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Re: Raduino CAD Files

Bob Smallwood
 

Joe,?
I like some of the uBitX changes you are showing in your blog. Any possibility of seeing code for the TFT screen/functions, and the accelerating encoder step size??
Thanks!?
Bob, N3FM

Bob, N3FM

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On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 11:58 AM, W3JDR <joe@...> wrote:
Depends on which one you buy. Some (most) require that you put a bootloader in via STLink. There are, however, a few on EBay that sell them with the bootloader already burned in. They cost a buck or 2 more, but it's worth it. The one I'm using has a Maple Mini bootloader in it, which is supported by the Arduino IDE. Works great once you get your system set up with the correct hardware mapping files. BTW, these boards are advertised as having 64K memory, but every one I have works up to 128K.

See STM32Duino.com.

Joe



Re: Raduino CAD Files

 

Depends on which one you buy. Some (most) require that you put a bootloader in via STLink. There are, however, a few on EBay that sell them with the bootloader already burned in. They cost a buck or 2 more, but it's worth it. The one I'm using has a Maple Mini bootloader in it, which is supported by the Arduino IDE. Works great once you get your system set up with the correct hardware mapping files. BTW, these boards are advertised as having 64K memory, but every one I have works up to 128K.

See STM32Duino.com.

Joe


Re: Mic doesn't work in bitx40 #bitx40

 

Here's a scan of my notes on making a microphone with the components supplied with the ubitx.


Re: Raduino CAD Files

Vince Vielhaber
 

Can you program the blue pill thru the USB or do you have to use the ST-Link?

Vince.

On 05/18/2018 10:00 AM, W3JDR wrote:
Thanks everyone for the help!

Jerry, yes, I've been busy behind the scenes doing a lot of things with
the control system. I now have the entire app running on an STM32F103
"Blue Pill" board, which is only about $2.50 on Ebay. This gives me a 70
mHz 32 bit controller with 128K bytes of program memory. My software
S-meter is now working quite well and only requires 2 resistors and a
cap, plus some code. I'm using a separate ILI7735 display for the
S-meter, both displays on the same SPI bus. The S-meter is derived from
a 10kHz sample-rate of the pre-amp audio, with software peak detection.
The TFT meter display has a max-hold pointer that resets every few
seconds, while the main pointer is real-time. There are digital readouts
on it for peak signal level in uV, dBm and S-units. The measurements
from the S-meter will drive a digipot after the audio pre-amp to effect
a feedforward AGC. Feedforward, with software calibration, should make
for a very fast acting AGC without the overshoot/undershoot artifacts of
feedback systems. I'm also using a 400 ppr optical encoder for frequency
control with interrupt processing; it tunes beautifully smooth, with 1
hZ steps and software acceleration. . All of this puts a real strain on
the little Nano u-controller, hence the move to the Blue Pill. I intend
to layout a new Raduino that accepts the 'pill', with extra connectors
for SPI and I2C busses. I developed my own tinier version of the
Adafruit Si5351 board that will mount on the Raduino. I might even use a
separate Si5351 for the main VFO in order to eliminate the crosstalk
spurs generated in the single-chip approach. This was all moving
smoothly while I was house-bound during Winter, but will slow down while
the weather's nice outside.

Joe
W3JDR
--
Michigan VHF Corp.


Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X

 

Kees,

Can I get in on one each of these boards?

73
K5KDT
Kevin


Re: uBITX Wireup Diagrams on the HF SIGNALS WEBSITE ARE WRONG!! #ubitx #ubitx-help

 

I'd add the diode should be after the fuse.

That protects the wires from being burnt up is there is reverse polarity.

One note: Clean the key contacts!? Seriously its a known problem since the telegraph days.
Bounce is a software issue but high resistance contacts should not be.? Its also a painless fix.


Allison


Re: share your BITX success stories

 

As an aside on power supply filtering, the stock rig has about 'none' and is very susceptible to power supply noise, especially power supplies with switching regulators. There's not much margin for voltage loss in an input regulator, so I came up with a scheme that uses a cheap Ebay boost-buck regulator board and a built-in LiIon battery pack. This provides some filtering, isolation from input noise and the ability to run at full performance from battery even when the voltage drops below 10V.

Joe


Shipping Paused?

