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Is there any shematic how to assemble the Adafruit board to the ubitx. Ich have the board and Compiled the Software but now i don?t know where to solder the audio in. Vol-H or on other position?

On Mon, Mar 29, 2021, at 03:38 AM, Mike wrote:

I know I am going to need a separate 5 volt supply for the Nextion 5 inch display. I have looked online and found some, but I am not sure they are what I should use, they seem to be adjustable for voltage.

Mike,

A separate supply regulator is all that is needed.? I would suggest duplicating the 5volt circuit that is on the Raduion and connect the new regulator to the 5volt power input of the Nextion display.? It can be a simple as the 7805 chip connected to the 12volt line feeding the rig with a 1?f capacitor on the output line to the Nextion.? I would attach the new regulator to the case if metal as a heatsink, or add a heatsink to it.

73
Evan
AC9TU

?OM Jerry!
I really appreciate your help. I'll try out your leads and revert in some time as there are some medical issues at home.?
Thanks for your time and effort to reply. It's so nice and technically exciting!
73

Dear OM Evan,?
i am really excited to see your logical pointers. I will try these out but after some time due to medical issues at home.?
Ofcourse, I will update you as to how it goes.
Thanks at ton!
73

Thanks OM Raj! I really appreciate your help. I'll try out the above leads and revert back but after sometime due to medical issues at home.?
73

Hello Mike,

On my Cocorico" Ubitx?I have provided a power supply to the Nextion screen with as a power source either by the 12/13v power supply or by a small transformer separately. The choice is made with a solder jumper. One can complete with a pico fuse.
The regulator can give 2A.
The self is important (See Ubitx site) and I hope to have less noise with a separate transformer, but all this is under construction

nb: the 470?f is a polarised capacitor (Error on schématic)
cdt

I know I am going to need a separate 5 volt supply for the Nextion 5 inch display. I have looked online and found some, but I am not sure they are what I should use, they seem to be adjustable for voltage.
?I have found some for rolling your own using the 7805. Or is there one in particular to build that is better?
Is there a link to directions for making one? If so, do I use the 13.8 volt in to feed it?

? All my projects got put on hold during the few nice days, then I planned for the bad days and that did not work at all.

I have been offline for the last 4 days, we had a short 3 second power outage and it destroyed my OS startup, it damaged files. I had to finally do a clean install and lost all my links for everything. Including where to buy pieces and parts. Years worth of links, I can't begin to remember them. Everybody should remember, BACKUP<BACKUP everything to disks. It can all go in a second.
?Had to rejoin the group even, finally getting most of it restored.

? ?Thanks, Mike

Hi again Justin,

A couple of more quick questions for you. I bought the same ATU from Ali Express, How long did it take to be delivered? Did it come with complete instructions. ( last one) Was the SWR meter difficult to hook up? Thanks again.

73,?
Robert, AG6LK?

Scott,

If you want to measure power, the cheapest way is to use a diode RF probe plus a DVM.

I would use a 1n5711 schottky diode instead of trying to find a 1n34a.
A 1n4148 or 1n914 would also work when looking at output from a transmitter,
but are not quite as sensitive as the 1n5711 when looking a low level signals
at the various transmitter stages.

Total cost for the RF probe should be under a dollar.
A DVM might cost $10, but you need one anyway.
All that the DVM has to do is measure DC volts, nothing more.

The manual for your DVM may show the input impedance of your DVM when measuring volts.
The N5ESE probe assumes your DVM has an input impedance of around 11 megaohms.
What your DVM input impedance actually is may not be important for signal tracing, but it
is important if we are to accurately measure how many watts your transmitter is putting out.

If the DVM has an input impedance of 11meg, then the voltage read when measuring a battery
of some sort will be cut in half when you add an 11meg resistor in series with your DVM probe.

Let's assume you have a 10meg resistor.??
Assume you have a 9v battery that your DVM measures to be 9.135 volts.
But with the 10meg resistor in series, you measure 3.762v on the DVM.
What is the input impedance of your DVM?

The voltage across the 10meg resistor is? 9.135v-3.762v = 5.373v,
and the current flowing is (9.135-3.762)volts/10000000ohms =?0.000000537 amps.
That same current is flowing through the meter, creating the 3.762 volt drop that the meter measures,
so the impedance of the meter is 3.762volts/0.000000537amps = 7006000 ohms, or 7meg.

So to read rms volts with that 7meg DVM, we must scale the N5ESE 4.7meg resistor down
by a factor of 7meg/11meg,? to a value of 4.7*7/11 = 2.99meg.

