Re: removing self from bitx20 forum
Gerry,
You are not alone but this hobby always seems to offer something fun and enjoyable, even if it¡¯s just the coffee slurping fellowship of older hams at a MacDonalds. ?Last night our club presentation was about an impending problem (a piece of our antenna building up with ice and falling 400 feet into the roof of the newsroom at the TV station down below) we may have with our repeater antenna 400 feet up a TV station tower and how to raise the $2500 we will need to fix it. ?We also met with two younger kids who are studying for their Tech license. ?I helped carry many boxes of radio equipment that a local ham is selling to our club to clear out his shack before his ¡°time¡± comes. ?And another younger ham brought over a ¡°chair¡± he had 3D printed to hold my handheld and a pad of paper and pens. I would call it a successful ?day in the life of an old ham. ?I can still build kits but that day is slowly ending¡. This hobby still brings ideas to think about to my brain, something to occupy idle time in my day, and a warm feeling to my heart as I lie down at night. ?Not to mention all the friends I have made with my comments to some of these email groups¡. St Peter doncha call me cuz I am too busy¡..?
Dave K8WPE since 1960 David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad
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On Sep 27, 2022, at 11:49 AM, Gerald Sherman <ve4gks@...> wrote:
?
Just a comment here:
There are those of us who don't belong in the "hot iron &
bare board" club, either because the eyesight isn't up to it or
the hands aren't steady enough (or both).? I have no depth
perception (blind in one eye), so I pretty well have to pass on
some of the kit work.? My computer programming days were done with
the RS-274 G-code language used in CNC work.? I'm getting up in
years (late 70's).? I'm still trying to learn new skills, but I'm
a bit slower than I used to be.
Gerry Sherman
Sent by the Thunderbird
On 2022-09-27 15:28, ajparent1/kb1gmx
wrote:
When parts were like popcorn everybody was doing it.
To do a design and manufacture takes time, and money the latter
is for buying parts stock and also sitting on that stock until
enough
are sold to recover the cost.? Kit business is a low volume
activity.
Since the pandemic factories have closed, at least one had a
major fire, that makes ICs and semiconductor scarce and far more
expensive.? That is a challenge as a design once fixed and in
manufacture may suddenly need to be changed to accommodate
a new part like programming will be required to support that
change.
Its not as easy as it looks.
Allison
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Please use the forum, offline and private will go to bit bucket.
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Dave, It would be unusual to have the screws missing. The could have slipped out of the pounch into the box or spilled out onto th3 table. Do check, pse. - f
On Wed, Sep 28, 2022, 3:45 PM David Wilcox K8WPE via <Djwilcox01= [email protected]> wrote: The local hardware usually has some metric screws as they are more and more found in equipment made in other countries. But you would be better served to just order a kit of various metric screws from eBay.? I have been collecting screws and other mini parts for years whenever I took something apart to see how it worked, so when I need some metric screws I usually can find some.?
Dave K8WPE? David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad ?Thanks. I'll see if my local hardware store has any.? Most of their stuff is SAE, but they have some metric.
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The local hardware usually has some metric screws as they are more and more found in equipment made in other countries. But you would be better served to just order a kit of various metric screws from eBay. ?I have been collecting screws and other mini parts for years whenever I took something apart to see how it worked, so when I need some metric screws I usually can find some.?
Dave K8WPE? David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad
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On Sep 27, 2022, at 7:45 PM, Mark Erbaugh <mark.election@...> wrote:
?Thanks. I'll see if my local hardware store has any.? Most of their stuff is SAE, but they have some metric.
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Re: sBitx - multiple instances and issues
Ha! I was afraid I was the only one to goof!
On 28/09/2022 9:10 AM, kc5kwz wrote:
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I have had this happen too. One click too many opened another
instance of sBitx.?
-------- Original message --------
Date: 9/27/22 10:20 PM (GMT-06:00)
Subject: [BITX20] sBitx - multiple instances and issues
I stumbled upon my sBitx with a dead screen with no display of
signals etc.
