Already under consideration, Vince. Read my earlier posts ... but thanks and
73 de ZL2DEX
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Re: Reliable source for mcufriend 3.5" lcd display?
I have ordered a 3.5" from supprise-7, a 3.2" display from cici10086, a 2.8" from best2shop15 and all sent good products. I would complain to both other vendors and demand a refund or you will take the complaint to eBay. That usually results in a quick refund. Contact me privately using my QRZ email...no sense chewing up more or the group's bandwidth.
Jack, W8TEE
From: "Ben Bangerter, K0IKR via Groups.Io" <bwbangerter@...>
To: BITX20@groups.io
Sent: Friday, September 1, 2017 11:16 AM
Subject: [BITX20] Reliable source for mcufriend 3.5" lcd display?
Can anyone recommend a reliable supplier for the 3.5" mcufriend lcd display? ?I have had a run of bad luck in this area. ?The first one I got was from a US supplier, shipped quickly and in a small cardboard box. ?The pins were bent badly (clearly NOT in shipping, and the display backlight illuminated but no graphics would be displayed when running various test sketches from the mcufriend library. ?The second unit, from an eBay supplier in China, just arrived. ?It too had bent pins, and the screen was cracked. ?This is unfortunate, as the display functions, except nothing displayed in the region where the cracks run. ?I suspect many of the displays available are "floor sweepings" or factory QC rejects, judging from my experience. ?Does anyone of a good supplier, preferably in the US, or do I keep ordering from random vendors until I get lucky? ?I plan to build both the k2zia/w8tee bitx interface and their antenna analyzer.
Ben, k0ikr
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No, I did not remove C91 and C92. Thanks for the heads up on this Michael.
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Reliable source for mcufriend 3.5" lcd display?
Can anyone recommend a reliable supplier for the 3.5" mcufriend lcd display? ?I have had a run of bad luck in this area. ?The first one I got was from a US supplier, shipped quickly and in a small cardboard box. ?The pins were bent badly (clearly NOT in shipping, and the display backlight illuminated but no graphics would be displayed when running various test sketches from the mcufriend library. ?The second unit, from an eBay supplier in China, just arrived. ?It too had bent pins, and the screen was cracked. ?This is unfortunate, as the display functions, except nothing displayed in the region where the cracks run. ?I suspect many of the displays available are "floor sweepings" or factory QC rejects, judging from my experience. ?Does anyone of a good supplier, preferably in the US, or do I keep ordering from random vendors until I get lucky? ?I plan to build both the k2zia/w8tee bitx interface and their antenna analyzer.
Ben, k0ikr
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BTW .. with Allards Sketch you don't need a Calibrate switch any more as calibrate is included in the settings menu. So long as you?
have a function button you can do calibration. ?You mentioned the USB sensitivity is low. ?Did you remove C91 and C92 off of the RF board?
With these removed the USB sensitivity is much improved and there is no impact on LSB. These are redundant parts that are there for the analog VFO
implementation which has been replaced by the Raduino so there is no impact other than to improve USB operation.?
Cheers?
Michael VE3WMB / VA2NB?
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Can't test it yet, but considering the dual-gang Main+ Bandspread scheme. Let's see... 100k Main to cover 300kHz band. 10k Fine would give 30kHz spread. and at 100Hz/step that's 300 steps over 270deg rotation - near enough 1deg/step. Too touchy, but perhaps just so. 5k or 3k 'Fine', 15 or 10 kHz spread per 270deg - I'd suggest personal preference there? End limits settable in code. I'm seriously inclined to Allard's 1.20.1, but it's all conjecture yet ... meanwhile enjoying the ideas :)
73
Dex, ZL2DEX
It's not 100Hz/step. Remember the voltage from the pot is read by the Nano's ADC which has only 10 bits. 10 bits gives a resolution of only 024 steps. This is?artificially multiplied by 10 in the sketch by 100x "oversampling". So?theoretically we have a resolution of?about 10,000 steps (in practice it is even less due to imperfections of the potentiometer, noise, etc). If you want to cover the entire 300 kHz band with the 100K 'course' pot, you would need to set the tuning range to 300. This will result in 300kHz/10,000 steps = 30 Hz/step. A 10K 'fine' pot will cover 1 tenth of the range, so 30 kHz in 1,000 steps, over 270 degrees. So that would be 0.27 deg/step, where each step is 30Hz. 73 Allard PE1NWL
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Re: BITX QSO Night, Sunday, September 3, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
Thank you, I'll be sure to get on hopefully my bitx is loud enough!
