Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
You could also use the diagnostic sketch I provided some time ago - it's included in the ZIP file: The sketch tests some basic hardware functions:
- tuning pot reading
- Function Button / SPOT button switches
- PTT switch
- capacitive touch sensors
The results are shown on the LCD display, additional messages are output to the serial monitor (in the IDE, select tools => serial monitor) 73 Allard PE1NWL
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
So this (that the diagnostic sketch give you a 25 MHz signal but no other sketch seems to work)?calls into question the wiring to the tuning potentiometer or ?the pot itself. ?I have to go to work now, but at work I will adjust the skits to force it to
10 right in the middle of the digital section of the 40 m band. ? Or you could, or anyone else could. ?Tunefor say 7075 kHz.
That will give you another signal you can hunt for with your communications ?receiver. And it will force the receiver to work in the 40 m band. ? If you're able to hear the VFO ?signal at that point, then you'll be able to use the
techniques in the video, ?to begin the Narrow down where the problems are. ? ?And you might investigate the tuning potentiometer to see if the wiring there might be an issue.
Sent from my iPhone
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Well, it doesn't seem to be working with anything but the diagnostic sketch
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
The Raduino version number is also briefly shown on the display when you
power on.
73 Allard PE1NWL
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On Mon, December 18, 2017 06:10, tausciam@... wrote: Just to reiterate what I'm doing...I'm clicking on the raduinov1.27.3.ino
file to load amunter's sketch. it asks me to put it in a folder. yes. I'm
selecting include pin interrupt library. then i compile the sketch and
select upload. Right?
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
Here here !? Actually fixing things is the greatest buzz you can get.? At least I think so.? Ro reward without effort though!
David Holland G4LDT
On 18/12/2017 01:12, Gordon Gibby wrote:
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HA!!!!
"At this point, I think we'd have just as much luck at building the Golden Gate bridge
as we would repairing this bitx40. It didn't work so now we're screwed.?"? ? Poppycock!!!!
Ham radio is about a LOT more than just twiddling knobs --- my first rig didn't work for MONTHS until I figured out what I'd messed up --- and what the designers also ----? ?you have to break it down into sections some way and then? work with each section.
Do you have ANY OTHER receiver that you can use?? ? If so, you could use it to detect if various oscillators are working and so on.? ?
A $5 voltmeter from Harbor Freight will be a huge addition if you don't have one --- to check if GROUNDS are correct and if power is avaiable to various stages.? ?
You can check to see if those relays are REALLY clicking in for example.? ?
The JOURNEY is sometimes more important than the DESTINATION.
my 2 cents worth.??
On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 11:17 am, N7PH wrote:
You have an opportunity here. Maybe not what you wanted but....
Get your daughter involved. She's a general class ham now. Get her involved in the search for a solution. You'll both learn and have some very good "quality" time together. And she'll appreciate the radio even more after she helps get it operational.
Good luck, PJH, N7PH
At this point, I think we'd have just as much luck at building the Golden Gate bridge as we would repairing this bitx40. It didn't work so now we're screwed.
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#ubitx sensitive for power supply noise
#ubitx
Since a couple of months I have been building the uBitx. Not the kit version, but from plain PCB and a mill. This gives me flexibility to add things, such as a narrow crystal filter later. The first version I built had lots of birdies but only had the bidirectional amps in SMD. I restarted the project and now used far more SMD layout. This really helped as the rig works much better now, at least the receiver, TX is not finished yet.
What I did find out is that there was a lot of noise in reception, but clearly in the audio chain, not from the HF section. You could hear this at best when the antenna was disconnected and no RF noise was coming in. However, when receiving on battery the noise was gone. First I thought it was the charging section, the internal batteries are charged when external supply is applied. Later I found another strange thing.
I use a voltage/current regulated power supply. If I set this power supply in the mode that the voltage was regulating, I heard the noise. When I reduced the current regulation until the level that the supply voltage started to drop (current regulation mode), the noise was gone. I had clearly to do with noise coming from the power supply.
I tried a standard 13.8 robust (2N3055....) supply and even had more noise. At An external 12 volt battery, noise was gone.
The problem concentrated around Q70, the first audio amp after detection. I increased C52 to 2200uF and the audio noise became muffled. It had some effect but not as much as running on batteries. I think the supply noise from the regulator in the power supply is adding the noise with very low impedance to the DC. It is difficult to get rid of it using the RC filter made by R52 and C52.?
As an experiment, I changed the circuit so that Q70 has its power from the 5V regulator which also drives the Arduino. The noise was gone.?
End conclusion: if there is a big difference in noise sounds when powered from battery or normal power supply, consider adding extra 'clean' stabilized power for Q70. I don't know yet if the same applies for the MIC preamp as that could be sensitive as well. Working on that now.
