good quality PD charger. I haven't noticed any significant additional noise or hash from the PD circuitry, and so long as you plug the cable into the charger FIRST, it'll negotiate for 9v and there won't be any difficult?power Shenanigans with it bouncing around in voltage, messing with the circuitry.
I built one of the bench supplies myself, using a fairly commonplace power supply module. I guess I can't really say I built?it. Say rather that I assembled?it. It's my main bench supply. I have another, fancier one that's purpose built bench supply. I suppose it would probably work better, but frankly, that piece of gear sort of intimidates me, and I haven't taken the time to sit down with it and figure out how it works. Someday, I will. But for now, I don't really need it to be all that fancy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 73, Gwen, NG3P
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Any particular recommendations for a base station power supply for the zBitx?? I like to shop Amazon.
Thanks !
Jim WB4ILP?
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Shot key is a good idea. I¡¯ve seen commercial products use that. ??
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On May 2, 2025, at 19:27, Gerald Sherman via groups.io <ve4gks@...> wrote:
?
Schottky diode has a much lower drop, or use a germanium diode if
you can find a germanium power diode.
Gerry Sherman
On 2025-05-02 20:57, WK4DS via
groups.io wrote:
Gordon, I was thinking of simply putting a diode in
series with the power connector. Sure, you lose .65 volts across
it, but it would work for reverse polarity problems, or am I
missing something?
David
On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at
4:23?PM Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]>
wrote:
You can build this with a relay and a diode
fairly inexpensively.?
?
I have a similar product for sBitx (), and
I have considered something for zBitx.? But with the
de minimus rules change staring friday, I don't think
I'll be able to make affordable parts anymore.? But if
there's enough interest, I can draw something up and
see what the cost would be.? I was thinking of
building a battery holder with built-in USB-C
charging, battery bms, fuse, and polarity protection.?
But I suspect that is going to be pretty expensive at
low rate manufacturing (the cheapest US based board
house that I can find so far is 5X my current costs).?
Someone posted a very similar sort of thing from
Aliexpress for just a few dollars, but that will now
cost well over $100 for US buyers.
Jeff
Not quite the 5A
continuous load I'd like to see for this
application.
es vy 73 om de "baab"
w9ya
A new version (kit?) here:?
Nice product but out of stock on either
kit or built.
? ? ?Frank Krozel
? ? ? ? ? ?KG9H
Life Member, ARRL
? ? (630) 924-1600
--
?
?
?
de KG9H
Life member, ARRL
|
Schottky diode has a much lower drop, or use a germanium diode if
you can find a germanium power diode.
Gerry Sherman
On 2025-05-02 20:57, WK4DS via
groups.io wrote:
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Gordon, I was thinking of simply putting a diode in
series with the power connector. Sure, you lose .65 volts across
it, but it would work for reverse polarity problems, or am I
missing something?
David
On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at
4:23?PM Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]>
wrote:
You can build this with a relay and a diode
fairly inexpensively.?
?
I have a similar product for sBitx (), and
I have considered something for zBitx.? But with the
de minimus rules change staring friday, I don't think
I'll be able to make affordable parts anymore.? But if
there's enough interest, I can draw something up and
see what the cost would be.? I was thinking of
building a battery holder with built-in USB-C
charging, battery bms, fuse, and polarity protection.?
But I suspect that is going to be pretty expensive at
low rate manufacturing (the cheapest US based board
house that I can find so far is 5X my current costs).?
Someone posted a very similar sort of thing from
Aliexpress for just a few dollars, but that will now
cost well over $100 for US buyers.
Jeff
Not quite the 5A
continuous load I'd like to see for this
application.
es vy 73 om de "baab"
w9ya
A new version (kit?) here:?
Nice product but out of stock on either
kit or built.
? ? ?Frank Krozel
? ? ? ? ? ?KG9H
Life Member, ARRL
? ? (630) 924-1600
--
?
?
?
de KG9H
Life member, ARRL
|
Sounds like the radio at home, copied the transmissions and presumed they were coming from itself
??
Gordon kx4z?
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On May 2, 2025, at 19:17, W1WCI via groups.io <timothy.macdonald@...> wrote:
? My SBitX was on at home in FT8 mode, I was 30 miles remote with my ZBitX, made two contacts from the remote location with FT8. ?Both ZBitX contacts show up in my SBitX log! ?The ZBitX has not been powered on since I got home. ?Can anyone explain what and how this this happened?
