Re: Finished and calibrated, thanks to everyone the BITX20 group. I only wish I could build the nice displays many of you did.
 My apologies, but for the ones who wanted to know what the
controls were on the radio this is the only way this old man knows how to
explain it.
TR/REC
dual color LED, (3 legs), Red/Green for transmit and receive wired to the
transmit switch using 550 ohm on the positive lead which goes to on off switch
and 1.5K ohm on the green negative leg of the led, no resistor on the red
negative leg of the led. I had the board mounted already and needed to find a
way to hook up a dual color led without soldering to the relays.
Hence:
¡°Give the hardest job to the laziest person and he will find the easiest way¡±,
Single
led, red for eye candy VU , it pulses dim and bright with the strength of
signal coming from the sound output . It kind of looks cool listening to CW. Using
pnp transistor and 1K pot and 100 ohm resistor. Works very good, still not up
to my standard, needs improvement.
PA
power,
There
are two12 V jacks in the back of the radio, one is connected to the radio on
off volume control switch and the other goes to a pushbutton on-off switch and
from there to the PA /Volt switch. The PA volt switch is DPDT.
DPDT
Switch:?
The two top terminals are positive and negative coming from the volume
control on off switch, the bottom two terminals come from the DC to DC step up
converter and the two middle terminals of the switch go to the PA connection on
the board.
?I have installed a DC step up converter, 12 to
32 V, I removed the 10K micro potentiometer from the step up converter and wired
in a 10K potentiometer below the voltmeter, this allows me to adjust and
monitor the voltage going into the PA, when the switch is in the up position. When
the switches in the down position the voltage comes from the main power input
to the radio.
?I have a problem, it creates a motorboat noise
when hooked up to the same power supply so I added another Jack in the back to
go to the PA switch using a 12 V battery, then the noise is virtually
eliminated. I¡¯m using an inexpensive Chinese DC step up converter, I need to
get a good one hopefully that would eliminate the problem. Thought for the
future.
For
tuning I use a 10 turn potentiometer in place of the one that came with the
kit.
There
was a modification to reduce the brightness of the LCD display, instead of
installing a resistor of greater value I installed a 1K potentiometer with a
100 ohm resistor in line as suggested by another ham so I wouldn¡¯t overload the
LCD now I can adjust the brightness for nighttime or from outside in the
daylight.
There¡¯s a great deal going on eBay right now for two 8 ohm
speakers nice size magnet and they sound great, just a little over six
dollars for two of them shipped, here¡¯s the link check it out;
?
?I used a 2 ? inch hole saw, wish I had a
3 inch.
I
attached a grill cloth first, then part of the screen from a screen door, added
protection, and then the speaker. I attached the speaker to the Jack in the
front so when you put on headphones it disconnects the internal speaker.
?
The
frequency display was only off 1 kHz which was easily calibrated per
instructions by just grounding the red wire coming from the eight pin connector
on the LCD.
On
February 18 at 1 AM in the morning using approximately 4 ? to 5 W output power,
(I didn¡¯t have the step up converter installed yet ) from my QTH which is approximately
17 miles southwest of Walt Disney World, I made contact with WY7KY?
?CHEYENNE, WY, ? W9EEE ?Columbia City, IN ? and?? K4RVM ? Louisville, KY . I was given great signal reports between 55 and 57 and
they said my Audio was excellent and they could not believe it was a QR P radio.
Needless to say they wanted to know more about it so I email them all the
information. This is a kit everybody will fall in love with.
? 73s and God Bless
????????????? Eddie kj4fgi
?
?
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Yes. Almost all of the parts can be ordered from Tayda electronics, but some are from ebay. (Tayda is pretty quick as they have a distribution warehouse in CO.) Probably most can be purchased domestically, but at greater cost.?
Keep in mind that you can sometimes negotiate a better price if you buy in quantity. For example, the Mega 2560 Pro Mini is $15.50, but I bought 10 for $10 each. I did this as a club build for 24 members, so I got some pretty substantial discounts on encoders, DDS modules, the display, and the Mega. If there's an entrepreneur out there, this might be a way to make a little cash on the side.
Jack, W8TEE
From: Roy Appleton <twelveoclockhigh@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Flutter Fix
That's what I was thinking too. At almost 70 I can't wait too long for some of these projects! As I understand it, the only part of this PKAA project that we can order is a empty PCB and all the rest of it we have to source individually?