On Sep 1, 2017 1:13 AM, "John P" < j.m.price@...> wrote: On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 09:34 pm, Ian Litchfield wrote:
I'm a little lost by this announcement. What exactly do you mean by local time??
Ian Litchfield KD2IXL
7PM in whatever time zone you are?in, although those of us in the Eastern time zone often hang around at 8PM local and 9PM local to see if we can contact anyone out west.
?
--
John - WA2FZW
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Why not just convert it to a rotary encoder? Then you can select how fine
or coarse the tuning is.
Vince.
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Can't test it yet, but considering the dual-gang Main+ Bandspread scheme.
Let's see... 100k Main to cover 300kHz band. 10k Fine would give 30kHz
spread. and at 100Hz/step that's 300 steps over 270deg rotation - near
enough 1deg/step. Too touchy, but perhaps just so. 5k or 3k 'Fine', 15 or
10 kHz spread per 270deg - I'd suggest personal preference there? End
limits settable in code. I'm seriously inclined to Allard's 1.20.1, but
it's all conjecture yet ... meanwhile enjoying the ideas :)
73
Dex, ZL2DEX
--
Michigan VHF Corp.
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The software for the raduino is written to use a single turn pot. It covers approximately 25 Khz in that turn, on the edges it starts 'scanning' up or down. If you find the tuning rate to be too fast, you can fix it in the software.? These are personal preferences. I tried with a a 10 turn pot and found it very difficult to use it, given that I am now so used to tuning with the single turn pot.
- f
On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 12:15 PM, Dexter N Muir <dexy@...> wrote: Can't test it yet, but considering the dual-gang Main+ Bandspread scheme. Let's see... 100k Main to cover 300kHz band. 10k Fine would give 30kHz spread. and at 100Hz/step that's 300 steps over 270deg rotation - near enough 1deg/step. Too touchy, but perhaps just so. 5k or 3k 'Fine', 15 or 10 kHz spread per 270deg - I'd suggest personal preference there? End limits settable in code. I'm seriously inclined to Allard's 1.20.1, but it's all conjecture yet ... meanwhile enjoying the ideas :)
73
Dex, ZL2DEX
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Can't test it yet, but considering the dual-gang Main+ Bandspread scheme. Let's see... 100k Main to cover 300kHz band. 10k Fine would give 30kHz spread. and at 100Hz/step that's 300 steps over 270deg rotation - near enough 1deg/step. Too touchy, but perhaps just so. 5k or 3k 'Fine', 15 or 10 kHz spread per 270deg - I'd suggest personal preference there? End limits settable in code. I'm seriously inclined to Allard's 1.20.1, but it's all conjecture yet ... meanwhile enjoying the ideas :)
73
Dex, ZL2DEX
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You have a treasure there, Raj! The sort of Ham Heirloom that deserves ongoing preservation with occasional presentation by a worthy successor ...
73 de ZL2DEX :)
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Re: BITX QSO Night, Sunday, September 3, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 09:34 pm, Ian Litchfield wrote:
I'm a little lost by this announcement. What exactly do you mean by local time??
