Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
Yes, Mark, With VHF, you want more turns rather than fewer and a brass bolt makes a great, inexpensive inductor tuning mechanism. - f
On Sat, Aug 20, 2022, 11:33 PM Mark - N7EKU < n7eku@...> wrote: I don't get it,
How would brass make a good core for VHF?? Its reluctance is higher than air, thus it reduces the inductance of whatever is wound around it.? Logically this would result in a lower Q than using an air wound inductor.
Cheers and 73
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
I don't get it,
How would brass make a good core for VHF?? Its reluctance is higher than air, thus it reduces the inductance of whatever is wound around it.? Logically this would result in a lower Q than using an air wound inductor.
Cheers and 73
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Re: Adding simple S meter to v6
Jim - Thanks - I did reference that video, but the reason I went back to KD8CEC's page is because I wanted to use his simpler S-meter circuit, using an LM358 chip. The penny has dropped on watching the Lockdown Electronics video is that I am using an *unused* pin on the Arduino - A7 clearly doesn't go anywhere, so I will solder to that. I will pick up the VOL_HIGH from the Audio1 connector on the motherboard.  The yellow & blue wires in the image are the new feeds to the Nextion - I fitted right-angled headers to the screen connector to make these easier to fit. Mark - thank you for the detailed response, but that confused me further! KD8CEC was describing adding an S-meter to a v6, like I am, so I assuming his circuit boards are the same I am working with - OEM boards - so I am not sure why I need to connect to SDA or SCL - Ian never mentions them? I have indeed built a second voltage regulator board to attach to the 12V connector on the motherboard - I am driving the Nextion from there, and will power the S-meter board from here, too - that way the Raduino's regulator is just handling the Raduino... 73 all, Jonathan G5LUX
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Hi Dave,
It is true, it is an issue that I will have to solve in the next version. It is also true that the ESP32 seems to be more robust than specified, so far, I am not aware of any problems with the various units I have used.
¸é²¹³¾¨®²Ô
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Re: Adding simple S meter to v6
Jonathan,
The main challenge is picking up the I2C (SDA/SCL) pins. Unless you have a custom Raduino, you need to identify the pins on the upside Nano and solder two wires to the top (or at least that is what I did on my OEM Raduino). A4 is SDA and A5 is SCL. Want to keep the i2c wires short and I would keep them away from the SSI551. It also uses I2C and being an analog device, easy to get noise.
Although there is a 5V out on the Nano, not sure it can drive a second nano. So you need to pull 5v from the 7805 (I assume that the V6 Raduino still uses a 7805 on board???). I have heard that you want to avoid using the 5V you provided to the Nextion because of noise. Can't confirm that if you don't you get noise...? I put separate 5V power supplies in my radio, one dedicated to the Nextion and one for everything else.?
A WIP:??? ?Works, but next gen will include better wiring distribution for 12v.
The Nextion is pretty simple, cut the yellow wire and have the one from your Raduino go to the RX pin, and then route the one from D9 to the Nextion. Final wire is the input from Vol Hi. That requires splicing in a wire to bring it over to the extra Nano. I have planned to use a shield cable there. Saw somewhere that you only want to connect the shield on one side to avoid ground loops. But my aged brain might be skipping a beat on that one. ;-)
73
Mark
AJ6CU
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Re: Adding simple S meter to v6
In the earlier post you reference this video which I am also using.?? See starting at 12 min 30 sec into the video he discusses wiring issues and you can see how he wired his SWR... more detail at 13 min 30 seconds Hope this helps... curious as to what you find as I am doing the same hopefully?this weekend?although already falling?behind..
On Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 11:56 AM Jonathan G5LUX < jratty@...> wrote: I am following KD8CEC's build for the simple S meter, having added the Nextion screen, from here:
Having built the simple board, I am stumped by the wiring: I cannot relate the HFSignals wire-up schematic to any of the pin configurations on my Raduino board.
Ian suggests the following wiring:
(The four red numbers correspond to the 4 wires from the S-meter board).
What I can't understand is where those numbers relate to the Raduino board? There are 26 pins on the schematic, but the Raduino board has 18 pins on its connector to the motherboard, and the Nano board has two rows of 15 pins - which are marked quite differently to the pins on the schematic (A7 on the Nano is the 11th from the left, not the first). And is line 3 (above, called VOL_HIGH) connected to the fourth port on the volume connector on the front right edge of the motherboard, marked as Audio1?
I guess that in theory, I could pick up the +5V & And from a suitable point elsewhere, but I'd like to make sure I have correctly identified A7, one of the Keyer inputs.
