S-Meter Pin A7 Location V6
Good afternoon all
I have just installed the kit-projects AGC board and read in the instructions to connect to pin A7 for the S-meter.
Please can someone confirm the location of pin A7?
Is it the pin 7 on the same header strip where I've connected the 4 wires that go the nextion display, or somewhere else?
An image showing pin A7 would be great if someone has one.
Many thanks
73
Mick M0GWD
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Richard,
The name of the group is BITX20, not uBITX.? It is really for homebrewing as well as the kits that came out of that effort.? Feel free to continue to post if you so choose.? We are all interested in the type of experimentation that you are doing.? I can speak for myself that I learn with all of the questions and answers on bidirectional transceiver work that is being done.
Have fun with the build!
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Evan, again thank you
I think this will be my last post on the subject as this is a uBITX group, not a Homebrew group.....
I think a *simple* fix involves both hardware and software.
Since I already have USB and LSB oscillators, I do not need the 57 / 33 MHz output of CLK1
I can change both these values to 27 MHz,? combine with the CLK2 in a mixer and put through a bandpass filter.
I will then have the correct IF? I need.
Since I will be using a Nextion, there will? be free pins on the Raduino / Nano.
I can put is some simple code to switch? on my USB or LSB oscillators.
I will also have to tweak the output filter code as I have 8 output filters, not 4.
Problem:? the rest of the CEC goodies will not be functional in my radio.? Thanks sadly OK
I may report back if successful, so others can play with their Raduinos as well.
Thanks a gain and best to all
Richard? VA3NDO
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I also used this on the antenna input for a while before I built my own filter. It worked ok. Definitly killed the AM interference. Their may have been some slight attenuation of the transmitted signal since its in both the Tx? and Rx path.? But I didn't notice it much.?
On Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 5:28 AM Gerard < kabupos@...> wrote: Hello,
The other time when I did a search on E.. Y, with the keyword Ubitx, I came across this.
A filter, but I don¡¯t know any more...
cdt
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Kit-projects sells a uBitx broadcast filter kit on the web page where they sell their agc board. It requires you to wind 3 tiny torroids but it works well.? There is another design you can build yourself that uses axial inductors it works well too. I have used one of each. The info on that is here:
On Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 5:28 AM Gerard < kabupos@...> wrote: Hello,
The other time when I did a search on E.. Y, with the keyword Ubitx, I came across this.
A filter, but I don¡¯t know any more...
cdt
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
Bore da, Arv!
Sut dych chi?
(Dw i'n dysgu siarad Cymraeg!)
Related? There are teeming millions of we of the Evans clan!
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On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 09:56 PM, Arv Evans wrote: Gareth Evans
We have the same last name...are we related? 8-)
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Hello, The other time when I did a search on E.. Y, with the keyword Ubitx, I came across this.A filter, but I don¡¯t know any more...
cdt
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Bob,
I would agree with Gary's suggestion to add the Broadcast Band high pass filter.??
I had a similar experience to your son's one afternoon.? All of a sudden I had birdies all over the band.? Turned out that my wife had started our new high-efficiency washer at that time.? When the washer stopped (30+ minutes later), the noise went away.? It could be that there is an appliance being run in the area that is generating a lot of noise.? Switching to battery power did not eliminate the problem so it was not just power line related.
I would have him try again and see if the problem persists.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 04:58 PM, Patrick Peter Rosney wrote:
I uploaded V5 Firmware but this has made no difference
Patrick, The v5 firmware uses a different SSB filter frequency.? That software will not work with a v4 board.? Here is a link to the KD8CEC software that has both the v4 and v5 board software.? You want to use the uBITXV234 folder selecting the file that matches your display.? If it is the stock v4 1602 display then the file is? UBITX_CEC_V1.200_16P.hex.?The hex files are loaded into the Nano with Xloader.
If you want to go back to the stock v4 software, here is the link:
I would suggest the KD8CEC software, as that has more features and options for CW operation that the stock does not.
Once you have the correct software I would then start the troubleshooting as Jerry suggested.
Have fun with the rig.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
It's been lots of years since I have looked at huff-and-puff oscillator stabilization.
What I wrote in that last post is incorrect, there's more going on here.
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 06:08 PM, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
This may be an alternate way of looking at what you are proposing.
I suspect you are describing a phase-locked-loop.
And that yes, you have tried it.
There's a phase-frequency-detector inside the Si5351.
The VCO in the Si5351 can be pulled anywhere between 600 and 900 mhz
(and quite a bit beyond, actually).
