Re: ubitx receive audio troubleshooting
If using an external speaker, make sure it has a stereo plug (not a mono one).
I mistakenly plugged a mono plug external speaker in and it squealed.
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Re: ubitx receive audio troubleshooting
Craig,
Just to eliminate audio vibration feedback (microphonics), disconnect an internal speaker and try and external one a short distance away from the circuit board and mic. 73 Mike KF6KXG
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Re: Higher voltage for Bitx40 Final
11.5v should be fine, make sure it is still 11.5 when PTT is pressed.
Quiescent IRF510 drain current changing somewhat as they get warm is normal
The drop from 6w to 4w when V+ to the IRF510's is bumped from 12v to 24v is very weird.
Have you tried simply switching the IRF510 V+ between the two with exactly the same setup, same instrumentation?
Hate to say it, but my first guess would be pilot error.
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On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 01:10 pm, Vic WA4THR wrote:
Just finished building my BitX40 after playing with the circuit for a few weeks. Early tests on mine suggested that using the small booster I have and raising the PA voltage from around 14 to 24 did seem to increase the power by the square of the voltage ratio, so matching these experiences. Admittedly, I was trying to read this on a 450w dummy load meter, and yelling into the mic, s not very accurate. So this past weekend I did get a QRP wattmeter that could read 30w as full scale and get a better idea of how much I am increasing.
However, now when I apply 24v to the final the power output actually drops from 6w to 4w! The only significant cuircuit difference is that I am now running the other 2 power connections (main board and Raduino) through a 7812 regulator, and since it is not getting quite enough to regulate to 12v, it is delivering about 11.5v to those boards, which I assumed was just a bit safer. The voltage booster is not dropping voltage under load, so I am befuddled as to why the power actually drops when I apply the higher voltage. I did recheck the PA bias and raised it up closer to 100ma, but I notice it slowly increases from wherever it is set if I continue to hold the PTT. Any ideas? Perhaps I should short the input to the output of the little 7812 to see if that actually had an effect.
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Re: uBITX woes, feeling disheartened.
#ubitx
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On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 12:31 pm, @AC8XZ wrote:
hello;?ok I'm getting no 12 volts at D7 with ptt on and vom leads one on both des. sure do appicate all the help. so with no power at d7,where do I check next 73's de
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Re: #ubitx-help Strong Audio Tones in and outside audio receive passband
#ubitx-help
Yes it has only been reported in two units so far. So it should not be a show stopper for anyone.
The radio is usable and I will simply add an audio low pass filter if need be.
For a radio aimed at experimenting it is as expected. I am certainly not complaining.
One point of clarification though. The disappearance of the tones within the passband is due to changing the Arduino, not mounting it on extension leads.
?
So I believe there were two (probably unrelated) issues, one with the Arduino which is resolved and the second one still present.
Thank you everyone for your feedback. I will digest all this and do more experimenting.
73, John (VK2ETA)
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Re: Higher voltage for Bitx40 Final
Just finished building my BitX40 after playing with the circuit for a few weeks. Early tests on mine suggested that using the small booster I have and raising the PA voltage from around 14 to 24 did seem to increase the power by the square of the voltage ratio, so matching these experiences. Admittedly, I was trying to read this on a 450w dummy load meter, and yelling into the mic, s not very accurate. So this past weekend I did get a QRP wattmeter that could read 30w as full scale and get a better idea of how much I am increasing.
However, now when I apply 24v to the final the power output actually drops from 6w to 4w! The only significant cuircuit difference is that I am now running the other 2 power connections (main board and Raduino) through a 7812 regulator, and since it is not getting quite enough to regulate to 12v, it is delivering about 11.5v to those boards, which I assumed was just a bit safer. The voltage booster is not dropping voltage under load, so I am befuddled as to why the power actually drops when I apply the higher voltage. I did recheck the PA bias and raised it up closer to 100ma, but I notice it slowly increases from wherever it is set if I continue to hold the PTT. Any ideas? Perhaps I should short the input to the output of the little 7812 to see if that actually had an effect.
