Re: CW Key Switching Characteristics
Dave
of course, It can be modified not so difficult.
In the second case, I also wanted to modify the code.
I will include related features in the next version.
You should be able to use the applied version soon.
Ian
Dennis,
uBITX already supports both a straight key and a paddle.??
Ian, KD8CEC's firmware upgrade (v0.27) fixes most of the Keying issues (along with many other improvements).
That along with Jim, W0EB's CW Keying adapter that takes care of inconsistent keying issues from changes in contact resistance (resistors from the Keying Line to ground determine Paddle dot/dash or Straight key operation.?? QRPGuys have already made a PCB available for the CW Keying Adapter (it's nice I have a couple of them already).? I've installed two jacks, one for? the straight key and one for the paddle, so they both work anytime without any menu selections.
A couple of other firmware upgrades that would be nice, and hopefully Ian may have these coming? down the road:? 1) Selecting tuning step size (on the fly - like short press on the tuning knob encoder steps through tuning step sizes in the normal operating mode and long press takes you to the regular Menu) 50 Hz is a pretty course tuning step size for SSB, and it would be nice to change this easily for moving from the CW portion of the band to the phone portion 2) Displaying the current BFO frequency setting before making BFO setting adjustments.? Now it always starts at 11.995.0 as default.
Dave WI6R
-- Best 73 KD8CEC / Ph.D ian lee kd8cec@...
(my blog)
|
Re: CW Key Switching Characteristics
Dennis,
uBITX already supports both a straight key and a paddle.??
Ian, KD8CEC's firmware upgrade (v0.27) fixes most of the Keying issues (along with many other improvements).
That along with Jim, W0EB's CW Keying adapter that takes care of inconsistent keying issues from changes in contact resistance (resistors from the Keying Line to ground determine Paddle dot/dash or Straight key operation.?? QRPGuys have already made a PCB available for the CW Keying Adapter (it's nice I have a couple of them already).? I've installed two jacks, one for? the straight key and one for the paddle, so they both work anytime without any menu selections.
A couple of other firmware upgrades that would be nice, and hopefully Ian may have these coming? down the road:? 1) Selecting tuning step size (on the fly - like short press on the tuning knob encoder steps through tuning step sizes in the normal operating mode and long press takes you to the regular Menu) 50 Hz is a pretty course tuning step size for SSB, and it would be nice to change this easily for moving from the CW portion of the band to the phone portion 2) Displaying the current BFO frequency setting before making BFO setting adjustments.? Now it always starts at 11.995.0 as default.
Dave WI6R
On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 10:11 AM, Dennis Zabawa <kg4rul@...> wrote: I am not a CW operator but, am an experienced programmer and would like to incorporate provisions for straight key and paddles into my upgraded, Raduino equivalent design.? I plan to use an Arduino MEGA 2650 for the CPU so I have lots of digital pins available to use for key.?
I will provide a TRS jack for key with Dots from left paddle (tip of jack), Dashes from right paddle (ring of jack) and common to sleeve of jack.? A straight key will connect from tip of jack to sleeve.
Are my connections correct?
Does anyone know how much contact bounce is usually encountered with paddles or a straight key?
|
Re: Stereo 2.8W Class D Audio Amplifier - I2C Control AGC - TPA2016
#ubitx
Hi Nick,
Looks like a nice amplifier, and flexible output options. I like
the AGC feature.
Wowsa! Look at the THD numbers! Might be better at lower levels
of output.
Some experimentation would give insight on that.
Rod? KM6SN
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
HI All,
I was browsing the interwebz for AGC boards and came across
this:
What do you think about this? Could integrate nicely with the
I2C and have customisable settings via the menu...
take the input from after the Vol knob and bypass the TDA2282
altogether...
73, Nick VK4PLN
|
Herman,
Here is the link I was referring to:
/g/BITX20/message/25870
73
Simon
|
Thats great Dave. ?I have not followed through myself by testing each of the stages before the PA and recording the drive levels but it should be enlightening. ?Ive been focused on the antenna tuner.?
Ive thought through the AGC problem and i think there is a very good solution to replace one of the early IF amplifiers with a rebiased dual gate fet... and let the second gate be voltage controlled by the AGC circuit. ?AGC should have an RF and Audio components in logarithmic function with a low pass filter. ?That takes it to almost late Collins 75A4 level.?