But if instead of that VCO we have a VFO that is first manually tuned very near the
target frequency, the error detection will have far less work to do.?
And the output will have far less jitter.
Jerry, KE7ER
?
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 06:08 PM, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
But if instead of that VCO we have a VFO that is first manually tuned very near the
target frequency,
So it seems the Huff and Puff method is for providing the final little bit of frequency stabilization to a VFO that is already adjusted to oscillate very close to the desired frequency. Would the Huff and Puff method be one of the preferred ways to fine adjust the frequency of a 10mhz crystal oscillator to make a DIY GPS disciplined frequency reference? Tom, wb6b
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
This may be an alternate way of looking at what you are proposing.
I suspect you are describing a phase-locked-loop.
And that yes, you have tried it.
There's a phase-frequency-detector inside the Si5351.
The VCO in the Si5351 can be pulled anywhere between 600 and 900 mhz
(and quite a bit beyond, actually).
But if instead of that VCO we have a VFO that is first manually tuned very near the
target frequency, the error detection will have far less work to do.?
And the output will have far less jitter.
Jerry, KE7ER
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 05:39 PM, Ashhar Farhan wrote:
I was expecting Arv to write in about H&P schemes. Between him and Hans, there is all we know about how this scheme works.
The challenge of Huff and Puff is that it needs a very stable oscillator to begin with. It should have very minimal wobble (short term drift). The drift between two correction pulses should be less than its step size. That is not difficult to obtain.
The inherent drawback of H&P is that the oscillator is always being pushed up or down from the central frequency between two cycles. This can have a disastrous effect on digital modes.
There is probably another way to fix this. It is to use two flip flops as parallel mixers, each is fed the clock pulse that is 90 degrees out of phase from the other (imagine it to be a phasing receiver). Noe, the combined DC output of the two will indicate if we have drifted above, below or stayed on the frequency. I haven't tried this, but I am guessing that this will work. In the professional literature it is called a phase frequency detector.
- f
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 05:33 PM, Tom, wb6b wrote:
using the ATTiny481 chip
That was a typo. The chip is the ATTiny841. Tom, wb6b
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
I was expecting Arv to write in about H&P schemes. Between him and Hans, there is all we know about how this scheme works. The challenge of Huff and Puff is that it needs a very stable oscillator to begin with. It should have very minimal wobble (short term drift). The drift between two correction pulses should be less than its step size. That is not difficult to obtain. The inherent drawback of H&P is that the oscillator is always being pushed up or down from the central frequency between two cycles. This can have a disastrous effect on digital modes. There is probably another way to fix this. It is to use two flip flops as parallel mixers, each is fed the clock pulse that is 90 degrees out of phase from the other (imagine it to be a phasing receiver). Noe, the combined DC output of the two will indicate if we have drifted above, below or stayed on the frequency. I haven't tried this, but I am guessing that this will work. In the professional literature it is called a phase frequency detector. - f
This H&P jitter may not matter much if it isn't very frequent.
If it's a second or two between updates and the frequency slews
at a reasonable rate after an update, the "jitter" should be
no more objectionable than when manually making slight adjustments.
Jerry, KE7ER
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 01:56 PM, Arv Evans wrote:
H&P stabilization is interesting because by default it sets the tuning?
step size as well as holding frequency drift to around 1 Hz, sometimes?
less.? However it does introduce its own type of slow jitter.?
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Re: Follow-up Antuino question
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 01:33 PM, Gareth Evans wrote:
To do this, up to what frequency will the counters of an Arduino work!
The Arduino (ATMega328) can count external clocks up to 1/2 the clock used to run the chip. With a 16mhz clock for the ATMega328 that would be external frequencies up to just shy of 8mhz can be counted. You could use an external pre-scalar if desired. There are a few AVR chips that have PLL clock multipliers for the I/O circuits clock. One of those chips is the ATTiny85, another the ATTiny861. Those may be able to count external frequencies to 32mhz, as the PLL pushes the internal I/O clock to 64mhz. I'm sure there are other possible chips. My MFJ auto antenna tuner uses a PIC processor, and if I recall the PIC chip is counting the transmit frequency from my radio without a pre-scalar needed. Here is a library to support the above chips and a number of other ATTiny chips for the Arduino IDE. At the moment I'm using this board library to program a project using the ATTiny481 chip and it is working great at programming bare chips (no boot loader needed) using an inexpensive eBay USBAsp programmer. I bought one (USBasp) that included a 10pin to 6pin adaptor board and I wired a 6pin ISP programming header on my project's circuit board that works like the 6pin ISP header on the Arduino Nano board.? The library will let you burn boot loaders if you wish. Interestingly, on many chips the library included a bit banged USB boot loader that allows a direct USB connection to the chips, even though the chips do not normally support USB. I have an Atmel ICE and development IDE, but now that I found this board library, I'm using the Arduino IDE with USBasp for my project.? Tom, wb6b
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Can you hear static or at least an increase in background noise
as you plug the antenna in?
