Reid, that looks very good, a big benefit for the Bitx crowd, much appreciated. ? I will make that available to our local group. ?
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On Jul 23, 2020, at 03:34, Reed N <greenkid336600+groupsio@...> wrote:
?A number of folks over the months have asked for a manual for my software, so here you go:
Please do let me know if you find any errors, or if there are any missing bits or points of clarification I should make.
Reed
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Hi Jerry,
Glad to hear it! I can't take all the credit though. While I did put a lot of effort into cleaning things up and adding a couple features, there was a TON of code already written by other members of this community before I started.
Reed
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A number of folks over the months have asked for a manual for my software, so here you go:
Please do let me know if you find any errors, or if there are any missing bits or points of clarification I should make.
Reed
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Re: Building the ubitxv6 as SSB transmitter only
Eric
Also read the circuit descriptions at hfsignals website.
The ubitx uses many unique bidirectional amplifiers, so its a lot of subtraction to convert it to a transmitter. Yes clever switching to economize circuit blending.
Curt
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Re: Building the ubitxv6 as SSB transmitter only
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On Jul 22, 2020, at 19:40, Evan Hand <elhandjr@...> wrote:
?Eric, To answer your questions to the best of my knowledge: 1 - That is a typo on the schematic.? If you look at closeup pictures of the board you can see that all of the crystals are 11.059 MHz. 2 - The Product Detector/Mixer is a balanced version.? That means that the carrier is suppressed, but you still need to block the opposite sideband using the SSB filter.? Rather than having to adjust the BFO to change sidebands, it is easier to change the IF LO by a fixed amount.? This is probably done so that you do not need to adjust both the upper and lower BFO frequency since the SSB filter will be different depending on which sideband you are adjusting. 3 - K1 is switching the 12 power from the RX circuits to the TX circuits. 4 - M1/M2 removes the audio app stages from the Product Detector/Mixer and then Q74 grounds the audio amp input to eliminate any feedback loops. 5 - They are all lower power transformers, so almost any wire that fits the core would work.? I would use 22 to 28 AWG. 6 - The shielding is a requirement.? There are know linkage issues due to the layout of the board.? I would not recommend anything other than toroids or shielded cores for them. 7 - As far as I know, yes you could adjust T10.? If I remember correctly the IRF510s were developing 13 to 16 DB gain to get 10 watts.? Reversing that I would assume you will be in the 250-500 mW range of output.? That depends on the band as well. The TX, RX, M1, M2, etc... are tags that are showing connections to the other tags with the same designator.? That makes the schematic easier to read.? Otherwise, there would be a lot of wires showing all of the connections.? This is common practice for complex schematics. Others may have better information.? You also need to know that I have not built any of these circuits other than in kits.? I am mostly spouting what I understand of the theory. Good luck with your build. 73 Evan AC9TU
<uBITX_v6.2_PCB.png>
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Re: Building the ubitxv6 as SSB transmitter only
Eric,
I went back to double-check the wire size.? I pretty much shot from the hip on calling the gauge.? On checking the uBITX that I have, 28 or 30 gauge would be fine.? The 100 watt LPF that I have built uses 24 gauge wire.? 22 gauge would work, however, it might be hard to fit on the cores.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Re: Building the ubitxv6 as SSB transmitter only
Eric,
To answer your questions to the best of my knowledge:
1 - That is a typo on the schematic.? If you look at closeup pictures of the board you can see that all of the crystals are 11.059 MHz.
2 - The Product Detector/Mixer is a balanced version.? That means that the carrier is suppressed, but you still need to block the opposite sideband using the SSB filter.? Rather than having to adjust the BFO to change sidebands, it is easier to change the IF LO by a fixed amount.? This is probably done so that you do not need to adjust both the upper and lower BFO frequency since the SSB filter will be different depending on which sideband you are adjusting.
3 - K1 is switching the 12 power from the RX circuits to the TX circuits.
4 - M1/M2 removes the audio app stages from the Product Detector/Mixer and then Q74 grounds the audio amp input to eliminate any feedback loops.
5 - They are all lower power transformers, so almost any wire that fits the core would work.? I would use 22 to 28 AWG.
6 - The shielding is a requirement.? There are know linkage issues due to the layout of the board.? I would not recommend anything other than toroids or shielded cores for them.