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:
email:??bill@... ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Jan 17, 2018, at 10:16 PM, Dave Bottom < ars.kd6az@...> wrote: uBITX PA
I will be trying out the Mitsubishi parts after I get all of the other things sorted out with my uBITX, but it is a very pleasing rig.? My uBITX starts out at 12W on 80M, 7.5W on 40M, 2W on 20M, and is down at 0.4W on 10M. so I will be checking the driver stages as well.? I expect they are not flat over the 80-10M bands either.? ?I will take it step by step and I have a good spectrum analyzer to keep things clean as I work my way through that.?? I'll post the results when I get to this down the road...??
Ahead of the potential PA mods are: 1) I just received the neat little CW Keying Adapter PCBs from the QRPGuys.? Nice job, but I'll need some smaller standoffs (4-40 or smaller mounting it looks like). 2) AGC is up after that using the unused Audio AGC amplifier to control ether IF or RF or both for AGC. 3) Finally I have an annoying high frequency tone at medium volume leaking through somewhere on receive to locate and get rid of.?
Keep the soldering irons warm...
Dave WI6R
|
Re: Second batch of uBITX shipping?
#ubitx
Ordered mine on Jan 4 th. Eager to get it! Hi...Not sure how many weeks waiting period?..
Andre? ZS2AL
On Thursday, January 18, 2018, 5:31:12 AM GMT+2, Vince Vielhaber <vev@...> wrote:
Since the second batch is sold out, does anyone know when that happened
(cutoff date)?
Vince.
On 01/17/2018 01:18 PM, mikael.madsen@... wrote: > I did email them yesterday about possible delivery a second kit, (still > waiting for my first) > > Second batch is sold out and no estimated delivery date could be given > for orders placed now. > > I dont really mind the wait. Just a bit eager to get started on my first... > > > > /"Yes, Second batch is already sold out. No estimate is possible. > However, we are trying our best to scale up our production.? / > > > > /HFSignals Team"/ > > > > -- ? Michigan VHF Corp.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
|
You might think about pulling air over the heat sinks VS blowing air on them.? I have played with both and have found that when I measured heat sink temps, with an IR temperature sensor, air pulled over actually cooled about 10% better.
|
Sean,
I ended up at 11.996.3.? I found this by first calibrating against WWV at either 5 MHz (night time) or 10 MHz (daytime) depending on your propagation.? With a strong signal you can get a pretty tight zero beat.? Set it middle of hearing the tone from the AM signal.? I you haven't used WWV for zero beat calibration (us old farts have used it for more than 60 years), wait for their AM tone to go away before attempting zero beat.? The clock tick is no problem.
Once you have the radio on frequency, then tune in a regular local net so they should all be "on" frequency with modern rigs (within probably 10-30Hz).? I used the Noon Time net on 7.283.500 here on the West Coast. While listening to them with the dial set on the net frequency, then go to the BFO set function and tune for Donald Duck's best voice.? I'll bet it is close to 11.996.3.
Remember that the BFO setting (at least the version I'm running from Ian KD8CEC) always shows a starting frequency of 11.995.0, not your current setting.
Dave WI6R
On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 4:50 PM, Sean W7SKD <sean.jrdalys@...> wrote: Just curious, as I have been playing with the BFO setting ... what are you guys setting the BFO to?? I'm aware that the 12 Mhz xtal filter could vary a bit (which is why the configuration for the BFO is in the menu in the first place), and I know there's a default BFO value(11.995 Mhz), but this discussion (especially the comment by Dave that the setting is the same as on his Collins is the same) has me curious - what kind of BFO value ends up sounding good to you?
Sean
|
uBITX PA
I will be trying out the Mitsubishi parts after I get all of the other things sorted out with my uBITX, but it is a very pleasing rig.? My uBITX starts out at 12W on 80M, 7.5W on 40M, 2W on 20M, and is down at 0.4W on 10M. so I will be checking the driver stages as well.? I expect they are not flat over the 80-10M bands either.? ?I will take it step by step and I have a good spectrum analyzer to keep things clean as I work my way through that.?? I'll post the results when I get to this down the road...??
Ahead of the potential PA mods are: 1) I just received the neat little CW Keying Adapter PCBs from the QRPGuys.? Nice job, but I'll need some smaller standoffs (4-40 or smaller mounting it looks like). 2) AGC is up after that using the unused Audio AGC amplifier to control ether IF or RF or both for AGC. 3) Finally I have an annoying high frequency tone at medium volume leaking through somewhere on receive to locate and get rid of.?
Keep the soldering irons warm...
Dave WI6R
On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 12:55 AM, Gordon Gibby <ggibby@...> wrote:
Bill—. Thanks!!!