73, Alex
PA1FOX
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
Well, it doesn't seem to be working with anything but the diagnostic sketch
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
Correct, see that the correct PORT is selected in Tools menu and the board should be NANO.
What I would have done is to load the original sketch and get the board working in RX, everything else
later.
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At 18/12/2017, you wrote: Just to reiterate what I'm doing...I'm clicking on the raduinov1.27.3.ino file to load amunter's sketch. it asks me to put it in a folder. yes. I'm selecting include pin interrupt library. then i compile the sketch and select upload. Right?
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
Just to reiterate what I'm doing...I'm clicking on the raduinov1.27.3.ino file to load amunter's sketch. it asks me to put it in a folder. yes. I'm selecting include pin interrupt library. then i compile the sketch and select upload. Right?
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Re: Looking for NOS or Pull with good leads 130 Ohm 3w
I hear ya.? This from the reissued EMRFD, page 7.10:
Care must be exercised when picking resistors for attenuator applications.? Many power resistors use wire wound construction, often hidden in ceramic, making them too inductive for RF use.? Carbon composition and the various types of film resistors are generally suitable for RF through UHF.
There's a table below that paragraph the summarizes resistors tested with an HP-8714 network analyzer.? The two resistors with the lowest inductance at RF was a 47¦¸ carbon composition (0.0095 ?H) and a 47¦¸ metal oxide (0.0099 ?H).? A Tru-Ohm 100¦¸ 'non-inductive' measured 0.24 ?H and a 50¦¸ wirewound was 6.4 ?H. For what it's worth. Andy On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 08:50 pm, N8DAH wrote:
Hmm I was told by a few elmers around my club I should avoid metal anything wire/oxide/film when dealing with RF for it may become an inductor..... I have 6x 390's 1w coming I will see if 3x will fit, its R10 and may be a hard squeeze but we will see.
If the metal oxide is working for you w/o fail I may just pick up what I need. Thanks for the heads up and the offer.
?
?73
? David
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 08:50 pm, Gordon Gibby wrote:
OK....so using the sketch that I sent you, are you now able to find a signal around the 5 MHz range when using the rig in LOWER sideband on 40 meters?? ??
No...neither plugged into the computer or in the box
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
It may not be the
same with your browser but with my download manager, I need to
consciously overwrite the previous version each time I
download the latest from github, otherwise it assumes that it
is the same file and doesn't save it. It took a few updates
for me to wake up to the fact that I didn't infact have the
latest version.
On 18/12/2017 3:27 PM, Gordon Gibby
wrote:
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WOW!!!? ?So now you have a working Raduino!??
I'm attaching a sketch that worked well with one of my rigs --
is is from BEFORE? Allard added his interuppt part.? ?I was too
lazy to keep with that level of changes.....this should compile
and run without the interrupt stuff.
I'm watching the video that was suggested and after an initial
thing dependent on a scope -- that is UNNESSARY IN YOUR CASE
because you already now have a known good Raduino --- the video
is extremely good at checking stage by stage.
?
If the enclosed sketch causes your Bitx to begin to RECEIVVE
thenyou are halfway there!
gordon
On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 07:35 pm, Gordon Gibby wrote:
I'm going to try and attach a sketch that should
send your radiuno to 25 MHz no matter WHAT you do with your
dial:
You should then find the raduino signal about 4kHz up from
25.0000 Mhz (they all seem to be 4 kHz off)
That did it! Just a little less than 4 kHz off. You weren't
kidding about it being a whopping signal either. It was
massive. BUT, when I reload amunter's sketch, I don't get that
signal anywhere from 4.8 to 5.5 even when plugged into the
computer
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Re: Looking for NOS or Pull with good leads 130 Ohm 3w
?I do beliee that there can? be metal spirals in the metal films (not an expert on that) but we aren't talking UHF here.....so even so the inductance may not be huge.....? Maybe just build all of it just a bit (2-3 mm) above the board so you can clip it
off and change it easily if you need to later.? ??
Measure the SWR "into" the device and if it isn't horrible....thenyou would probaby be good to go!
gorodn
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Hmm I was told by a few elmers around my club I should avoid metal anything wire/oxide/film when dealing with RF for it may become an inductor..... I have 6x 390's 1w coming I will see if 3x will fit, its R10 and may be a hard squeeze but we will see.
If the metal oxide is working for you w/o fail I may just pick up what I need. Thanks for the heads up and the offer.
?
?73
? David
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Re: Looking for NOS or Pull with good leads 130 Ohm 3w
Hmm I was told by a few elmers around my club I should avoid metal anything wire/oxide/film when dealing with RF for it may become an inductor..... I have 6x 390's 1w coming I will see if 3x will fit, its R10 and may be a hard squeeze but we will see.
If the metal oxide is working for you w/o fail I may just pick up what I need. Thanks for the heads up and the offer.
?