Perhaps bring a wire from the antenna connector over near the 25mhz
crystal of the Si5351 on the Raduino, see if you can tune that in.
Could be as simple as a bad BNC antenna connector.? In the distant past,
some of the supplied BNC connectors were machined incorrectly, and did not
reliably make contact.? Use an ohmmeter to verify that the antenna wire is connected
all the way into the main board of the uBitx.? And while you are at it, make sure the
antenna wire is not shorted to ground.
Here's an old Video of Farhan using one or two meters of wire (connected to nothing)
as an antenna to inject local QRM into the various stages of a Bitx40,
this same trick should work on the uBitx as well.
If your issue is an issue with menu settings or needing a to go through some?
calibration sequence, I defer to others here more familiar with current firmware.
Jerry, KE7ER?
If there's a nearby AM broadcast station down around 1mhz,
try tuning that in.? Or whatever else might be especially loud in your area.
Can you hear a nearby AM broadcast station when you tune down around 1MHZ
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On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 02:58 PM, Patrick Peter Rosney wrote:
Hello to? One & All...
?
Put together this uBitx . I have double checked all the wiring and all is correct .
But when I power it up all I can hear is?? hiss? from the speaker . I uploaded V5 Firmware but this has made no difference . I have the radio connected to?
50 feet of wire which is outside the Shack & up about 12 feet in the air.?
Not great?@ TROUBLESHOOTING? but have a feeling it is the settings that are not correct ?? Have seen a few posts from people with similar problems?
but I dont?know where to start and dont?really understand digital radio & SDR in general .?
Anybody got any? ?simple things I could check or try? ....and assume I know nothing ( which I dont ! )?
Thanks for reading?
Kind Regards?
Patrick? Ei2if?
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My son did not have time to go into great detail. I'll find out and report it later.
My son lives about 3000 miles away (KY to CA) so while swapping radios to see if the problem follows the radio is a good idea, it is not practical.
I'll find out more later and report it here.
Bob ¡ª KK5R
On Saturday, November 14, 2020, 7:16:26 PM EST, Jerry Gaffke via groups.io <jgaffke@...> wrote:
Maybe try swapping uBitx's with your son.
See if the problem follows the rig or stays with the QTH.
Out of curiosity, do all these extra carriers move at the same speed
as normal signals as he tunes through them, or at some faster rate?
Jerry, KE7ER
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 04:06 PM, Bob Lunsford wrote:
As many of you know, I gave my V6 to my son in Sacramento, CA. He's an avid QRPer and would rather make a contact with low power/QRP than with a kilowatt.
?
His first impression is that the radio is great. I ordered two AGC boards (will arrive on Tuesday) and plan to send one of them to him for his V6
?
However, I got a message from him today and he said:
?
The uBITX radio was acting funny yesterday after work. The receiver was full of am carriers. Even on 80 way early in the afternoon long before the band ever opened. Hope it¡¯s not acting up. May go to HRO next week and buy a little manual antenna tuner to dedicate to the qrp radios.
?
Since he lives in Sacramento and there are some industry and hospitals not far from where he lives, I suspect there is some RF generated and he's hearing some harmonics. Since radios shine best (for him) on some mountaintop away from the city, I hope this will be the answer. I know the V6 is not a $1000 radio with technology that reduces/eliminates most interference, some design idiosyncrasies have to be endured and this is one area where the price of the radio has been kept low compared to radios designed for country club elites. Otherwise, I'd not be able to afford one. Ha
?
Does anyone have other ideas regarding the signals he heard? I told him to try it again later to see if the signals are still there ... or what!
?
I have heard others comment re the radio being bothered, sometimes, with strong signals but to be flooded with what seems to be harmonics is a new one on me ... BUT I do not have vast experience with the V6 and the uBITX radios in general as some in this forum do.
?
Bob ¡ª KK5R
?
?
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I put a home made broadcast band filter in the rf Path of my one bitx and a kit one in the rf path of my v6. They kill broadcast AM interference from KDKA which is a 50kw blowtorch not? 10 miles from my home.? You can see it pointed out in the pic I attached. It goes in the same line as the kit projects agc board.