Now, assume the transmitter is driving a 50 ohm dummy load, and our RF probe plus DVM
measures an rms voltage of 17.6 volts.? ?The RF current is 17.6volts/50ohms = 0.352 amps rms.
And the power is 17.6volts * 0.352amps = 6.20 watts.

Any resistor from 1 to 20 meg should be fine for this measurement, the math is all the same.
But keep your fingers off the wires, as your body might short things out with a resistance
of a few 100k ohms.

Using an 8.2meg resistor with my $1 Harbor Freight Cen-Tech meter,
I calculate an input resistance of 0.997 meg in both the 20v and 200v scales.
Using that same 8.2meg resistor, I see 10.90 meg on my Aneng 8002 meter.
So with the Aneng meter, I could use N5ESE's 4.7meg value.
For the Cen-Tech I should use a 470k resistor in order to measure RF signals
as a direct reading rms voltage on the meter.? The Cen-Tech will load down?
the circuit we are measuring a bit more than the Aneng, but it's still on the order
of a million ohms, so our 50 ohm circuits won't mind much.

Instead of doing all of that math, you could borrow a friends watt meter and determine a scale factor
to convert your DVM voltage readings to watts.? Since? ?volts*volts/ohms = watts, and your DVM
with RF probe has a reading proportional to rms volts, if you square the voltage reading
from your DVM, a constant scale factor should?give you watts.
For example, assume your meter shows 10 volts DC through the RF probe, and your friends
wattmeter shows 8.7 watts.? Then you go home and make some adjustments to the transmitter,
you now see 12 volts.? That means you now have 8.7watts * (12*12)/(10*10) = 12.53 watts.

To make these power measurements (and for other transmitter tests), you should have a 50 ohm dummy load.
I use four 3 watt 200 ohm metal film resistors in parallel for my 50 ohm dummy load.
Since they are in parallel, the resistance is 200/4 = 50 ohms, and the power they can dissipate is 4*3=12 watts.
But a single 3 watt 50 ohm resistor should do fine if fed 10 watts or less for just a few seconds.
as a bonus you get immediate feedback that there is some power involved because you can feel it get hot.
There are lots of cheap dummy load kits out there if you don't like the looks of a bunch of resistors
soldered to a bnc connector.


Doing all the above is fun and educational.
But it's probably not worth the trouble to wring a few more watts out of your uBitx.
Drive it too hard and it will put out a bad sounding signal.
Even before the signal sounds bad, there may well be illegal spurs and harmonics
as you start to press it.? Also, the more power out the hotter the IRF510's get,
and the more likely you are to damage them.
If you were to somehow double the power out of the uBitx, that is still only half
of one S-unit for the receiver at the far end, barely noticeable as Evan has said.
?
Jerry, KE7ER

On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 07:33 PM, Justin Bowser - KI5GKD wrote:

Let me start by saying I am so glad I "discovered" this little gem and all of the helpful folks in this esteemed group!? I finally have my V6 the way I want it (except for 2 screws) and once I got everything put back together today made 13 contacts with two non-US stations.? I suspect that having a contest going on helped a bit! ;-)

Here is what I have done

- Finished the case panel modifications and paint
- Added the Nextion 3.5" screen with associated firmware
- Integrated the 7x7 ATU into the radio case
- Installed a ND6T AGC board
- Relocated the 12V jack and volume control off-board
- Converted to a "proper" mic jack
- Removed BNC connector and relocated to back panel with SO-239
- Machined a better feeling tuning knob

I will try to figure out how to utilize the S-Meter output from the AGC board once I sort through all of the confusing pile of info on the net!? I guess maybe I'm not finished after all!? I suppose this is one of those projects (like my '57 Chevy) that is never really completely finished.

Here's what it looks like in final form.

?

Hi Justin,

The radio looks great!

I’m try to put the same printing for the volume, antenna, and different functions of the radio on my case. How did you put the white printing, “12v DC, Ant, USB. Amp” on the back of your case? It looks?professionally done. This is the effect I’m trying to get without much luck. Thanks in advance.

73,
Robert, AG6LK

On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 5:49 AM Evan Hand <elhandjr@...> wrote:

... I only wish there were a way to read what is currently set in the calibration values with the stock software as all of the other software that has been made available does.

Hi Evan,

I was able to solve this problem a while back. The following URL has
my notes + software.



Cheers,
Dhiru (VU3CER)

Scott

There are some nice qrp wattmeters around. Not sure which continent you are on, but NM0S has produced a nice kit that might still be available.??

If you have seen an S meter, every boost of 4X is power is about one S unit. So its not a huge difference whether your ubitx outputs 4 or 6 watts.? If you can operate where propagation is hot, you can thrive with lower power. Some have added a fan for ft8, but not going for every last watt helps. Also at higher drive levels efficiency suffers.??