=Vic=
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uBITX: Convert LCD to I2C
Hi Everybody,
I just posted a file: kb1oiq_i2c_mod.pdf
The document describes a hardware and software modification that I performed on my uBITX.? It converts the LCD to use the I2C bus, thus freeing 6 Arduino digital pins for other uses.? I hope you find it useful.
Have a lot of fun, and 73,
Andy
KB1OIQ
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Re: uBITX woes, feeling disheartened.
#ubitx
hello;?ok I'm getting no 12 volts at D7 with ptt on and vom leads one on both des. sure do appicate all the help. so with no power at d7,where do I check next 73's de AC8XZ
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Night, Sunday, February 4, 3PM/7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
I tried 7222 and it sounded
like there was a station way down
in the mud. I also tried to listen for myself on a number of SDR
radios around the country and nothing. I will try back later.
Ed W0OIC
On 2/4/2018 2:08 PM, N8DAH wrote:
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7.222 seems clr.
Listening for a few then I will call some.
--
David
?N8DAH
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Re: #ubitx-help Strong Audio Tones in and outside audio receive passband
#ubitx-help
Thank you for the clarifications. I’m all in for mods, changes and improvements to this kit radio because that’s where the fun is. But this post is cringe worthy if it affected the radios on a global scale. Glad it’s just a strange anomaly in some of the radios. ?
Joe
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On Feb 4, 2018, at 2:37 PM, Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io < jgaffke@...> wrote: For anything this complicated, a few units will fail in the field, if only due to rough handling through the mails. The uBitx count is now up in the thousands. Most uBitx's just work as delivered, no offending tones. We're still trying to figure out how it is that a handful of rigs are misbehaving,? and how best to fix them.? ? The initial complaint of audio tones in the audio passband on a couple rigs would be distracting, but the rig might still be usable. The 13khz tones that John mentions are outside the audio passband, easily filtered if they ever get as far as the headphones. Jerry On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 10:43 am, Joe Puma wrote:
I’ve been following this post. What does this all mean for a beginner who is waiting on a uBitx? Is there a problem with original design? Are these strong audio tones noticeable or interfering with when using the ubitx straight away??
?
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Night, Sunday, February 4, 3PM/7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
7.222 seems clr. Listening for a few then I will call some. -- David
?N8DAH
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Re: Toroids winding information
#ubitx
Hi! I have checking with a magnifying loupe looking for broken copper tracks or any strange looking components. I have unsoldered and redone t11 and t10  i have resoldered all bits that looked poor soldered still no advance. I get 0.7amps when ptt but no power output. inyecting 7.150 400mV on t10 before mounting the t10 showed some activity but i guess it shoukd be higher right Raj? 
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Re: #ubitx-help Strong Audio Tones in and outside audio receive passband
#ubitx-help
For anything this complicated, a few units will fail in the field, if only due to rough handling through the mails.
The uBitx count is now up in the thousands.
Most uBitx's just work as delivered, no offending tones.
We're still trying to figure out how it is that a handful of rigs are misbehaving,? and how best to fix them.? ?
The initial complaint of audio tones in the audio passband on a couple rigs would be distracting, but the rig might still be usable.
The 13khz tones that John mentions are outside the audio passband, easily filtered if they ever get as far as the headphones.
Jerry
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On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 10:43 am, Joe Puma wrote:
I’ve been following this post. What does this all mean for a beginner who is waiting on a uBitx? Is there a problem with original design? Are these strong audio tones noticeable or interfering with when using the ubitx straight away??
?
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Re: BitX40 v1.27.7 SPOT mode
The CAL VALUE x 100 represents the offset (in Hz) that we need to apply to
the nominal VCOA frequency (875 MHz) in order to get the correct output
frequency.
So the ppm (parts per million) value can be calculated as follows:
ppm = CAL VALUE x 100 / 875,000,000 x 1,000,000
For example, the default CAL value is 1575
so the corresponding default ppm value is
1575 x 100 / 875,000,000 x 1000,000 = 180 ppm
Hope this helps.
73 Allard PE1NWL
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On Sun, February 4, 2018 18:51, Vic WA4THR via Groups.Io wrote: OK, great! One other question...what is the relationship between the "PPM"
calibration value and the "CAL VALUE" in line 43?
=Vic=
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Re: Toroids winding information
#ubitx
My idea would be to divide and conquer.