After a few anxious moments and analysis I found that my "double
clicking" on the
icon resulted with 2 instances of sBitx running and only the
underlying
first sBitx
screen works.
If any such weird behavior happens, close the sBitx and you may
find another
running one below that should be normal!
73, Raj vu2zap
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Open Terminal and type
sudo raspi-config
go down to Display Options
Down to VNC Resolutions (The wording varies to the os, I use 64 bit os if I remember rightly the 32 bit one says something different but it is pretty obvious)
I don't have an sbitx (yet) but all my radio stuff is done using a pi4 via vnc?
Richard G7OED
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I have noticed noise ( sounds like wind ) coming over the speaker when transmitting ssb and people say its in my audio as well mic is at 25 comp is at 0 any ideas ? Sbitx # 00128 ? ? ? Sent from for Windows ?
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VNC seems interesting. I might try doing this once I get my sBITx back up and running as a headless unit, like the flex radios.
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Just trying this out for some good old data analysis. I don¡¯t know if this will help or not, but it might help pinpoint specific issues. If you feel that it lacks other issues we can try again.
Thank you for voting.
Results
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Re: sBitx - multiple instances and issues
I have had this happen too. One click too many opened another instance of sBitx.?
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-------- Original message -------- From: Raj vu2zap <rajendrakumargg@...> Date: 9/27/22 10:20 PM (GMT-06:00) Subject: [BITX20] sBitx - multiple instances and issues
I stumbled upon my sBitx with a dead screen with no display of signals etc. After a few anxious moments and analysis I found that my "double clicking" on the icon resulted with 2 instances of sBitx running and only the underlying first sBitx screen works. If any such weird behavior happens, close the sBitx and you may find another running one below that should be normal! 73, Raj vu2zap
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sBitx - multiple instances and issues
I stumbled upon my sBitx with a dead screen with no display of signals etc.
After a few anxious moments and analysis I found that my "double clicking" on the
icon resulted with 2 instances of sBitx running and only the underlying first sBitx
screen works.
If any such weird behavior happens, close the sBitx and you may find another
running one below that should be normal!
73, Raj vu2zap
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Thank you , great information. I will email more details of my adventure later.? Thank you and have?a good night. Phil
Phil, sorry my story might be extended. First, try deleting the settings file located in the data folder of the sBITx folder. I have seen some posts about having a corrupt file. If that doesn't work, here is my story.
I have unit 139. I got mine with everything working fine at first until my finals blew as I turned up the watts. I replaced it with the extra set of finals; however, either one or both of those finals were bad. After some research and a neighbor that works with transistors daily, it sounds like they can sometimes be bad when you get them from the factory. So I believe that is what happened to my second set. I ordered some on Amazon, and after another set, I finally got some that worked great, but when I started transmitting, the Raspberry Pi would shut down. I decided to troubleshoot by taking out the 5v voltage regulator and hooking up the pi directly with a USB C power plug. Once I transmitted, the sBITx froze up--hard to explain--I could hear the relay switch slowly engaging, and then the IF gain on the waterfall turned completely red. I quickly turned off the sBITx--mind you, I had my antenna tuned and hooked up. The antenna worked great with my Xiegu G90, so I took it off the culprit list. I left it off and found my finals were shorted out again the next day when I had time to take the multimeter out. I replaced them with another set of transistors and decided to tune the driver and PA bias. From here, I had no issues transmitting and could hear my signal come through , but I noticed I was receiving no signals on my waterfall or audibly. The digital audio chip's line-in on the digital board might have been overpowered. How I don't know and this is just the best guess as I don't know the full path of the signal coming in from the antenna. I know this might not help you, but hopefully, you can get something out of it.
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Here is a picture of the red waterfall. 
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I will have to look at that, thanks Butch. Here is what my waterfall looks like. When I tune around it does not change. I also have to turn up my IF gain to about 80 to 90 to see anything. 