Roy WA0YMH Carrollton, TX
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Fred:
The following are the sizes for the main parts of the AA:
The display: ????????????????????????????????????????3.375"x2.25" Main PCB: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 3.50"x2.25" Display-PCB-Arduino&DDS height: ? ?1.375"
The PCB has a hole for a power connector, but we mounted it off board. The SPDT switch on the case selects between battery and wall wart. A standard 9V (500 mAh) will work, but won't last too long because the display uses more power than an LCD display. An 800mAh rechargeable would be a better choice and can be mounted inside the case. We used a BNC connector, but that's up to the user. Keep in mind that a rotary encoder is also used and must be mounted on the case.
Jack, W8TEE
From: Fred Finster via Groups.Io <wb7odyfred@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Flutter Fix
If you gave me dimensions jack, I would like to collaborate on building a LibreCAD DXF drawing for a metal case for your Antenna Analyzer. ? Would there need to be room in side the case for a battery to make it portable outside the ham shack to the antenna site? ? ?Happy to see the thoughts you share on the list, and see the people you help, plus this antenna analyzer you have created.? Fred Finster WB7ODY
|
If you gave me dimensions jack, I would like to collaborate on building a LibreCAD DXF drawing for a metal case for your Antenna Analyzer. ? Would there need to be room in side the case for a battery to make it portable outside the ham shack to the antenna site? ? ?Happy to see the thoughts you share on the list, and see the people you help, plus this antenna analyzer you have created.? Fred Finster WB7ODY
|
My BitX40 arrived last night. Can't tell you how happy I was to see the box in good order!
Since I haven't done one of these before, I am going to build it as provided, but... ?I am really interested in figuring out it is possible to turn it into a single-purposed digital modes or CW transceiver. ?I don't want to make it an all purpose rig, though, so I am willing to give up phone. ?
And that makes the last couple of emails from the list timely, though I admit after following the list for the last month or so that I am feeling a little under-prepared to hack this rig. Some of the stuff being done here is amazing!
That said, has anyone given serious thought to converting a bitx40 to CW or digital mode only use??
Thanks and 73 Bill K7WXW
|
I haven't got my BITX40 yet but I'm planning to assemble it in??case complete with internal battery power. ?I received the case yesterday (3 day shipping from IL) and it is of high quality (though heavy for my intended SOTA use). Being aluminum, it eliminates the need for copper tape for RFI protection and can be used as a heatsink for higher PA output. ?My layout will mimic that of ?who has kindly provided measurements for his layout. ? Heat sinking the PA to the chassis should be possible with JAMECO part #2227284. 1/4" and 1/8" knobs can be found as parts?2239120, 265051, or 265077. I plan to use my BITX40 from a backpack, powered by 3 LiPo batteries in the case. Both speaker and mic will only be from an external setup wired to a 4 pin headphone jack compatible with my Samsung smartphone earbuds and a recycled speakermic already made up for another homebrew project. So, I'll run that through a single Jameco part 2201607. I think I'll add RF gain control and an external barrel connector in the back in case I want to power from something else. I'm also considering adding a small bluetooth audio option but that may not work with the 100% metal case.
Keep the ideas and results coming! Cheers, Peter, K3OG
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That's what I was thinking too. At almost 70 I can't wait too long for some of these projects! As I understand it, the only part of this PKAA project that we can order is a empty PCB and all the rest of it we have to source individually?
Roy WA0YMH Carrollton, TX
On Feb 22, 2017 10:14 AM, < mikeyancey@...> wrote: On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 07:25 pm, Jack Purdum wrote:
I have an article coming out in QST on an Arduino antenna analyzer. ?Well, all righty then! ... looks like it's time to go ahead and get an order in for AD9850 module(s) and a MegaPro...
Mike Y, KM5Z
Dallas, Texas
|
Re: no matching function for call??
Manage libraries, si5351 search there should be a popdown button selecting the version and install it
Sent from my iPhone
On 22 Feb 2017, at 04:05, Dr Fred Hambrecht < AAR4MI@...> wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
What changes are required to the sketch to use the current version? I was unable to locate version 1.0.2
?
v/r
Fred W4JLE
?
?
Think you need to change the ether kit version in IDE to 1.0.2.?
Sent from my iPhone
Hi All,
Got the Raduino sketch from:?
Loaded up the Si5351 library into the libraries. ?Started verify...
I got the error message that "no matching function for call" ?for 'Si5351::set_freq(long long int, long long unsigned int, si5351_clock)' ?