?
Tim
W1WCI
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My SBitX was on at home in FT8 mode, I was 30 miles remote with my ZBitX, made two contacts from the remote location with FT8. ?Both ZBitX contacts show up in my SBitX log! ?The ZBitX has not been powered on since I got home. ?Can anyone explain what and how this this happened?
?
Tim
W1WCI
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Re: #zbitx I am intereted in CAT control of the zBitx.
#zbitx
Gordon, I will try this.
Thanks
A
?
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If you use a relay and a diode to control, whether it pulls in, you can do this very cheaply.
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On May 2, 2025, at 16:57, WK4DS via groups.io <georgiaphotog@...> wrote:
? Gordon, I was thinking of simply putting a diode in series with the power connector. Sure, you lose .65 volts across it, but it would work for reverse polarity problems, or am I missing something?
David On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 4:23?PM Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote: You can build this with a relay and a diode fairly inexpensively.? ?
I have a similar product for sBitx (), and I have considered something for zBitx.? But with the de minimus rules change staring friday, I don't think I'll be able to make affordable parts anymore.? But if there's enough interest, I can draw
something up and see what the cost would be.? I was thinking of building a battery holder with built-in USB-C charging, battery bms, fuse, and polarity protection.? But I suspect that is going to be pretty expensive at low rate manufacturing (the cheapest
US based board house that I can find so far is 5X my current costs).? Someone posted a very similar sort of thing from Aliexpress for just a few dollars, but that will now cost well over $100 for US buyers.
Jeff
Not quite the 5A continuous load I'd like to see for this application.
es vy 73 om de "baab" w9ya
A new version (kit?) here:?
Nice product but out of stock on either kit or built.
? ? ?Frank Krozel
? ? ? ? ? ?KG9H
Life Member, ARRL
? ? (630) 924-1600
--
?
?
?
de KG9H
Life member, ARRL
|
You just need to make sure it has adequate current carrying capacity! ? If you¡¯re willing to lose the little bit of voltage, that should work fine
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Show quoted text
On May 2, 2025, at 16:57, WK4DS via groups.io <georgiaphotog@...> wrote:
? Gordon, I was thinking of simply putting a diode in series with the power connector. Sure, you lose .65 volts across it, but it would work for reverse polarity problems, or am I missing something?
David On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 4:23?PM Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote: You can build this with a relay and a diode fairly inexpensively.? ?
I have a similar product for sBitx (), and I have considered something for zBitx.? But with the de minimus rules change staring friday, I don't think I'll be able to make affordable parts anymore.? But if there's enough interest, I can draw
something up and see what the cost would be.? I was thinking of building a battery holder with built-in USB-C charging, battery bms, fuse, and polarity protection.? But I suspect that is going to be pretty expensive at low rate manufacturing (the cheapest
US based board house that I can find so far is 5X my current costs).? Someone posted a very similar sort of thing from Aliexpress for just a few dollars, but that will now cost well over $100 for US buyers.
Jeff
Not quite the 5A continuous load I'd like to see for this application.
es vy 73 om de "baab" w9ya
A new version (kit?) here:?
Nice product but out of stock on either kit or built.
? ? ?Frank Krozel
? ? ? ? ? ?KG9H
Life Member, ARRL
? ? (630) 924-1600
--
?
?
?
de KG9H
Life member, ARRL
|
Gordon, I was thinking of simply putting a diode in series with the power connector. Sure, you lose .65 volts across it, but it would work for reverse polarity problems, or am I missing something?
David On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 4:23?PM Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote:
You can build this with a relay and a diode fairly inexpensively.? ?
I have a similar product for sBitx (), and I have considered something for zBitx.? But with the de minimus rules change staring friday, I don't think I'll be able to make affordable parts anymore.? But if there's enough interest, I can draw
something up and see what the cost would be.? I was thinking of building a battery holder with built-in USB-C charging, battery bms, fuse, and polarity protection.? But I suspect that is going to be pretty expensive at low rate manufacturing (the cheapest
US based board house that I can find so far is 5X my current costs).? Someone posted a very similar sort of thing from Aliexpress for just a few dollars, but that will now cost well over $100 for US buyers.
Jeff
Not quite the 5A continuous load I'd like to see for this application.
es vy 73 om de "baab" w9ya
A new version (kit?) here:?
Nice product but out of stock on either kit or built.