First step, see if you get proper quiescent currents through the IRF510's.
Put an ammeter in line with 12v supply for the IRF510's,
turn RV2 and RV3 to the minimum setting, all the way clockwise.
Put a 50 ohm dummy load good for at least 5W (intermittent, better if 10W), on the antenna port.
Power up and hit PTT with no attempt to transmit anything,?ammeter should be close to zero ma.?
Slowly slowly turn RV2 up, should be able to get 100ma of drain current on Q95 when RV2 has the gate at around 4v.
Then do the same with RV3 till we get an additional 100ma (200ma total on the ammeter) through Q94.
If you now have the ammeter at 200ma, the IRF510's are doing fine, L8 and L9 are passing current,
and traces from the 12v supply through L8 and L9 into the IRF510's are all intact.
Possible that L8 or L9 is shorted and thus zero inductance, but unlikely if not visibly damaged with obvious scorch marks.
Exactly how did he feed 500mv of RF into T10??
I'll assume you remove R961, add a short across C92, then inject 500mv peak to peak of RF into T10 pin 4.?
If you don't remove R961 you have 12 volts DC in there, could blow out the signal generator.
All those relays and low pass filters are a major complication.
I'd cut the trace from T11 pin 5.? Easiest spot to cut would be on the back of the board, the 1 inch long trace
from the transformer closest to the two IRF510's, cut it near the transformer.? Can be repaired
later by scraping soldermask from the trace and adding a short wire from transformer to trace (or a big solder glob).
Then add a 50 ohm dummy load from T11 pin 5 to ground.
?
Now, with PTT pressed, apply the 500mv pk-pk of 7mhz RF into T10 pin 4.
If that picoScope can see 7mhz, should now see something on the order of 250mv pk-pk of RF centered at around 4v of DC
at the gates of Q94 and Q95.? The drains of Q94 and Q95 should now have about 2 volts of 7mhz RF signal centered on 12v DC.
(Note that the two gates have complementary RF signals, when one is high the other is low.? Same with the two drains.)
And the dummy load should have about 4 volts pk-pk on it.
The 4 volts peak to peak of RF on the dummy load would? have an rms voltage of? (4/2)*.707 = 1.414 volts,
and the power into the dummy load would be? ?1.414v*1.414v/50ohms = 0.040 Watts.
So the dummy load could be most any 50 ohm resistor, though a small resistor will quickly vaporize if you turn up that signal generator.
?
Those without a picoscope or signal generator could use a simple diode RF probe with a DVM to check the RF voltage levels,
and one of the si5351 outputs through a couple series resistors to generate the 7mhz test signal.
The diode RF probe is not very sensitive, so perhaps double all of the voltages, so 1 volt peak to peak injected into T10.
Not obvious exactly what load T10 will present (due to gate loading by the IRF510), but a couple 50 ohm resistors in series
to ground? from the si5351 should get you into the right ballpark, the junction between the two resistors gets tied to T10 pin 5.
But beware, I haven't actually done any of this.
Jerry
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On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 12:23 am, Raj vu2zap wrote:
What Cesar has not told us other than he has some great antique guns is that he has
6600 function generator. He also has a pico scope.
I've been trouble shooting via whatsapp which is faster than group emails!
The last test done was to feed 500mv to T10 at 7.15MHz and check output - NIL.
Any ideas Jerry!
Raj
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Night, Sunday, February 4, 3PM/7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
Get well soon John. Listening to the top end of 40M right now and it's chock full of AM Rally stations all over the place from 7.250 to 300. I'm QRV on 7.240 for traffic and a possible substitute frequency. Open to suggestions.
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Re: #ubitx-help Strong Audio Tones in and outside audio receive passband
#ubitx-help
I’ve been following this post. What does this all mean for a beginner who is waiting on a uBitx? Is there a problem with original design? Are these strong audio tones noticeable or interfering with when using the ubitx straight away??
Joe
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On Feb 4, 2018, at 11:58 AM, Arv Evans < arvid.evans@...> wrote: Not 100% sure but popular thinking indicates the "crystals" on smaller Arduino boards are actually ceramic resonators.? If this is true then it should be possible to use capacitence to pull them further than would be possible with a real crystal.? This also lends credibility to the caution about possibile need to change AVR internal oscilator capacitence if changing resonator or crystal device.