 

The word earlier this week was that uBitx were being shipped from stock; I jumped on this news and ordered one on Monday expecting to see a shipping notification in a day or two.? It seems my card was charged yesterday but I have yet to see shipping information.?

I'm not worried, just curious what the status is.

Kevin
K5KDT


Re: share your BITX success stories

 

I did two things:

flipped the regulator but left it about .2" above the board.? Check the raduino stck as about 50-55Ma
far from enough to warrant heat sink.? At most its dissipating .6W.? This may be lower as I've lowered
the backlight current.

I also added a series diode (1n4007) on the back of the raduino board (paranoia) for reverse power
protection plus a 100uf cap for noise and spike protection and a .7V drop as well.

While I had the diodes out I added two to the back of the board at the power connector (one for
general 12V and one for the PA12V).? I prefer the polarity protection after the fuse so the power
wires do not burn up and fuse failure is an attention grabber.??

None of these need be in the production or for a cased and fielded unit but if I'm going to be
hacking the board I need protection to avoid painful errors.

There is a lot of check then continue steps.? I do this to insure I haven't broken something
and if need be also to see I've not degraded anything.

Allison


Re: Raduino CAD Files

 

It appears those are just Gerber files, not design CAD files, so they'd have to be viewed in a Gerber viewer and dimensions made with the viewer's measurement tool. I might just as well grab the actual board and measure it.?I want to mount my ILI9341 main-display directly to the new Raduino, so I primarily need the dimension information to be sure the display lines up correctly in the existing hole in the front panel of the rig.

BTW, I considered starting out at the STM chip level, but you can buy the whole board cheaper than you can buy the chip. And you'd have to put all the necessary 'glue' around it and then build it and burn an Arduino compatible bootloader into it. Also, an FPU is primarily useful in DSP applications, and I see that as being a separate unit, so I'm going the Pill route.

Joe


Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X

 

Hello.? If not too late, could I be put on the list for one each of the boards/kits.? Thanks.? de NF5K


Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, May 20, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.

 

Just to clarify: is this ONLY for BITX40? If I have the uBITX, how would you know?? :)


Re: Raduino CAD Files

 

The link in Nik's post points to a project at EasyEDA showing his board layout,
has a "Download Gerber" button.? Though you will probably have to set up
an account at EasyEDA to have the priviledge.? I have not.

Anyways, you could correspond with Nik, he seemed to be trying to make?
this project publicly accessible.? Though I suspect he just used
his own calipers to get the numbers.

Jerry?



On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 07:08 am, W3JDR wrote:
I had a look at the links and there doesn't seem to be any CAD files there. I guess I'll have to break out the caliper and measure the stock board.


Re: Mic doesn't work in bitx40 #bitx40

 

1.4v is the base bias for the transistor. It is developed through
resistors R61 and R62. If you have 12v at the TX point then the voltage
at the base of the transistor will be (R61/(R61+R62+R66) times the TX
voltage or 10v * {2.2K/(2.2K+10K+220) is approximately 1.7v. Your
voltage is a little low but close.

It sure sounds like you have your mic wired backwards. Swap the leads
to your electret mic and see if it helps.

tim ab0wr

On Thu, 17 May 2018 20:52:15 -0700
qonita.salimah@... wrote:

Thank you for your reply..
So the one that I bought is the electret condenser mic.?
When I didn't connect the mic to the circuit the voltage from 4.7KOhm
resistor is about 9.5-10Volt. But when I connect it to the mic, the
voltage suddenly drop to the 0.131-0.135Volt.?

And the 1uF polar capacitor, also behaving weird. The positive side
is show the same exactly voltage with the output from 4.7KOhm
resistor. But the negative side always show 1.4Volt, even when the
mic is connected or not.

Please help me. Thank you


Re: Raduino CAD Files

 

I had a look at the links and there doesn't seem to be any CAD files there. I guess I'll have to break out the caliper and measure the stock board.


Re: Raduino CAD Files

 

Thanks everyone for the help!