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 16, 2018, at 00:12, K9HZ < bill@...> wrote:
Name is Bill…
?
There are considerations in the amplification stages of the uBITx leading up to the PA too … the bandwidth of the output and interstage transformers T9, T10,
and T11.? I have not scanned them to know… or measured the drive from the earlier stages.? Theoretically if they were designed right, the PA with an RD15HVF1 would generate about 18 watts output from 1-54 MHz (60% efficiency).? The biasing is at a different
point but what is on the board should work. ??Maybe someone has already measured the output of the last driver stage before the PA on all bands with a scope.. and knows if there is change in available drive level with frequency?? You wouldn’t want to go through
the work of replacing the 510 with the RD device just to find out the other stages have a severe gain variance with frequency.
?
I always replace the 510’s with RD parts whenever I can…
?
?
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:
Like us on Facebook!
?
?
email:?
bill@...
?
?
?So Dr. Schmidt --- are you saying that the severe dropoff in power output from the ubitx / bitx40 would be ameliorated?
?
If so, I might be interested!? ? It would be quite nice to have a bit more power on 30 and 20 meters.....
?
comment?
?
gordon
?
Of course the upside of using RD16HVF1 is that it is a real RF transistor... not a motor switch like the IRF510.? What you get for that is actually
hidden in your comment about gain at high frequency. In fact, the gate capacitance with frequency is far better behaved with the RD device so complicated compensation networks to keep gain constant is not needed.? Hans Summers has a second set of pads on his
5 watt PA just for the use of these parts.?
?
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:
?
email:??bill@...
?
I think I mentioned it before, but anyone seeking to drop in a Mitsubishi RDMos part should be aware that?
a) They're designed for 12V operation.? You won't want to run them at 18V/etc
b) They have a different pinout, you'll have to solder them in with the leads mangled/crossed.? IRF510/20/30's are Gate-Drain-Source.? The RDMos series are Gate-Source-Drain.?
This is a mod I still intend to try at some point, but have other projects on the plate first.
c) They have a different bias voltage.? Turn down the bias voltage before you key up, and then re-bias appropriately. If your IRF510's are biased at something like 4V when the
bias voltage for the RDmos's are 2V (I'm making total wild assumptions, it could be the other way around), you'll instantly turn the devices on full-current and potentially blow something up.??
d) The feedback network will want to be different.? These have much more gain at high frequencies.? You may need more negative feedback.
e) You can use an uninsulated grounded heatsink, as the tabs of the these devices is the source and not drain.
I'm looking forward to hearing from someone who's done the mod and tried it out.
?
On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 10:52 AM, Tim Gorman <tgorman2@...> wrote:
Dave,
Would this be a satisfactory drop-in replacement? I can't find any info
on input or output capacitance to compare it to an irf510.
From the Smith chart on the datasheet I'm guessing the input
capacitance is about 60pf (been a long time since I've used a Smith
Chart) at 30Mhz, much less than the irf510. Would that impact the
negative feedback used on the amp significantly (0.1uf in series with a
220ohm resistor)?
By the same token the output capacitance would appear to be much higher
than the irf510. I suspect that will impact the design of the bandpass
filters but I'm not sure by how much without doing a lot of
calculations.
I'm just looking for something that would provide more reliability
under adverse conditions (e.g. high swr) than the irf510. Don't really
care if it provides higher output or not - but that might come later
<grin>.
On Sun, 14 Jan 2018 22:51:06 -0800
"Dave Bottom" <ars.kd6az@...> wrote:
> Or the Mitsubishi RF RD16HHF1 MOSFET designed for 2-30MHz RF
> applications. Under $5 each.? Or the RD16HVF1 only pennies more and
> good through 2M.
>
> With a 12VDC to 24/28VDC DC to DC converters (about $4) and the Mitsu
> parts can be bolted directly to a big heatsink attached to the
> chassis, no insulator required.
> Probably good for 20W through 10M although run off batteries a bit
> shorter battery life.? At real 5W QRP they should be happy forever.
>
> Dave WI6R
>
> On Sun, Jan 14, 2018 at 4:33 PM, Tim Gorman <tgorman2@...> wrote:
>
> > All,
> >
> > Looking to order some spare output finals for the ubitx I have on
> > order.
> >
> > In looking around the IRF520 appears to have higher ratings than the
> > IRF510 with a lower Rds.
> >
> > The 510 does have much lower input and output capacitance.