7 - As far as I know, yes you could adjust T10.? If I remember correctly the IRF510s were developing 13 to 16 DB gain to get 10 watts.? Reversing that I would assume you will be in the 250-500 mW range of output.? That depends on the band as well.
The TX, RX, M1, M2, etc... are tags that are showing connections to the other tags with the same designator.? That makes the schematic easier to read.? Otherwise, there would be a lot of wires showing all of the connections.? This is common practice for complex schematics.
Others may have better information.? You also need to know that I have not built any of these circuits other than in kits.? I am mostly spouting what I understand of the theory.
Good luck with your build.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Building the ubitxv6 as SSB transmitter only
Hello everyone.
I've been looking at building the ubitx v6 as a transmitter only. After looking at the schematics, I am left with a couple of questions. I was hoping someone could help me out with these
1. There is a 11.059 MHz IF and crystal filter that is wired T5 and T6. Why is X7 a 12 mhz crystal? I have seen lots of crystal filters that use a series connected?set of identical crystals. But never with an odd one thrown in. What does this do? 2. I see USB / LSB is achieved by adjusting CLK#1 between 33 mhz and 57 mhz in the 2nd IF on the block diagram. This makes sense to me. The block diagram labels "CLK #0 11.059 MHz LSB". I'm trying to understand why CLK 0 would even mention LSB / USB. If my understanding is correct, the mixing of the mic. signal and the 11.059 MHZ should generate a full AM signal. Later this is suppressed to just LSB / USB by the 2nd RF mixer and 45 Mhz BPF. Or do I have?this all wrong? 3. There are lots of flags labeled "TX". Should this all be tied to 12 volts when transmitting ? It looks like the relay K1 is supposed to be switching this, under control of an Arduino normally. 4. What are M1 / M2 used for? It looks like it part of the RX stage at an audio level, I just can't figure out what they would be doing at all. 5. I'm assuming the trifilar transformers like T8/T9, what AWG magnet wire are people using to build them? 6. All the misc coils like L7, L5 etc indicate "720n". I'm guessing this is 720 nanoHenries. This is listed on the website as being on a T30-6 core. Unless my math is wrong, couldn't these just be air core? Or is there a shielding advantage from using a toroid core? 7. Can I omit the power stage using IRF510? Obviously I'll have less TX power. But I am thinking that I just change the number of turns on the output of T10 to get a 50 ohms output impedance.
I really appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and answer my questions,
Eric? KK4KYE?
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Hi Reed,
Your software version worked great! Didn't need any further
calibration and the keying was wonderful. Made contacts
domestically and DX with the unit on CW and SSB. Took some effort
to get everything going. Used the 1.8.9 Arduino development
package, added a CH340/341 device driver and had to connect
directly to the Nano USB port.
By the way, I guess you are a ham, what's your call? Also, I plan
to give you honorable mention in my DX Club's (Northwest Indiana
DX Club, NWIDXC) Newsletter in the August issue. You've done some
great work! Check us out on the Web if you have a chance.
73's,
Jerry
On 7/16/2020 11:11 AM, Reed N wrote:
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Hi Jerry,
The CW delay issue also is fixed in my software version. I would
encourage you to give it a try, since it doesn't require any
hardware modifications, and you can easily revert to the stock
software if you don't like my changes.
Reed
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Re: Revisiting lower power output on 40m, V6
#ubitx
#v6
Jim
as sunspots improve maybe revisit this - I think you overshot it with way too much capacitance.? I think my v4 came with 470 pF, had 40m CW drooping below 2 watts.? I added only 330 pF (about 800 pF total) and am happy with the result. i still ended up with around 4 watts on 10m.? all the Q's original thus far.? documented on this site someplace.??
73 curt wb8yyy
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Re: uBitX v5 Belt screeches
I had the same experiences as Paul on my v5 as well as both of my v4.? The proper calibration solved the issues for me as well.? I used the process that Ashhar Farhan put into his video for the v6, just substituting the v5 menu system controls for the v6 equivalents.? Here is the v6 calibration procedure:
73
Evan
AC9TU?
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Re: uBitX v5 Belt screeches
I used to get the exact same thing. My master cal and bfo were off by a lot. Redid them and been a dream ever since.? I can check mine in a few hours. As I recall I mostly noticed it when the antenna was disconnected. 73 Paul
Has anyone ever had this problem and if that's how they solved it? Belt screeches
it should be clarified that this without antenna, with the antenna, the problem remains the same
attached video
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Re: uBitX v5 Belt screeches
Are you sure that is not a signal in your home ?