Jerry, yes, I've been busy behind the scenes doing a lot of things with the control system. I now have the entire app running on an STM32F103 "Blue Pill" board, which is only about $2.50 on Ebay. This gives me a 70 mHz 32 bit controller with 128K bytes of program memory. My software S-meter is now working quite well and only requires 2 resistors and a cap, plus some code. I'm using a separate ILI7735 display for the S-meter, both displays on the same SPI bus. The S-meter is derived from a 10kHz sample-rate of the pre-amp audio, with software peak detection. The TFT meter display has a max-hold pointer that resets every few seconds, while the main pointer is real-time. There are digital readouts on it for peak signal level in uV, dBm and S-units. The measurements from the S-meter will drive a digipot after the audio pre-amp to effect a feedforward AGC. Feedforward, with software calibration, should make for a very fast acting AGC without the overshoot/undershoot artifacts of feedback systems. I'm also using a 400 ppr optical encoder for frequency control with interrupt processing; it tunes beautifully smooth, with 1 hZ steps and software acceleration. . All of this puts a real strain on the little Nano u-controller, hence the move to the Blue Pill. I intend to layout a new Raduino that accepts the 'pill', with extra connectors for SPI and I2C busses. I developed my own tinier version of the Adafruit Si5351 board that will mount on the Raduino. I might even use a separate Si5351 for the main VFO in order to eliminate the crosstalk spurs generated in the single-chip approach.?This was all moving smoothly while I was house-bound during Winter, but will slow down while the weather's nice outside.

Joe
W3JDR


Re: rough draft of how to connect BITX to PC for digital modes wiki

 

Thanks Doug, your notes are very helpful.

73, Dennis
W7DRW


Re: Raduino not working 0 Volts on Pin 6 (red wire) #ubitx-help #ubitx

 

These might not apply to Rogier's issue, but since I have already typed this up, it may be still helpful to him or someone else.

I had 2 issues when trying to connect to the supplied Nano on the Raduino board to my Windows 10 machine.
1. USB connection.? ?I started with a cheap working cable (that I use with Segger J-link debugger boards all the time) and did not get a power connection.
? ? Fiddled around on a Friday evening, I am aware that the USB connector on the Nano clone board may be an issue. (socket + connector tolerance)
? ? With the right pressure from the thumb, I could get intermittent connection.? OK, making progress.
? ? Went through the stash box and found a 'better' (well at least more expensive) USB cable with ferrite chokes on either end, that made solid connection.
2. Driver. (nothing found on PC comport)? Well there had been some discussion of issues with Macs (that wasn't forefront in my mind at this time)?
? ?With hesitation, I downloaded a CH341 driver for Windows.?? ?(installation complained about not being successful, but the driver was working)

Now I was up and running. Time for an adult? refreshment, sofa and bed.
Project gets side tracked for other things.? When I get back to playing with the Nano clone,? What do I do?? Use my everyday cable.
It doesn't work. Momentary lapse of sanity.? Get the 'better' cable and all is O.K.

This was the first time I played with a Nano clone.? My only experience with Arduino is the Uno R3.? I use them often for adding quick instrumentation, remote pin control of hardware under test, etc.
Clones are cheaper and make sense to use in various projects, like this one.??
However, If your budget allows, I'm an advocate of having at least 1 of the mainstream top tier manufactured products when you are self teaching.
Having additional obstacles to overcome when your intent is to 'learn Arduino' can be frustrating.??

Regards,
Gary


Re: Low Power Output for Hendricks BitX20A - Watt meters and Scope readings do not agree.... #bitx20

 

The check would be you must be putting st least 2A into (24W to the finals, ~50% efficiency)
the finals to be in the 10-12W region.

I don't ever believe scope readings as accurate. For power out I use a dummy load with a
diode detector or a 30-40 db power attenuator as I have a calibrated unit 30db and 10db
that into the spectrum analyzer gives good reading for power.? If all else fails if my 10W
dummy gets hot its likely more than 10W.? The latter with a thermometer can be calibrated
for power equal temperature using a variable power supply (DC power=RMS power).

At some point you need an instrument you can believe.

Allison


Re: rough draft of how to connect BITX to PC for digital modes wiki

 

I found that there was too much attenuation in the ezdigi board so I use just the isolation transmformers and bipassed the rest. Mounted the board into the ubitx case and hardwired the ubitx side to a dpdt switch With the switch in one position it is in digital mode taking over control for the mic and speaker. In the other mode the radio runs normally ?Ran pig tails out to the desktop computer sound card. and keep the usb cable plugged into the computer. ?using the CEC firmware.