> >
> > There is hardly any difference in price.
> >
> > Any recommendations on which to order?
> >
> > tim ab0wr
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there aren't any questions, then what is there to learn?
|
Re: How to order Raduino board?
100 I/O pins on the Mega Pro??
Jack, W8TEE
From: Michael Hagen <motdog@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2018 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] How to order Raduino board?
I have the Better
RaduinoX PCB that lots on this list have bought stuffed and
bare.
It is much better.? I
am on the second batch of 50 PCBs.? So a lot have been built.
The USB is better
placed, the Nano Plugs in.? The regulator has capacitors,
diode, and dropping resistor.
You can fit a heat
sink too.
The I2C is level
shifted properly to the SI5351 Clock Gererator.? Per SI data
sheet.
I have a bigger version
that uses a Mega Pro (256K and 100 I/O pins).
Bare boards are $10
including Shipping US and PayPal.
Mike, WA6ISP
On 1/17/2018 12:51 PM, Vic WA4THR via
Groups.Io wrote:
Where
can I order a bare Raduino board for the BitX40? I have the
display that is fine, but I may have a problem with the Raduino
board itself and would like to see if it is possible to replace
it.
=Vic=
--
Mike Hagen, WA6ISP
10917 Bryant Street
Yucaipa, Ca. 92399
(909) 918-0058
PayPal ID "MotDog@..."
Mike@...
|
Re: Stereo 2.8W Class D Audio Amplifier - I2C Control AGC - TPA2016
#ubitx
I tried out a?PAM8610 class D amp board in an effort to boost audio from the LM386 on my BITX20 but ran into problems with significant switching noise introduced into the radio. May or may not be a problem with the TPA2016 in an AGC application and a filter could likely be added.
73, ZS2OE
|
Re: Second batch of uBITX shipping?
#ubitx
Since the second batch is sold out, does anyone know when that happened (cutoff date)?
Vince.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On 01/17/2018 01:18 PM, mikael.madsen@... wrote: I did email them yesterday about possible delivery a second kit, (still
waiting for my first)
Second batch is sold out and no estimated delivery date could be given
for orders placed now.
I dont really mind the wait. Just a bit eager to get started on my first...
/"Yes, Second batch is already sold out. No estimate is possible.
However, we are trying our best to scale up our production. /
/HFSignals Team"/
--
Michigan VHF Corp.
|
Re: #ubitx and 6 meters
#ubitx
Thanks, Marco! I'll be curious to see what you find.
Tom
AB7WT
|
Herman,
Well enough to use headphones comfortably and without the pop being noticbly loud. ?But like a lot of things if you're specifically looking for something its there as there are not that many absolutes. Also its been a while since Ive used the bitx40 and I have not compared results with the ubitx implementation.
Note the implementation is different as the PTT line is used as the control for the mute and it goes low for tx as opposed to the ubitx RX/TX line which goes high for TX. ?So an extra transistor is needed to invert the signal of the control line. But the principle is the same - put a mosfet across the volume pot to ground the signal with an RC circuit to delay turning it off at tx to rx transition to avoid the pop. Experiment with the rc values to get to what works.
On Bitx40 I made a small ugly style circuit on a piece of pcb as with extra transistor, point to point on the back of the pot was not an option. I think I added a small series resistor to stop some oscillations when vol was at max on receive. YMMV.
Note that this was not my idea. There is a post in the forum with a circuit diagram which I will locate and reference when I get home. Add a diode as seen in Hans Summers QCX mute circuit which is an enhancement.
73
Simon VK3ELH
|
Stereo 2.8W Class D Audio Amplifier - I2C Control AGC - TPA2016
#ubitx
HI All,
I was browsing the interwebz for AGC boards and came across this:
What do you think about this? Could integrate nicely with the I2C and have customisable settings via the menu...
take the input from after the Vol knob and bypass the TDA2282 altogether...
73, Nick VK4PLN
|
Jerry,
YES. YES, YES!
Long Live HFSignals, Thank You Ash and Crew!
Mike, WA6ISP
Jerry says..........
Easy to criticize hfsignals on nits, but I don't see any SSB kits out there that can touch
these rigs on price/performance.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On 1/17/2018 3:23 PM, Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io wrote: Easy to criticize hfsignals on nits, but I don't see any SSB kits out there that can touch
these rigs on price/performance.
--
Mike Hagen, WA6ISP
10917 Bryant Street
Yucaipa, Ca. 92399
(909) 918-0058
PayPal ID "MotDog@..."