?73
? David
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
?OK....so using the sketch that I sent you, are you now able to find a signal around the 5 MHz range when using the rig in LOWER sideband on 40 meters?? ??
(Note that I typically switched around Alllards tap-choices so that 1-tap switches between upper and lower sideband --- didn't like the way he had it)
If you're now able to find THAT signal then you not only have a working raduino, you have one that is producing the RIGHT REQUENCIES to receive with, and you can advance with the video earlier mentioned.? ?SKIP the first part with the scope (you don't need
that part if you have the Raduino working) and use the wire to trouble shoot each section.
I think you're going to need to spend a bit of time with the schematic and the video to see what the author is checking.? ?The video is easy to do, but I would ahvve to work with the schematic to understand exactly what he was really testing.
By the way, I think you have an EXTRA class license --- you are no dumb bunny there!!!!
Now that you have a raduino that appears to work, you're a huge bit further.? ?I'm on call tomorrow night and have to skoot now to get some sleep so I can work tomorrow, but if you decide to just ship to me, you can email me at?
ggibby@...
and we can help you out.? ? You're a better judge of your available time/ skills / frustrations and how best to meet the needs of your daughter/family.? ? It may be just one of the coils (as mentioned frequently in the video) that is shorted or something....but
it IS fixable......just a finite number of itty bitty little components!!!!
Cheers, you've made a huge amount of progress already!? You should pat yourself on the back at how fast you have compiled and loaded several sketches, manipulated your comms receiver and tested your busted bitx to push it closer to life again!!!
Gordon
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On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 08:27 pm, Gordon Gibby wrote:
f the enclosed sketch causes your Bitx to begin to RECEIVVE thenyou are halfway there!
Nope....not plugged into the computer or in the box.
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
Just one story from a good life, Gordon. How many can say they've *driven* on a rainbow? I can!
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 08:27 pm, Gordon Gibby wrote:
f the enclosed sketch causes your Bitx to begin to RECEIVVE thenyou are halfway there!
Nope....not plugged into the computer or in the box.
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Re: Delivery to the states before December 25th?
324/1/F here ? v/r Fred W4JLE ? ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Hagen
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 19:50
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Delivery to the states before December 25th?? Does anyone know how many in the first build? 500? Mine say 243/1? and the boss "F" ! Mike, WA6ISP ? On 12/17/2017 4:25 PM, M Garza wrote: They have sold out of existing stock.? I am sure the "elves" are building more, but there is a waiting list.?? I think they sold out on the 10th or 11th.? This was a shock, I believe that they thought it would take a month or two to sell what they had ready. ? On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 5:14 PM, Jeremy Engbrock via Groups.Io <Maintman73@...> wrote: I noticed that the HF SIGNALS? web page says that orders will ship after December 25th. Is there? way to get a uBITX before Christmas??
?
-- Mike Hagen, WA6ISP 10917 Bryant Street Yucaipa, Ca. 92399 (909) 918-0058 PayPal ID? "MotDog@..." Mike@...
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OP gave no name and his username is "Hotspring 44" so yea hotspring 44 hihi
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
"?I'm 67 now and can remember as a 6-y-o constructing my own microphone (carbon)
from pencil-lead and razor-blades and connecting that in series with the (large) dry cells from the (party-line) telephone and my dad's WWII-surplus ZC1 headphones to hear my mother and sister at the other end of the house as if they were in the same room
(actually beneath the house!). If your 9-y-o is interested, foster that. You'd be surprised just how tech-savvy the young'uns can be these days.?"
WHAT A GREAT STORY!!!!!!
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Not *my* problem, *yours*. I'm 67 now and can remember as a 6-y-o constructing my own microphone (carbon) from pencil-lead and razor-blades and connecting that in series with the (large) dry cells from the (party-line) telephone and my dad's WWII-surplus
ZC1 headphones to hear my mother and sister at the other end of the house as if they were in the same room (actually beneath the house!). If your 9-y-o is interested, foster that. You'd be surprised just how tech-savvy the young'uns can be these days.
Anyone with primary-school English and a sense of the logic of "because this, therefore that" can handle this level of tech given encouragement.
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Re: Help! I think I may have just ruined my 9 year old's Chanukah
Not *my* problem, *yours*. I'm 67 now and can remember as a 6-y-o constructing my own microphone (carbon) from pencil-lead and razor-blades and connecting that in series with the (large) dry cells from the (party-line) telephone and my dad's WWII-surplus ZC1 headphones to hear my mother and sister at the other end of the house as if they were in the same room (actually beneath the house!). If your 9-y-o is interested, foster that. You'd be surprised just how tech-savvy the young'uns can be these days.
Anyone with primary-school English and a sense of the logic of "because this, therefore that" can handle this level of tech given encouragement.
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Allard PE1NWL
Raj vu2zap
N8DAH