Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
?Great!? ?Perhaps it will help some people who are concerned about the harmonics.? ?The total cost of the kit boiled down to
$2.50 or less for the board when purchased in quantity of 10 or so from China even with 1 week DHL shipping
$11 or so for the three relays
$2 or so for the inductors and capacitors
Use IN4001-1N4007 for the diodes (I should have speified that!)??
So about $15 and some elbow grease to really knock down the harmonics.? ?I pay more than that for a 12V battery!
What a great ubitx transceiver Ashar F. developed for the world!
Cheers,
Gordon
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Right Gordon, I will study the documents so I might replicate a hopefully reasonably good copy of it. Thanks very much!
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Right Gordon, I will study the documents so I might replicate a hopefully reasonably good copy of it. Thanks very much!
Il 29/ago/2018 14:38, "Gordon Gibby" < ggibby@...> ha scritto: H? iz oos -
I can't really provide "kit service" since I'm a physician by trade and this would take way more time than I am able to commit to the effort.? Perhaps some enterprising soul (or company) will take up the kitting of it.? ?In the meantime, I have now published everything needed to replicate the entire effort --- and I can assist anyone who wishes to become the "kitter" by helping them get boards, etc.
Board Gerber Files ready to send to or any other pcb fabrication shop:??
Construction Document:? (how-to):? ?
Original DesignDocument (background design information):??
That should be enough for anyone to build it if they understand a bit of schematic reading or can follow photographs!!
Gordon
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
H? iz oos -
I can't really provide "kit service" since I'm a physician by trade and this would take way more time than I am able to commit to the effort.? Perhaps some enterprising soul (or company) will take up the kitting of it.? ?In the meantime, I have now published everything needed to replicate the entire effort --- and I can assist anyone who wishes to become the "kitter" by helping them get boards, etc.
Board Gerber Files ready to send to pcbway.com or any other pcb fabrication shop:??
Construction Document:? (how-to):? ?
Original DesignDocument (background design information):??
That should be enough for anyone to build it if they understand a bit of schematic reading or can follow photographs!!
Gordon
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Something to note.... I've had much better luck using the 3.3 volts from the Nano than feeding 5 volts to the Adafruit Si5351.?
Your mileage may vary,
Jim? W0CHL
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Gordon,
These spurs start from 0Hz and move up at the rate of 5x, 4x, 3x of the amount the display
changes with center is at multiples of 2.5MHz. Example 15Mhz everything almost vanishes
but at 14Mhz you will get spurs at 3Mhz, 4MHz and 5Mhz on either side of 15MHz.
At some points of the HF I get strong spurs between 0 and 5Mhz.. :-(
2.5Mhz is a common denominator somehow. The max spur spread occurs at 1.25MHz on
either side of these homing points.
Raj
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At 29/08/2018, you wrote: Is there some series resonance in the 80 meter LP filter at 24 MHZ, or why is that one harmonic so much stronger than others? Anyone have an answer?
Thanks,
Gordon
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Hi Gordon,
That is interesting, relays that are polarity sensitive. Maybe that is how they make a "sensitive" relay, by adding a bias magnet inside. I downloaded the data sheet and see the +- on the coil. Glad to know about this before I lay something out without realizing there are now polarity sensitive relays, that are not of the latching variety.?
It is interesting the the 7th harmonic (24Mhz) of 80M and the 3rd harmonic (21Mhz) of 40M are both the highest harmonics you have. Maybe it is something that will improve as you experiment with the wiring.
Tom, wb6b
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Given the tools you have used and for the fact you applied the KISS principle, you made a condiderable work Gordon. Are you planning to provide a kit with detailed information on connections and cut and trace removal or will you provide a detailed information about what to do?
Il 29/ago/2018 10:36, "Gordon Gibby" < ggibby@...> ha scritto:
I ¡®d like to point out that if the relays are placed on the (normal) TOP of the board, they would work fine as wired & not require the rewriting I had to do.?
Board was laid out correctly with respect to their polarity when installed on top?
Is there some series resonance in the 80 meter LP filter at 24 MHZ, or why is that one harmonic so much stronger than others?? Anyone have an answer?
Thanks,
Gordon
On Aug 29, 2018, at 02:37, Glenn < glennp@...> wrote:
promising results there Gordan.
While I would love to pursue mine further, but the problem of fitting it into the existing case is a problem.? Might look at another way or flatter relays! or bigger case.
glenn vk3pe
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
I ¡®d like to point out that if the relays are placed on the (normal) TOP of the board, they would work fine as wired & not require the rewriting I had to do.?
Board was laid out correctly with respect to their polarity when installed on top?
Is there some series resonance in the 80 meter LP filter at 24 MHZ, or why is that one harmonic so much stronger than others? ?Anyone have an answer?