Mike@...
|
Re: SMD size / resistor power values?
Remember to de-rate a
lot!
In Aerospace and
Military we allowed 1/5th Rated power in resistors.
I would use 1/2 for our
stuff at the max?
Take a 1W MOX power
resister and run it at 1W.? Don't put your Finger on it!
Ouch!
Mike, WA6ISP
On 1/17/2018 3:03 PM, Jerry Gaffke via
Groups.Io wrote:
Normal
use is with a good thermal connection to the pc board.
Hacked in they are often floating up in the air.
Perhaps the additional surface exposed to air will help enough to
make up the difference,
but I doubt it.
On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 02:28 pm, Clark Martin wrote:
They should be capable of dissipating 1/4 W, They are
designed to be attached to a PC Board. ?It would make no sense
to spec them for 1/4 W if they can’t handle that power in
their normal use.
?
--
Mike Hagen, WA6ISP
10917 Bryant Street
Yucaipa, Ca. 92399
(909) 918-0058
PayPal ID "MotDog@..."
Mike@...
|
Re: How to order Raduino board?
RaduinoX is designed
to be compatible with original BitX.? I drops in.? Designed
way before uBit.
So you would have to
connect it to the uBit header.?? I have uBit running on the
Bigger XP with MegaPro.
I remotely mounted the
RaduinoXP and used I2C LCD to the front panel 4x20 LCD.?
RaduinoXP (Mega) does have the standard 16 pin LCD 4 Bit
Parallel connector.
XP PCB has 14
Connectors to all the I/O on the Mega Pro, so the PCB is a lot
Taller than the Raduino or RaduinoXP.
My AlliExpress case
was not tall enough, so I remote mounted it above uBit Radio
PCB.
So, No, it is not plug
and play like it is in Bitx.
73's
Mike, WA6ISP
HI Mike,
Will these pluginto the uBitx? The digital header looks
different...
73, Nick VK4PLN
--
Mike Hagen, WA6ISP
10917 Bryant Street
Yucaipa, Ca. 92399
(909) 918-0058
PayPal ID "MotDog@..."
Mike@...
|
Re: How to order Raduino board?
HI Mike,
Will these pluginto the uBitx? The digital header looks different...
73, Nick VK4PLN
|
Yes, lots of talkers. There are lots and lots and lots of Bitx's of various flavors out in the wild. Hard to guess how many listeners? But this forum is publicly accessible without signing up. Searchable from google, for example. I'd guess there are way more listeners than talkers. These are radios for experimenters, you are the developer.? Get on it!? ? ;-) That last one is a bit tongue in cheek.? I agree with you to some extent. If you buy a Bitx40 today from hfsignals, it will be the same as one shipped a year ago. Same firmware, same 1/4 Watt resistor at R141, LPF is borderline on 2'd harmonic suppression, Q13 will blow if somebody operating QRO nearby.? Fixing those would cost an extra $0.20/unit in parts. If you have a Bitx40, you should download Allard's firmware at? add Don's LPF fix at? add Raj's back-to-back diodes?? /g/BITX20/message/37392and make R141 1/2 Watt?? /g/BITX20/message/26492
The stock uBitx seems to work well enough as is. A diode RF probe is needed for debug. But the stock Bitx40 does work, and those are all easy mods to do if you care. Leaving things slightly rough at the edges encourages you to reach in and tinker, and having got that far perhaps you will explore further. The philosophy seems to be one of keeping cost and complexity and overhead due to revisions to an absolute minimum. Easy to criticize hfsignals on nits, but I don't see any SSB kits out there that can touch these rigs on price/performance.? I seem to recall of a non-profit that built badly needed houses somewhere. They found that if they built a finished house, a family would move in but maybe not really take ownership and make it a home. However, if they built three walls and a roof, leaving the new residents to put in a fourth wall of local materials (adobe perhaps), the houses were made better use of. That said, I would like to see hfsignals add the extra $0.20 worth of parts for the Bitx40 into that little plastic bag.? And we as developers need to figure out how best to organize the various improvements and debug procedures that show up in this forum. The free-for-all wiki we have now is a bit confusing, we likely need something curated as Allard is doing with the firmware Jerry, KE7ER
On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 02:01 pm, Gary O'Neil wrote:
All noted and acknowledged Arv, and thanks for the additional links. The format just seems like there's a long list of talkers, a short list of listeners, and posts that one might perceive as useful improvements don't seem to find their way back to the developers.
|
K9HZ
Nick VK4PP