? ? ?Frank Krozel
? ? ? ? ? ?KG9H
Life Member, ARRL
? ? (630) 924-1600
--
?
?
?
de KG9H
Life member, ARRL
|
On Apr 30, 2025, at 20:13, Jeff Duce via groups.io <jefe_de_estado@...> wrote:
I have a similar product for sBitx (),
Yep I bought it, thanks for making it fit so nicely. and I have considered something for zBitx.? But with the de minimus rules change staring friday, I don't think I'll be able to make affordable parts anymore.? But if there's enough interest, I can draw something up and see what the cost would be.? I was thinking of building a battery holder with built-in USB-C charging, battery bms, fuse, and polarity protection.? But I suspect that is going to be pretty expensive at low rate manufacturing (the cheapest US based board house that I can find so far is 5X my current costs).? Someone posted a very similar sort of thing from Aliexpress for just a few dollars, but that will now cost well over $100 for US buyers.
I bought that one (step-up ¡°UPS¡± to generate constant 9V), and found that it cannot supply enough current for the zbitx in transmit. ?The voltage drops, and the pi reboots.
Then I was attempting to use two LiFePO4 cells at nominally 3.2V each (but I measure 3.34V open-circuit): that¡¯s less voltage, so the transmit power is less. ?But maybe using 3 of them with a series diode could work.
I wouldn¡¯t put too much money into a fancy UPS board because I think the radio needs to be more efficient in the first place. ?Efficient finals, maybe work with a wider range of input voltages somehow, reverse protection built in, and more efficient 5V regulation.
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Re: #zbitx I am intereted in CAT control of the zBitx.
#zbitx
I *did* use that for satellite doppler correction with the transverter (and a healthy preamp) -- and I thought it was VERY nifty that the sBitx already?had that built in!!? ?An amazing little powerhouse of a radio!!!? ?
Gordon KX4Z
On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 2:30?PM Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote: Thanks!? ?Yep, I'm slowly learning how to use all of that. Unfortunately, WINLINK does not use it.? ?Therefore, we had to write something in addition. gordon kx4z
On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 1:54?PM Ashhar Farhan via <farhanbox= [email protected]> wrote: We already have net ctrl hamlib. For the ubitx we had emulated the ft817 just because I had one to test with.
I hear that the TS480 is simpler. However, all these protocols are pretty dated. For instance none support transfer of waterfall or output of cw decode
On Fri, 2 May, 2025, 2:55?pm Gordon Gibby KX4Z via , <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote: On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 04:34 AM, Armando Escalante wrote:
Farhan, any idea when the CAT control via USB port will become available And which radio will it emulate?
I want to use the zBitx as a Winlink Express node.
?
?
Armando, I think I already did that.? ?I built a small bit of Icom Emulation code that allows me to control the frequency of the radio (CAT control) as if it were an Icom 7300.? ?You can read it and download the sofware here: ? /g/BITX20/wiki/36021? ? You may need to make up a small UART cable for the purpose.? ? ?
I've used it many times to control my sBitx to make winlink connections.? ?Unless they removed the code from the zBitx (which is unlikely), the zBitx should work the same way.? ??
?
73
Gordon KX4Z
?
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Re: #zbitx I am intereted in CAT control of the zBitx.
#zbitx
Thanks!? ?Yep, I'm slowly learning how to use all of that. Unfortunately, WINLINK does not use it.? ?Therefore, we had to write something in addition. gordon kx4z
On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 1:54?PM Ashhar Farhan via <farhanbox= [email protected]> wrote: We already have net ctrl hamlib. For the ubitx we had emulated the ft817 just because I had one to test with.
I hear that the TS480 is simpler. However, all these protocols are pretty dated. For instance none support transfer of waterfall or output of cw decode
On Fri, 2 May, 2025, 2:55?pm Gordon Gibby KX4Z via , <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote: On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 04:34 AM, Armando Escalante wrote:
Farhan, any idea when the CAT control via USB port will become available And which radio will it emulate?
I want to use the zBitx as a Winlink Express node.
?
?
Armando, I think I already did that.? ?I built a small bit of Icom Emulation code that allows me to control the frequency of the radio (CAT control) as if it were an Icom 7300.? ?You can read it and download the sofware here: ? /g/BITX20/wiki/36021? ? You may need to make up a small UART cable for the purpose.? ? ?
I've used it many times to control my sBitx to make winlink connections.? ?Unless they removed the code from the zBitx (which is unlikely), the zBitx should work the same way.? ??