Thanks,
Gordon
On Aug 29, 2018, at 02:37, Glenn < glennp@...> wrote:
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promising results there Gordan.
While I would love to pursue mine further, but the problem of fitting it into the existing case is a problem.? Might look at another way or flatter relays! or bigger case.
glenn vk3pe
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Ok, it will never be a Ford Cosworth, but at least LPF will polish the tricycle...
Il 28/ago/2018 19:53, "Warren Allgyer" < allgyer@...> ha scritto: Alison
i have put my uBitx on the shelf and plan no further work on it. Just too many issues trying to make a Ford out of a tricycle. I put these up as an assist for those still trying.?
WA8TOD
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
promising results there Gordan.
While I would love to pursue mine further, but the problem of fitting it into the existing case is a problem.? Might look at another way or flatter relays! or bigger case.
glenn vk3pe
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Re: Odd Raduino, How do I Connect it?
#bitx40
Thanks for the clarification Vic, it?s a bitx40. They have the same hardware now for the kits. I also have an older version of bitx40 with the original Raduino version. I?m on track now. And soon enough in the air mainly on digital.
Arne
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Unassembled uBITX; this is from the first batch shipped in December 2017.? Has the FCI TDA2822M audio chip. $125 shipped to U.S. address. I will send electronic copies of documentation via e-mail. kg0ew <at> arrl.net
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Re: Can we start using SUBGROUPS? uBiTX, biTX40, QRPKITS, Original BiTX20, Homebrew, Other?
Subgroups is a good feature. QSO parties and raduino can definitely be in subgroups.
QSO issues in USA wont interest many.. some may not want to follow the raduino discussions.
Anyone interested can subscribe to all subgroups! Others can avoid..
Raj
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At 28/08/2018, you wrote: There is already a homebrew group and an antennas group. Splitting the radios up would just make a mess of things.
Vince - K8ZW.
On 08/28/2018 10:08 AM, ab2ts wrote:
How about it? It is getting very hard to search and find posts just
for the radio I have.
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I think you mean Arduino Nano, Right?
On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, 11:38:30 PM EDT, Howard Fidel <sonic1@...> wrote:
As some of you know, my Raduino died a few weeks ago. The Arduino Uno board failed, so I changed it. The new Arduino worked, but the SI5351 clock chip didn't. I found that the damaged SI5351 damaged the new Ardunio SCL and SDA outputs. I removed the SI5351 and again replaced the Arduino Uno (it is a good thing I bought 3). I then ordered the Adafruit SI5351 breakout board. I the board arrived last Monday, just when I left for a few days in New Mexico and Arizona. I got back last night, and today installed the Adafruit board. Now the Raduino is up and running. I have attached a marked up schematic just in case someone needs to to the same some day, as well as a picture. Although not indicated on the schematic, I also removed R13 and R14 from the Raduino. The Adafruit board it JP1 on the schematic.
I also started to work on the filter modifications. I did not get the expected result on 80 meters, and over the next few days, I will try to find out why.?
Howard
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I forgot to attach the files.
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As some of you know, my Raduino died a few weeks ago. The Arduino Uno board failed, so I changed it. The new Arduino worked, but the SI5351 clock chip didn't. I found that the damaged SI5351 damaged the new Ardunio SCL and SDA outputs. I removed the SI5351 and again replaced the Arduino Uno (it is a good thing I bought 3). I then ordered the Adafruit SI5351 breakout board. I the board arrived last Monday, just when I left for a few days in New Mexico and Arizona. I got back last night, and today installed the Adafruit board. Now the Raduino is up and running. I have attached a marked up schematic just in case someone needs to to the same some day, as well as a picture. Although not indicated on the schematic, I also removed R13 and R14 from the Raduino. The Adafruit board it JP1 on the schematic.
I also started to work on the filter modifications. I did not get the expected result on 80 meters, and over the next few days, I will try to find out why.?
Howard
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Glenn --- you should get even BETTER results than I found, since your wires will be shorter!? ? More power to you!!
I think it is now obvious that the "right sided relays" are a huge improvement --- even with unshielded wires flying everywhere!~? ?
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Able to charge that battery significantly and proceed with tests.
All of these have a homebrew 50 dB tap on a Heathkit Cantenna, and then a 20dB attenuator at the input of the ICOM 718.? ?Previous measurements have suggested that between S7 and S9,? ?an S unit is approximately 12 DB.
Presented witll be the BEFORE/AFTER? ?S unit measurements where before is the relatively STOCK uBitx and the AFTER is is with my external daughterboard, with basically unshielded wiring.
All measurements are for CW (because this is where the unit had the most problems)
Power is estimated from a Micronta cheap SWR/power bridge built for CB'ers many many years ago.??