Ian Litchfield KD2IXL
7PM in whatever time zone you are?in, although those of us in the Eastern time zone often hang around at 8PM local and 9PM local to see if we can contact anyone out west. ? -- John - WA2FZW
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Re: BITX QSO Night, Sunday, September 3, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
I'm a little lost by this announcement. What exactly do you mean by local time?? Ian Litchfield KD2IXL
On Aug 31, 2017 18:17, "KC8WBK via Groups.Io" <cruisenewsnet= yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote: Due to a fallen tree branch, my antenna is down and I unable to participate for an undetermined amount of time.? :(
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Dexter,
I have a working Eddystone 640 and also a Marine Rx by Eddystone that uses dual gate mosfets.
It used to belong to an elmer vu2ja Joe who I knew in the 60's. His xyl gave me his Rx and I have preserved it!
Raj
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At 01/09/2017, you wrote: Thanks for that, Arv! and valid points from Jerry, too - fond memory of brief acquaintance with an Eddystone 640 :) Now to investigate the junkbox ... For *really* fine tuning, try taking the 10k dual to a 100k dual, and the 1k (now really fine) can then be what you have up to 10k (original effect). Ratio gives you the 'gearing'. Could be a bit of exposed wiring - bypass the 'fine' wiper?
73... \
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Dexter,
I have not tried the 3.5T. It may be fine for the analog VFO. The Raduino default jumps 100Hz and that is as fine as it gets,
no point in stretching it to a larger angle of the pot.
On the test bench the pot being loose I used a center indented 10K so that I can get the feel of the center. I am putting
a board in vu2pop box and once it is on the panel then indent wont be required as I can see the position.
I have been experimenting with limiting the tuning pot with 510-560 Ohms resistors at the extremes to stop the end fast tune
and would like to put a center off toggle switch that I can use to jump 10KHz up or down. Someone here has done that before.
Raj
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At 31/08/2017, you wrote: Thanks for that, Raj. Any other comments? Anyone tried 3.5-turn? How do they compare empirically, degrees rotation per step delta-f? 10-t slow, is 3.5-t fiddly?
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Re: BITX QSO Night, Sunday, September 3, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
Hope you are back soon Paul. I'll miss your reliable signal.
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I decided to work on the rig a little rather than "stalk" the band tonight. Loaded Allard's 1.20.1 software. Wired out the function switch. Having A and B vfos is nice. It seems USB does not have as much band noise as LSB???? Hoping to get the CW mode working on the rig before long. I have yet to touch anything on the main board. It seems a shame for me to place my unsteady hands, gripping a heated instrument of potential destruction, on such a nice product that has been working so well, but in the spirit of adventure, and probably stupidity, this project must go forward. Added a little ?board to get all the grounds tied down. Added pins for the connection to D4, D5, D6 and D7 and a calibrate switch.? 
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Re: BITX QSO Night, Sunday, September 3, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
Sorry to hear that! Hope you get back on quickly!
--
John - WA2FZW
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Re: BITX QSO Night, Sunday, September 3, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere
Due to a fallen tree branch, my antenna is down and I will.be unable to participate for an undetermined amount of time.? :(
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Dexter
Yes, bypassing the fine adjust wiper could be a good idea.? I would start with a 0.1 mfd cap.
This could be used by those who cannot find a 10-turn pot, or just want to use the older
style fast & slow tuning mechanism.? It should work with any design that depends on variation
in DC voltage to control tuning changes.
The pot values are not critical.? The smaller pot tunes over a percentage of the larger pot range.
Using a linear pot would be preferred but a tapered type could also be used as long as both
halves of the dual one track reasonably well.? This can be mocked up using the pots and a DC
voltmeter to see how it works before you build it into your rig.
Arv
_._
On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 2:55 PM, Dexter N Muir <dexy@...> wrote: Thanks for that, Arv! and valid points from Jerry, too - fond memory of brief acquaintance with an Eddystone 640 :) Now to investigate the junkbox ... For *really* fine tuning, try taking the 10k dual to a 100k dual, and the 1k (now really fine) can then be what you have up to 10k (original effect). Ratio gives you the 'gearing'. Could be a bit of exposed wiring - bypass the 'fine' wiper?
73...
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Allard PE1NWL
Raj vu2zap