73
Jonathan
G5LUX
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Adding simple S meter to v6
I am following KD8CEC's build for the simple S meter, having added the Nextion screen, from here: Having built the simple board, I am stumped by the wiring: I cannot relate the HFSignals wire-up schematic to any of the pin configurations on my Raduino board. Ian suggests the following wiring:  (The four red numbers correspond to the 4 wires from the S-meter board). What I can't understand is where those numbers relate to the Raduino board? There are 26 pins on the schematic, but the Raduino board has 18 pins on its connector to the motherboard, and the Nano board has two rows of 15 pins - which are marked quite differently to the pins on the schematic (A7 on the Nano is the 11th from the left, not the first). And is line 3 (above, called VOL_HIGH) connected to the fourth port on the volume connector on the front right edge of the motherboard, marked as Audio1? I guess that in theory, I could pick up the +5V & And from a suitable point elsewhere, but I'd like to make sure I have correctly identified A7, one of the Keyer inputs. 73 Jonathan G5LUX
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
maybe use even thinner walls?? or make the walls from a honeycomb (not solid) wall??
greetz sigi dg9bfc
ps i still think that a small ferrite with fewer turns (to get the same inductance) has better shieding (most of the rf is inside core and not around) but hey ... hamradio is experimental physics .. not?!?
Am 20.08.2022 um 03:43 schrieb Craig Wadsworth:
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Show quoted text
Here is one of the 25mmToroid.stl files printed in PLA at 5% infill, then cut open with a small angle grinder. It looks like more internal open space is needed. Has anyone figured out layer thickness, infill proportion, etc. similar to Ashhar¡¯s toroids?
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It's part of the assembly instructions.?
Good luck, Scott
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Jonathan,
The issue comes in that the newer (i.e. more recently purchased) screens require the use of the latest Nextion GUI editor. And for what ever reason, the latest version produces code that requires more memory than the older version. So if you have an "older screen", you can use tft's generated by the more efficient older Nextion editor and there are no worries...
However, if you are just getting into this, your screen will be a "newer" model and require the use of the newer Nextion editor...
The first impact that I have seen is that the amount of data that can be transferred via the QR code function has to be reduced to fit the function into the Basic versions.? Just went thru this with the smaller screens <=3.2 and I had to reduce the QR code max text from 80 to 50 in some cases. Does this mean you cannot get a full online configuration backup? I don't know, didn't test it. And of course you can always just use Ubitx Data Manager to create a local configuration file -- a recommended action since it has been a long time since anybody has heard from KD8CEC...
Just my thoughts here in that I prefer to reduce the risk of buying twice. But you are right, older screen, no intention of enhancing the screen, no problem. Newer screen, maybe some limited functionality restriction.
73
Mark
AJ6CU
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Aaron,
The best solution is to get a new card.? Amazon has them with next-day delivery if you are a Prime member.? The low cost is not worth waiting to spend the gas to go to the store.:
Did you try the SD Foundation formatter?? That has worked for some of the problem cards that I have had.
The other option is IF you are comfortable that you know which disk you are changing using the Windows Disk Management tools, you could try removing the partition in the 128Gb card and set up a primary partition of just 32Gb formatted to FAT32.? I believe that I read where this has worked.? The danger is that changing the wrong disk drive could wipe out your PC or lose data.? This is not worth the risk for a $6 expense.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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The party continues.? Evan I'm pretty sure that both of the Nextion Displays (2.8" & 3.5") are basic and are touchscreen. The SD card that I was using was no good. Now the only Micro SD card that I have is a 128GB that is planned for my Raspberry Pi. I tried that one and discovered Windows will not format a SD card larger than 32GB to a FAT32 Format. My 128GB card was formatted to EXFAT and my Nextion Displays will not accept EXFAT, only FAT32. So I will be looking for a way to format my 128GB SD Card to FAT32 until I can get someone to take me to the store.? to be continued............ -- '72
Aaron K5ATG
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Hi Jonathan,
Your statement is correct for the software in the Nano on the Raduino board.? For the 1.2 version of the software, you need to know if you have a v5 or later uBitx, the type of display you will be using, and if you will be adding a second Nano for other processing like S meter or Morse decoding.? That is described in the FileNameInfo.txt file in the zip archive.? For a Nextion display, you want either the?UBITXV5_CEC_V1.200_NX.hex for a single Nano system or the?UBITXV5_CEC_V1.200_NX_S.hex for the two Nano uBitx system.