?
73
Gordon KX4Z
?
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Re: #zbitx I am intereted in CAT control of the zBitx.
#zbitx
We already have net ctrl hamlib. For the ubitx we had emulated the ft817 just because I had one to test with.
I hear that the TS480 is simpler. However, all these protocols are pretty dated. For instance none support transfer of waterfall or output of cw decode
On Fri, 2 May, 2025, 2:55?pm Gordon Gibby KX4Z via , <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> wrote: On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 04:34 AM, Armando Escalante wrote:
Farhan, any idea when the CAT control via USB port will become available And which radio will it emulate?
I want to use the zBitx as a Winlink Express node.
?
?
Armando, I think I already did that.? ?I built a small bit of Icom Emulation code that allows me to control the frequency of the radio (CAT control) as if it were an Icom 7300.? ?You can read it and download the sofware here: ? /g/BITX20/wiki/36021? ? You may need to make up a small UART cable for the purpose.? ? ?
I've used it many times to control my sBitx to make winlink connections.? ?Unless they removed the code from the zBitx (which is unlikely), the zBitx should work the same way.? ??
?
73
Gordon KX4Z
?
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Re: zBITX CW Mode - Proof of Concept
I have been informed that the Pi Zero 2 W contains a 4 core CPU. ?So having one thread running on only one core doing both real time processing plus ui_tick "other stuff" is probably not the best idea. ?
Any real-time transmit/receive code could be running in a completely different non-blocking thread on a dedicated core, and not doing any ui_tick, "UI stuff" or other non-real time IO, which should be on a separate threads running on other CPU cores. ?Non-blocking communication mechanisms using fenced barriers and shared memory could be used to safely pass data between the asynchronous threads running on separate CPU cores. ?That might allow monitoring the state or timestamps left behind by any key interrupts in near real time, with only microseconds of latency. ?Not this 10's of milliseconds of delay when interleaved with blocking UI code.
73, Ron, n6ywu
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Re: Today is 4 Weeks.....
Hi Gary,
I will be four weeks on Tuesday since I ordered right behind you. Hoping as well to have this neat rig soon, especially for our park adventures!
?
¡ª
Ron
WB5DYG
?
?
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Re: zBITX CW Mode - Proof of Concept
Hi Ron,
?
Thanks for the suggestion of where to look for the cw_delay upper limit.? ?I had seen that code at line 655.? I guess establishes the messages to the zBITX LCD.? But I really did not dig into trying to decode the message format.? I was looking for a const parameter somewhere.? ?I will experiment with altering those values.
?
I appreciate what you are saying about how extending the Semi-QSK hang time can miss the beginning other guys transmission.? ?Get that down to a couple of ms rather than making it longer would be ideal.? ?However, with the zBITX polling for key-down in the middle of the busy time tick triggered ui_tick() function, it is not really possible.? The processor gets busy doing other stuff that is being called from that same time tick triggered ui_tick() function and cannot always respond to the next key-down event fast enough.? If I can get introduce GPIO Interrupts at the key/paddle input pins, then it could put all else on hold and immediately respond to those key-down inputs.? If that can be done, then it should be possible to get it very close to true QSK.? (Even though I do not see the zBITX ever being a contest machine, that sure would be nice to have).
?
Thanks for looking at this and thanks for your comments.? ?I'm busy with a customer job right now, so it will be a few days before I can get back into this.
?
72,
Jody - K3JZD
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Im ready!!!!! got the cash saved up!!!
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Re: zBITX CW Mode - Proof of Concept
Hi Mike,
?
Calling modem_poll() on every tick is not something that I added. It was already there, but it was down lower in ui_tick(). All i did was move it up to the top and then get out of ui_tick() when in Transmit Mode so that all of the other time consuming GUI servicing stuff could run. That made the system much more responsive to key down events (paddle or straight key).
?
I realize that modem_poll() does a whole lot of unnecessary stuff whenever using a simple straight key. It would be nice to eliminate that. But since the change that I made helped everything but the QSK hang time, it may be OK as is.
?
I will take a look at the sbit_gtk.c code for ui_tick()in the 64 bit repository. Somehow just carrying it over sounds too easy because the zBITX version looks like it interfaces with the zBITX LCD. But maybe I can get some ideas from what is there.
?
Appreciate you looking at this and you suggestions.
?
72,
Jody - K3JZD
?
?
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Gwen Patton
WK4DS