Bruno Lw3dtr
Has anyone ever had this problem and if that's how they solved it? Belt screeches
it should be clarified that this without antenna, with the antenna, the problem remains the same
attached video
--
Bruno Luciani
Lw3DTR
Bs As - Argentina
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Sorry, Aaron, I had given you the incorrect pin assignments before.? What you have labeled as Output is the Input, and the input is the output (I double-checked the datasheet).? With that understanding, all looks good.
So the next step is to try setting the PA bias adjustments per the HF Signals instructions given here:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CAUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The bias controls are backwards from what most designs would implement.? That is CLOCKWISE is minimum bias, and counter=clockwise is maximum.? You do not want to overdrive the IRF510s, our you will cook them.? They are sensitive, so take it easy when increasing the bias.??
If you can set the bias for an increase of 100 ma for the first, then another 100 ma for the other IRF510, then both should be good.? The problem then is with the drivers.
Quick question, do you have the uBITX connected to an antenna when another rig was transmitting nearby?? It did not need to be turned on.? If so, then the next area to check is Q90, first for DC voltages in TX, then measuring the output with a scope or RF probe.
Let us know what you find.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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 I redid the measurements, the picture above shows the pin names and the measurements that I obtained.? Input to Ground 4.97 volts Output to Ground 12.85 volts I measured both IRF510's and I got 13.10 volts off each one.? -- '72
Aaron Scott
QRPARCI# 16443
GQRP# 16389
4SQRP # 1080
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Re: manual for Reeds firmware for v6
Yeah, RTFM hasn't always been one of my
strong points, sorry.
On the good side, tuning the Si5351 to the BFO frequency and then
adjusting the BFO for a max fixed frequency did seem to work, so
far anyways.
I did have a problem with the TSW FW on a different radio, but I'm
just starting to look into that.
Thanks,
John
K6JDS
On 7/21/2020 1:28 PM, Reed N wrote:
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Hi John,
When you reset all the calibrations, it resets all of the
calibrations, so I'm not surprised that the touch screen started
acting up.
On my build, there are three ways to get to the touch calibration.
You can touch the menu button. You can get to the calibration
settings using just the knob to navigate the tuning screen.
Finally, you can also get to the initial setup by holding the knob
button pressed in when turning on the radio, just like the stock
software.
Reed
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Re: manual for Reeds firmware for v6
Hi John,
When you reset all the calibrations, it resets all of the calibrations, so I'm not surprised that the touch screen started acting up.
On my build, there are three ways to get to the touch calibration. You can touch the menu button. You can get to the calibration settings using just the knob to navigate the tuning screen. Finally, you can also get to the initial setup by holding the knob button pressed in when turning on the radio, just like the stock software.
Reed
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Re: manual for Reeds firmware for v6
Reed, I had an interesting event last
night.
I did a reset all and power cycled the radio.
The touch screen seemed mirrored/rotated/???
I ended up more or less randomly pressing spots until I got the
calibration screen up
and was able to recover it.
Later, I was calibrating another ubitx 6 with the TSW FW their
documentation shows
holding the encoder in during power-on brings up the calibration
screen.?
That or forcing a screen calibration after a reset seem like good
solutions.
John
K6JDS
On 7/20/2020 7:27 PM, Reed N wrote:
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Hi Gary,
Never got around to it, but there's only a couple operational
"tricks" to it versus stock
1. Gear icon is settings
2. Star icon is favorites
3. When on the startup/main screen, press and hold the knob button
to turn Morse code mode on or off
4. The settings menu isn't touch screen - only knob scroll
As for changes, some are listed in the Readme.md file. If you run
into any issues, just post here and we should be able to sort you
out :)
Reed
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Many thanks Reed, now I can set up the keying as I want, very appreciated, 73
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Re: manual for Reeds firmware for v6
Hi Gary,
Never got around to it, but there's only a couple operational "tricks" to it versus stock
1. Gear icon is settings
2. Star icon is favorites
3. When on the startup/main screen, press and hold the knob button to turn Morse code mode on or off
4. The settings menu isn't touch screen - only knob scroll
As for changes, some are listed in the Readme.md file. If you run into any issues, just post here and we should be able to sort you out :)
Reed
|
Aaron K5ATG