The Nextion model comes into play with the screen files loaded into the Nextion.? Those are very dependent on the model and size.? The original model used was the 2.4" Basic Nextion.? Then the files were converted?to larger displays and the Enhanced Nextion version.? The recent addition of the Discovery and Intelligent models requires the original HMI files of the appropriate size to be recompiled with the new editor.? Size is important as the Nextion systems are bitmapped graphics and not scalable.? That may have changed since the last time I worked with the Nextion editor.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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I went through all of the posts I could find about the difference between the basic and enhanced Nextions for the upgrade: I may have missed something in the volume of posts, but the prevailing opinion was that it made no difference to the KD8CEC firmware in using either a basic or enhanced model.
73
Jonathan
G5LUX
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
For VHF work, do not ignore the lowly brass. They make excellent cores for toroids as well as solenoid inductors.
I have used solid teflon on hf. It gave good result but the best is RF grade Nylon.
On Sat, Aug 20, 2022, 9:03 AM Mark - N7EKU < n7eku@...> wrote: The test would be to measure the Q of a solid 3d printed toroid vs a hollow form one,
I couldn't find any posts about that, are there some here?? G3YNH talks a lot about materials, but mostly relating to capacitors where it makes a big difference.? For formers he just quotes two amateurs who did some experiments on dowels vs PVC antenna loading coils.? I'm not sure I would discount anything at this point without doing serious measurements.? And remember, in measuring coil Q everything needs to be controlled, such as coil placement from nearby surfaces and objects for example.
Micrometals uses phenolic material for their VHF toroid cores yet according to the chart it is a poor choice.? I hardly think they would choose something that give poor coil Q when they could have chosen PS for example.
Another good test would be to purchase some phenolic cores (material 0) and then copy it on a 3D printer and make Q measurements.
73
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
I have used solid teflon on hf. It gave good result but the best is RF grade Nylon.
On Sat, Aug 20, 2022, 9:03 AM Mark - N7EKU < n7eku@...> wrote: The test would be to measure the Q of a solid 3d printed toroid vs a hollow form one,
I couldn't find any posts about that, are there some here?? G3YNH talks a lot about materials, but mostly relating to capacitors where it makes a big difference.? For formers he just quotes two amateurs who did some experiments on dowels vs PVC antenna loading coils.? I'm not sure I would discount anything at this point without doing serious measurements.? And remember, in measuring coil Q everything needs to be controlled, such as coil placement from nearby surfaces and objects for example.
Micrometals uses phenolic material for their VHF toroid cores yet according to the chart it is a poor choice.? I hardly think they would choose something that give poor coil Q when they could have chosen PS for example.
Another good test would be to purchase some phenolic cores (material 0) and then copy it on a 3D printer and make Q measurements.
73
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
The test would be to measure the Q of a solid 3d printed toroid vs a hollow form one,
I couldn't find any posts about that, are there some here?? G3YNH talks a lot about materials, but mostly relating to capacitors where it makes a big difference.? For formers he just quotes two amateurs who did some experiments on dowels vs PVC antenna loading coils.? I'm not sure I would discount anything at this point without doing serious measurements.? And remember, in measuring coil Q everything needs to be controlled, such as coil placement from nearby surfaces and objects for example.
Micrometals uses phenolic material for their VHF toroid cores yet according to the chart it is a poor choice.? I hardly think they would choose something that give poor coil Q when they could have chosen PS for example.
Another good test would be to purchase some phenolic cores (material 0) and then copy it on a 3D printer and make Q measurements.
73
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Re: Farhan's Analog Again The Daylight Radio
I am updating the stl files. I will link them up on the blog page of the Daylight radio. - f
Where can the .STL files for the 3d printed plastic toroids be found?
The PTO VFO one I have found easily. But the toroids are proving more elusive.?
Or is that left as an exercise to the homebrewer??
I have the audio chain built and starting on the product detector and BFO, so I'll soon get closer to the VHF, TX filters and the RX band pass filter and the toroids become more relevant.?
-Ismo OH2FTG
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
Never mind, sorry, I just re-read Ashhar¡¯s post:
¡°Ashhar Farhan Aug 15
. . . The inside of the toroid should be hollow and it not hollow it should have as little in-fill as possible. This is the key to high performance 3D printed toroids . . . ¡°
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Re: DAYLIGHT RADIO - PLASTIC TOROID MASTER
Here is one of the 25mmToroid.stl files printed in PLA at 5% infill, then cut open with a small angle grinder. It looks like more internal open space is needed. Has anyone figured out layer thickness, infill proportion, etc. similar to Ashhar¡¯s toroids?
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Jim K5KKB Steeb
Aaron K5ATG
Craig Wadsworth