Has this error been fixed by anyone. ?If so, how? ?Did a search of the messages, but came up empty.
Thanks.
73,
Kent KC9LIF
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QRPGuys.com will be selling the board. You can download the assembly manual now. (I wrote that for a club build.) There's also a few screen shots, too. The reorder on the PCB is supposed to be here next week. I'll be adding a parts list document with sources in the next day or so. At least this will give you an idea of what it does.
Jack, W8TEE
From: "mikeyancey@..." <mikeyancey@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Flutter Fix
On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 07:25 pm, Jack Purdum wrote: I have an article coming out in QST on an Arduino antenna analyzer. ?Well, all righty then! ... looks like it's time to go ahead and get an order in for AD9850 module(s) and a MegaPro...
Mike Y, KM5Z
Dallas, Texas
|
Re: Finished and calibrated, thanks to everyone the BITX20 group. I only wish I could build the nice displays many of you did.
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 01:04 am, Ed Vignati wrote: nice displays many of you did You DID!
We're now, what - a few months in - quite a number of these are reaching completion. VERY nice.
My second 'VERY nice' today, in fact.
Wow.
Mike Y, KM5Z
Dallas, Texas
|
On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 07:25 pm, Jack Purdum wrote: I have an article coming out in QST on an Arduino antenna analyzer. ?Well, all righty then! ... looks like it's time to go ahead and get an order in for AD9850 module(s) and a MegaPro...
Mike Y, KM5Z
Dallas, Texas
|
> .... At this price, one doesn't need a one-for-all-purposes rig....
Heck, yes! My thoughts exactly.
I've already moved on to building the March QST's 'DDS Forty-9er' - my CW is rusty horrible and I wanted it completely separate from the home-brew SSB.
( )
Sure, I think 'a really cool goal' would be a all-bander or most-bander, say 80m to 10m BitX (a la, the Minima, not sure what it's status is).
But, for now, the BitX is a super-nice little rig.
There's so much more to home-brew, even though the PCB is 'done' for you.
I added my own homebrew DDS, 1- to 2-battery switching, battery level sense, function buttons for memories & VFO A/B, and 'save the radio state in EEPROM'.
And: I still have one (1) Analog Pin available! It's eatin' at me, man!
Signal strength or PA Transistor Temp? Or maybe detect PTT for a Split-Mode?
It's just how close do you want to bring it to commercial grade comforts.
But a commercial-grade rig, it ain't. Leave that to Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, etc...
Mike Y, KM5Z
Dallas, Texas
|
Re: Finished and calibrated, thanks to everyone the BITX20 group. I only wish I could build the nice displays many of you did.
Randy, I think that's a BITX20 not a 40 hence the other controls?
Mark W5MCU
|
VERY nice enclosure.
Not sure lining it with copper tape is purely necessary. Sure would look nice. Might keep out some RFI.
I see AliExpress also has that enclosure, too (just query:Plastic Enclosure Project Box Instrument Desk Case )
Like the Frog Sounds Forty-9er, once a vendor shows up, 10 vendors show up. Just a swell implementation.
Mike Yancey, KM5Z
Dallas, Texas
|
Re: Finished and calibrated, thanks to everyone the BITX20 group. I only wish I could build the nice displays many of you did.
Ed
Nice!
What mods did you add? What are the extra knobs for?
Randy, K7AGE
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 1:04 AM, Ed Vignati <kj4fgi@...> wrote:  ?I only wish I could build the nice displays many of you did.
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But then we would no longer all be comrades. Jerry
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 12:34 am, Ashhar Farhan wrote: Comrades!
Do you think we should move the software related issues to another list? ?
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Yes, comrades, please keep the softwarediscussions on this list. I'm an arduino newbe, but I learn so much, every day, from reading this list. Thanks! Kees PA3KL
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it costs less than 7$.
?perhaps I get links on aliexpress as if sending to India. all said ?item # can't change , i suppose.
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 7:49 PM, Mvs Sarma <mvssarma@...> wrote: the item is described as "
"Top Selling 50mm x10M Adhesive Single Face Electric Conduction Copper Foil Tape EMI Shielding Guitar Slug and Snail Barrier"
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the item is described as "
"Top Selling 50mm x10M Adhesive Single Face Electric Conduction Copper Foil Tape EMI Shielding Guitar Slug and Snail Barrier"
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 7:16 PM, Larry Acklin <acklin@...> wrote: Home Depot and others have copper flashing tape as well.?
73 Larry KB3CUF
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Fred Finster
bill