As many of you know, I gave my V6 to my son in Sacramento, CA. He's an avid QRPer and would rather make a contact with low power/QRP than with a kilowatt.
His first impression is that the radio is great. I ordered two AGC boards (will arrive on Tuesday) and plan to send one of them to him for his V6
However, I got a message from him today and he said:
The uBITX radio was acting funny yesterday after work. The receiver was
full of am carriers. Even on 80 way early in the afternoon long before
the band ever opened. Hope it¡¯s not acting up. May go to HRO next week
and buy a little manual antenna tuner to dedicate to the qrp radios.
Since he lives in Sacramento and there are some industry and hospitals not far from where he lives, I suspect there is some RF generated and he's hearing some harmonics. Since radios shine best (for him) on some mountaintop away from the city, I hope this will be the answer. I know the V6 is not a $1000 radio with technology that reduces/eliminates most interference, some design idiosyncrasies have to be endured and this is one area where the price of the radio has been kept low compared to radios designed for country club elites. Otherwise, I'd not be able to afford one. Ha
Does anyone have other ideas regarding the signals he heard? I told him to try it again later to see if the signals are still there ... or what!
I have heard others comment re the radio being bothered, sometimes, with strong signals but to be flooded with what seems to be harmonics is a new one on me ... BUT I do not have vast experience with the V6 and the uBITX radios in general as some in this forum do.
Bob ¡ª KK5R
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Maybe try swapping uBitx's with your son.
See if the problem follows the rig or stays with the QTH.
Out of curiosity, do all these extra carriers move at the same speed
as normal signals as he tunes through them, or at some faster rate?
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 04:06 PM, Bob Lunsford wrote:
As many of you know, I gave my V6 to my son in Sacramento, CA. He's an avid QRPer and would rather make a contact with low power/QRP than with a kilowatt.
?
His first impression is that the radio is great. I ordered two AGC boards (will arrive on Tuesday) and plan to send one of them to him for his V6
?
However, I got a message from him today and he said:
?
The uBITX radio was acting funny yesterday after work. The receiver was full of am carriers. Even on 80 way early in the afternoon long before the band ever opened. Hope it¡¯s not acting up. May go to HRO next week and buy a little manual antenna tuner to dedicate to the qrp radios.
?
Since he lives in Sacramento and there are some industry and hospitals not far from where he lives, I suspect there is some RF generated and he's hearing some harmonics. Since radios shine best (for him) on some mountaintop away from the city, I hope this will be the answer. I know the V6 is not a $1000 radio with technology that reduces/eliminates most interference, some design idiosyncrasies have to be endured and this is one area where the price of the radio has been kept low compared to radios designed for country club elites. Otherwise, I'd not be able to afford one. Ha
?
Does anyone have other ideas regarding the signals he heard? I told him to try it again later to see if the signals are still there ... or what!
?
I have heard others comment re the radio being bothered, sometimes, with strong signals but to be flooded with what seems to be harmonics is a new one on me ... BUT I do not have vast experience with the V6 and the uBITX radios in general as some in this forum do.
?
Bob ¡ª KK5R
?
?
|
As many of you know, I gave my V6 to my son in Sacramento, CA. He's an avid QRPer and would rather make a contact with low power/QRP than with a kilowatt.
His first impression is that the radio is great. I ordered two AGC boards (will arrive on Tuesday) and plan to send one of them to him for his V6
However, I got a message from him today and he said:
The uBITX radio was acting funny yesterday after work. The receiver was
full of am carriers. Even on 80 way early in the afternoon long before
the band ever opened. Hope it¡¯s not acting up. May go to HRO next week
and buy a little manual antenna tuner to dedicate to the qrp radios.
Since he lives in Sacramento and there are some industry and hospitals not far from where he lives, I suspect there is some RF generated and he's hearing some harmonics. Since radios shine best (for him) on some mountaintop away from the city, I hope this will be the answer. I know the V6 is not a $1000 radio with technology that reduces/eliminates most interference, some design idiosyncrasies have to be endured and this is one area where the price of the radio has been kept low compared to radios designed for country club elites. Otherwise, I'd not be able to afford one. Ha
Does anyone have other ideas regarding the signals he heard? I told him to try it again later to see if the signals are still there ... or what!
I have heard others comment re the radio being bothered, sometimes, with strong signals but to be flooded with what seems to be harmonics is a new one on me ... BUT I do not have vast experience with the V6 and the uBITX radios in general as some in this forum do.
Bob ¡ª KK5R
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Gerard
Bob Lunsford