Recently i purchased some Arduino Pro-mini units that have a standard crystal for the CPU clock.? These are for a frequency counter project where the stability of a crystal is needed.? Search Ebay for "arduino pro mini crystal" for these units.??
The Pro-minii Arduino are also interesting because they do not include built-in USB and thus there is no 12 MHz crystal to interfere with the BITX 12 MHz IF.
Arv. K7HKL _-_
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message -------- Date: 2/3/18 11:15 PM (GMT-07:00) Subject: Re: [BITX20] #ubitx-help Strong Audio Tones in and outside audio receive passband
I know I'm late to this party but you cannot swap crystals on nano board without first using a atmel programmer to burn the fuse bits that tell what freq it will be using or you will brick your nano.... also if the ftdi or whatever usb chip is using 12mhz, you could get the sparkfunPro 16mhz/8mhz board that does not use usb but instead uses usb to serial cable to upload. Be warned 16mhz board is 5 volt and 8 mhz is 3.3 volt.
I only use the Sparkfun Pro 16 for my projects. Another note if you go with the ATMega32U4 boards they have built in usb....
Maybe this will help someone or maybe not....
James Lawrie
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
-------- Original message -------- Date: 2/3/18 09:38 (GMT-06:00) Subject: Re: [BITX20] #ubitx-help Strong Audio Tones in and outside audio receive passband
Jerry
Interesting observation that the 12 MHz USB clock oscillator is on nearly the same frequency
as the uBITX IF and BFO.? If the BFO is offset to the high side of the IF passband it could well
be within audio range of the USB clock frequency.? If this is the problem then it might be possible
to pull the USB clock crystal down with a small parallel capacitor.? That should not make a
significant change in USB clock timing but could take it out of range of the receiver IF and BFO
frequencies.? Some experimenting is probably necessary to tell how far to pull the crystal.? It
would not be good to accidentally put it within the IF filter passband.
Arv? K7HKL
_._
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Re: ubitx receive audio troubleshooting
So in order to have an oscillation, you have to have a closed loop with a gain greater than one at the oscillation frequency
Since your squeal begins when you turn the vine control up, and then input of the loop that Apparently exists is earlier in the system. ?
My guess would be via the power supply lines. ?That would suggest adding additional filtering in Decoupling capacitance in parallel with the lowest inductance (short leads ) as possible as near to the chips involved as possible. ? Probably the audio Amp
chip & its preamp should have additional filtering on the power supply lines. ?You can test this by ?merely touching capacitance to the proper places temporarily.
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My mistake. I meant TDA2822 chip.
Craig
KC2LFI
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I am sitting here reading some of this information and studying the new technology.? When I was young (at leas 50 years ago), solid state technologies were either in their infancy or still a dream.? Our rigs were two pieces of equipment, a receiver and a transmitter with a variety of accessories.
Most of our receivers for those of us who were not well heeld in the financial area were of the single conversion genre with an if frequency of 455 kHz.? With little preselection capability, this relegated the ham bands 20 mtrs and above useless with hetrodyne images from frequencies 910 kHz either above or below the desired reception point. There, in that day, were three remedies to fix this. The first two were:
??? 1.)? add a really selective high gain preselector to tune the offending images out
??? 2.)? raise the if to something on the order of 1600 kHz which left bandpass selectivity at a substantial disadvantage.
The third option, and the most expensive in its day was double (or, even triple) conversion.? If? you were able to pay the 1958 price of over $300, you were in and there were few difficulties thereafter until the receiver aged and developed some bad shield grounds or worse.? The second or third conversion local oscillator would provide a cornu copia of birdies of one type or another. These included signals that were always there, I know the newer designs with balanced mixers and the like have few of these problems, but, it is worth considering.
An aging ham from way back.
Lee, WA9AOE
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Re: Second batch of uBITX shipping?
#ubitx
Where did mine December 15th and got it about a week ago
Andy KM4TRT
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Vic WA4THR
ekelley
N8DAH
Allard PE1NWL
Leland Lannoye