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Phil, sorry my story might be extended. First, try deleting the settings file located in the data folder of the sBITx folder. I have seen some posts about having a corrupt file. If that doesn't work, here is my story.
I have unit 139. I got mine with everything working fine at first until my finals blew as I turned up the watts. I replaced it with the extra set of finals; however, either one or both of those finals were bad. After some research and a neighbor that works with transistors daily, it sounds like they can sometimes be bad when you get them from the factory. So I believe that is what happened to my second set. I ordered some on Amazon, and after another set, I finally got some that worked great, but when I started transmitting, the Raspberry Pi would shut down. I decided to troubleshoot by taking out the 5v voltage regulator and hooking up the pi directly with a USB C power plug. Once I transmitted, the sBITx froze up--hard to explain--I could hear the relay switch slowly engaging, and then the IF gain on the waterfall turned completely red. I quickly turned off the sBITx--mind you, I had my antenna tuned and hooked up. The antenna worked great with my Xiegu G90, so I took it off the culprit list. I left it off and found my finals were shorted out again the next day when I had time to take the multimeter out. I replaced them with another set of transistors and decided to tune the driver and PA bias. From here, I had no issues transmitting and could hear my signal come through sdrutah.org, but I noticed I was receiving no signals on my waterfall or audibly. The digital audio chip's line-in on the digital board might have been overpowered. How I don't know and this is just the best guess as I don't know the full path of the signal coming in from the antenna. I know this might not help you, but hopefully, you can get something out of it.
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Re: File /uBITX_6_N8ME_2_VU3GAO_Mods.zip uploaded
#file-notice
Curtis,
In the zip file, there is?N8ME uBITX Firmware User Manual.pdf which is the manual on how to use the software.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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I have no transmitting power.? I tested mine radio #135 on a dummy load through a SWR/Power meter and got zero power out.? I am still waiting for assistance from HF Signal . I had to change the Final on the second day I received?it. Please let me know what you find out . I will do the same. Good Luck, Phil KB3UUL
On Tue, Sep 27, 2022 at 7:27 PM Butch < kc7grh@...> wrote: I'm having similar problems with no sound or received signals. this problem sees random. I also get LOT of static and poping with the waterfall yellow to red even with a dummy load on the antenna jack. I'm beginning to suspect the receive relay K9 may be the cause 
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I have VNC running on my main cpu ,,, showing my ARCO rotor?
Sbitx & RFkit amplifier, and now I CAN READ THE FONTS ON THE
SBITX !!!!!?
On 9/27/2022 7:58 PM, Mark Erbaugh
wrote:
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I am connecting to the Raspberry Pi in my sBitx via VNC (RealVNC)
on a RPi 400. The screen is the same resolution as the built in
screen (800 by 480?). Is there a way to have the VNC resolution be
higher?
Mark
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Re: File /uBITX_6_N8ME_2_VU3GAO_Mods.zip uploaded
#file-notice
Anyone have a manual of any kind? Trying to understand the menu options like RF ATT, TUNE, ETC.?
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# 157 was missing 2 screws also.
I'll check my local hardware store.
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-------- Original message -------- From: Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> Date: 9/27/22 6:41 PM (GMT-06:00) Subject: Re: [BITX20] sBitx 151 is alive!
They are M4, counter sink screws. I received my sBitx yesterday. It would have been delivered last Monday, but I put a one week vacation hold on it. This was the partial kit as I already had a RPi4 and screen (and microphone from my uBitx). It's assembled and working on received. However, I was missing three machine screws from the case. Does anyone know the specs of the screws?
With my RPi 400, I am using an external MVME SSD in a USB case. It's much quicker than the SD card. Has anyone considered doing this with the sBitx??
73,
Mark, N8ME
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I am connecting to the Raspberry Pi in my sBitx via VNC (RealVNC) on a RPi 400. The screen is the same resolution as the built in screen (800 by 480?). Is there a way to have the VNC resolution be higher?
Mark
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David Wilcox K8WPE
Raj vu2zap
Butch
Mark Erbaugh