FREQ? ? ? PWR? ? ? ?FUNDAMENTAL? ? ? ?2ndHArmonic? ? 3rdHarmonic? ?4thHarmonic? ? 5thHarmonic? ? ?6thHarmonic? ? ?7thHarmonic
3.505? ? 5 W/5+W? S9+30/S9+30? ? ? ? ? ?S7.5 / S7? ? ? ? ? ?S8.5 /? S6? ? ? ? S0 /? ?S0? ? ? ? ? ?S8 /? S1? ? ? ? ? ? S0 / S0? ? ? ? ? ? ? S8.5 / S8? ??
(so on 80 meters, the 3rd and 5th harmonics were greatly attenuated, and the 7th lost maybe 6 db)
7.005? ?2.5/3.5W? ?S9+30/S9+30? ? ? ? ? ?S0/ S0? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?S8.5 / S7? ? ? ? ?S5.5*/S0? ? ? ?*=wavering
(so on 40 meters, harmonics went? down by huge amounts
9.995? ?1.5/1.5 W? S9+30 /S9+30? ? ? ? ? S0 /S0? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?S9 / S5 or less
(so on 30 meters, the 3rd harmonic was basically demolished)??
In previous testing on 14 MHz, I cant go any farther than the 2nd harmonic and it was S0 (no reading) so not much for me to work on profitably there...and that is the filter that I damaged.
This looks overall, like a huge success.? ?The only oddity is the 7th harmonic of the 80 meter signal (why??)? ?but even it may be down 42 db.? ?On these bands, my crude testing indicates that even CW now either passes with flying colors or is very very close to it.? ?If I shield or even twist a ground around the INPUT (red in the photographs) wire it may get better.
Cheers,
Gordon Gibby
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
My own take on the end of filter relays has stalled, as my uBITX case is a bit too small to accommodate the pcb and relays. But here's an idea of it's fitting.??? AS per a previous post, seam soldered the ground plane of uBITX to the new PCB. Short (under 1/2") copper wire to the new board for RF connects.?? vk3pe  
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Re: Right-sided relay harmonic attempted fix for v3/4 ubitx
Get well soon. My son just had his gall bladder removed last month. His main issue was a very sore post operative belly button. We were glad his was finally removed at it was only functioning about 3% and was making him septic just about every other month.
On Sat, Aug 25, 2018 at 11:36 PM Gordon Gibby < ggibby@...> wrote: Well, I'm several days BEHIND on what I had planned on this project, but I have some baseline results finally.? ?(Had pancreatitis last week and gallbladder removed Monday and laid up a bit, then struggled several days with an open-repeater ics-ctrl repeater controller raspberry pi project to completion).
First goal was to develop a homebrew measurement lab in place of a spectrum analyzer, to allow baseline measurements of harmonic output from a stock ubitx v3/4.? ?(Prior to modification to add in a daughterboard filter relay repair described previously.)
Using a 50 ohm/16.6K ohm voltage divider built on top of a Heathkit cantenna ( 2 100 ohm in parallel to make the 50 ohm, checked with very low SWR well beyond 30 MHz on antenna analyzer to be sure not wirewound resistors) and 6 100K resistors in parallel to make the top of the voltage divider), created approximatelly 50 dB attentuator.
Then double shielded BNC coax patch cord to selected bnc attenuator right at the input to an ICOM 718 receiver.??
Tonight was initial tests.? ?First problem:? V4.3 of software would not go into CW mode no matter what I tried on the key terminals.? ?Finally gave up and reverted to my own modified v2.0 of the ubitx code which does transmit.? ?Next problem was my radio shack "wattmeter" indicates rather low outputs.....but may not be accurate at all so I just went forward.
"Attentuator" is the ADDITIONAL attenuator beyond the estimated 50 db at the cantenna.
Mode? ? ? ?Freq? ? ? Meas.Watts? Attenuator? ?Fundamental? ?2nd Harmonic? ?3rd Harmonic? 4th Harmonic? ?5th Harmonic
CW? ? ? ? ?3.505? ? ? ? 2? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20 dB? ? ? ? ? S9+25? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?S8? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? S8? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?not meas? ? ? ? ? S8
CW? ? ? ? ?7.080? ? ? ? 1? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20 dB? ? ? ? ? S9+25? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?S6? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? S8.5? ? ? ? ? ?not? meas? ? ? ? ? not meas
All I have is the little LCD screen of the ICOM 718....but the readings were quite steady and the tuning in of the signal was not critical at all.?For the very first crack at? this EVER in my life, I was much more impressed with the measurement setup than I was with the problems I was inhaving the little uBitx to perform for me to allow testing.? ? I'll fiddle with this a bit more to be sure I'm happy with some baseline readings before I begin hacking traces and building the circuit board I have for the outboard relays.? ?I may have some other "power meters"? [these allare just simple rf voltmeters posing as wattmeters]? and see if I get any more believable answers.??
Thanks,
gordon gibby kx4z
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Raj vu2zap
W4WKU