73 curt

Gamaliel,

The short answer is that it depends.? First verify that there is an issue before considering, then verify without making changes where possible.? You can verify the calibration without making changes by tuning to a know AM signal.? As to the BFO, you can tune to an AM station and switch between the upper and lower sideband to see if there is a difference.? If there is, then adjusting the BFO would be a good thing to do.? I only wish there were a way to read what is currently set in the calibration values with the stock software?as all of the other software that has been made available does.? That is the reason for the waring, it is difficult to go back if you do not do it correctly.

That might be a good piece of code to write: a quick sketch to get the calibration values displayed so that they can be recorded and then reload the stock software.? I will look into that as a project for this spring.

73
Evan
AC9TU

Thank you everyone for the most helpful answers. That "work" thing just kinked my learning curve, and now I am done playing Boss for them, and can go back to being Newbie here.

So I have CAT control working well with WSJT-x and HRD. Excellent!

But I have a painfully stupid question - is it still necessary to align the v6.1? There was a piece of paper packaged with it that was a stern warning against doing an alignment, but it is possible that I misunderstood it. My assumption is before I hit xmit, it needs BFO alignment, right?

I don't have a way to measure RF power output of my ver.6.? Honestly, I don't even know what the tool is for the job.?

I do however have the ability to measure the power draw fairly accurately.??
RX? 13.56v min? .33A max settles in around 4.35W
TX? 13.36v min 1.64A max, settles in around 21.5W

This is during a 15 second FT8 TX on 20m.? My antenna SWR is 1.29.? Can I make any assumptions about the effective power output?? ?Obviously a lot of the power is being converted to heat, especially in the finals.? And, do these numbers look "proper"?? ? I would _love_ to try and get a bit more power out of the rig.??

I sure do love it though.? ?

Scott

It's been said that "an idle mind is the Devil's workshop," so I can truthfully tell the XYL that "The Devil made me do it!"? Now that my first BITX is finished I ordered another basic kit and an extruded aluminum enclosure and will start planning out my mobile rig.??

73,

Justin B.
KI5GKD

Evan - I was able to pull the pin from the raduino connector and solder a wire back onto it and hooked it to the s meter pad on the agc board.? Once I get the calibration figured out I'll be good to go.? Right now I have pretty decent response through S9 but no matter how strong the signal the "meter" never goes above S9.? Also, with just background noise I have S0 which should be about 2-3 according to Mr. Kenwood! :-D? I at least have something to watch now! ;-)? I'll get it worked out...

73,

Justin B.

Loeliger's book is a very tough read, can't recommend it unless you're coding for a Z80.
Tried re-reading it 40 years later, and I now clearly remember my original frustration.

The first two chapters are a word salad describing the Z80 code of later chapters,
and thus incomprehensible going in.? The description of the structure for
his dictionary entries in section 2.2 is worth staring at for a few hours, the rest of it
is worth browsing but not too thoroughly.? Where things really start being concrete
is the pseudo-code for the inner-interpreter of listing 3.1, amazingly short.at 18 lines.
But still tough to understand, as it recursively executes forth words, each defined as
a list of previously defined forth words, until those words bottom out as?primitive words
that are expressed as executable machine code.? And at 18 lines, it has been made
as tight as possible, and thus even more incomprehensible.? Note that "LA" in listing 3.1
is short for "Link Address", used to find the next entry during dictionary searches
while compiling a new word from words already in the dictionary.

I'm tempted to rewrite that inner interpreter as a recursive function call in C.
It should be far easier to understand, and almost trivial to write.
Could well be done in under his 18 lines.
And probably was done some 40+ years ago.

Those curious about Forth are far better off installing gforth, then digging through
Arv's link to "Starting Forth", which is apparently the K&R-C of the Forth language.


Jerry, KE7ER

Jack,

It gets confusing, and the size of the various integer and float types is critical information.
Easy to write a quick program using sizeof() to see how many bytes something occupies.
Between microcontrollers and 64 bit desktop processors, things vary considerably.
Best to use types from stdint.h such as uint32_t if you care,
though you still need to be aware of the natural size of int's on occasion.
Kind of makes sense that a double is still 4 bytes on a Nano, they can just define double to be float?
and still have most programs work on the limited resources of an ATMega328P.

This multiply (or any other operation) of unsigned and signed converting both to unsigned still bothers me though.
I tried some of the "-std=" flags to gcc on Ubuntu (c90,c99,c11,c17,c++11,c++14,c++18) for:? ? ?(short)-4 * (unsigned short)3
They all give the obvious result of vd=-12, do not do the C99 compliant conversion of -4 to unsigned like the Arduino IDE.
That's a weird one.

Jerry, KE7ER