Re: UBITX Assemly Wiki Page
#ubitx
A search for 'reverse polarity" in this forum shows dozens of hits since the uBitx was released in early Dec. Here's a few of mine: ?? /g/BITX20/message/35353
??/g/BITX20/message/39877?? /g/BITX20/message/44499I've given up trying to right that particular absurdity. Unfortunately, we have hundreds of new hams with no fuse (or too big of one) assuming they are protected when they are not.?? And some of them are bound to be a bit too careless as a result. ? Jerry
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 07:23 pm, ajparent1/KB1GMX wrote:
One small point.?
If your using diode for reverse polarity protection it is better to place the
fuses BEFORE the diode as then the fuse blows and the diode is less
likely to be fried and also down stream circuits.
Allison
|
Re: PA breaking into oscillation? (uBitx)
Thanks for the replies.
My layout is?almost identical to the original, except?I'm using all thru-hole components and the Adafruit SI5351. Filters/relays/IRF510's/transformers placement is identical.?Don't have a suitable photo at the moment, not to mention it looks a mess!?
And as for Ashhar's comment, everything is very stable otherwise! I've made several FT8 QSO's with 1W output!
Actually I stand corrected, the issue doesn't seem to be related to the mixers/modulator.
The symptoms on SSB should clear up when I track down the problem on CW.
Some sort of ringing effect caused by RF feedback??Can't rule out either?I?may have?some dodgy 510's.
For?output transformer T11,?I used the same trifilar format as all the others.?The unused?winding?(4 and 3)?is simply not connected to anything, as per schematic. An earlier post by Ashhar for his prototype stated "8T:10T" for T11. Not sure if this means conventional wound with 8 turns for one (primary/secondary) winding, 10 turns for the other. So maybe a clarification would help.
Thanks,
Mike
|
The written description is correct the black wire is pin8 of the Raduino to A on the encoder and the brown wire of pin7 is connected to B on the encoder. The purple wire from pin1 of the Raduino is not used, if you have connected it to the encoder swap it with the brown wire and you should be fine.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On May 13, 2018, at 22:13, kj6etl < pa1zz@...> wrote: Today I finally had some time to try my uBitx fort the first time. Turns out that no matter what I do with the opto coupler the VFO is stuck at "LSB A: 7150.000" on the display.
I tried the reset button on the small board behind the display to no avail.
Could it be that there is a discrepancy between the written text and the pictures in the manual?
The text in the manual tells that the brown wire has to be connected to the encoder tab B, while the picture shows a purple wire.
|
What manual are you looking at?
Here's the wire-up instructions on the hfsignals website that should be used
if you still have the stock firmware that the uBitx is shipped with:
? ??
They show the black and brown wires of digital connector at the top of the raduino going to the?
two side pins of the mechanical rotary encoder, the middle pin is ground and so?
should get the yellow wire from that same connector.??
If you try it and it works backwords, just swap the black and brown wires at the encoder
There are also the two switch pins on the other side of the encoder,
one of these gets a ground from that yellow wire, the other is the red wire
from that same Raduino connector
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 07:32 pm, kj6etl wrote:
oday I completed the build of my uBitx.
Unfortunately the Opto coupler / VFO is unresponstive. No matter what I do it stuck at LSB A : 7150.00
I tried to push the the reset button on the small board behind the display to no avail.
On closer inspection of the manual I noticed a discrepency between the text and the picture. The text tells that the brown wire has to be connected to the Pin B of the opto coupler while the picture shows a purple wire.
Earlier in the manual it states that the purple wire from the Raduino board is redundant so I removed it...
Looking forward to your input!
|
Today I completed the build of my uBitx.
Unfortunately the Opto coupler / VFO is unresponstive. No matter what I do it stuck at LSB A : 7150.00
I tried to push the the reset button on the small board behind the display to no avail.
On closer inspection of the manual I noticed a discrepency between the text and the picture. The text tells that the brown wire has to be connected to the Pin B of the opto coupler while the picture shows a purple wire.
Earlier in the manual it states that the purple wire from the Raduino board is redundant so I removed it...
Looking forward to your input!
|
Re: Are the uBITX receivers ripe for improvement? -- And some other miscellaneous thoughts.
Bo,
I was thinking about using my SDR Play 2 behind the bandpass filters of the uBITX and powering it with either an RPi3 or an old 2.5 GHz ATOM.? The latter would give me choices for logging and support software either using Windows or Linux.? I might even use both with the RPi3 running the SDR Play 2 and the ATOM running logging, spotting, antenna and station control, etc.? The ATOM is a Jetway with lots of serial, parallel, USB and even GPIO.? It also has decent video and disk controllers on board with a modest power requirement.
I have run mine with a SSD and a 9-16V ATX power supply module which is good for portable operation.
Lots of choices!
73,
Gordon Beattie W2TTT
201.314.6964
From: Bo Barry
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Are the uBITX receivers ripe for improvement? -- And some other miscellaneous thoughts.
After listening to mine today on FT8 ?I'd say the RCVR I'd just fine. Or mighty fine!
It's been a joy listening to CW, SSB, & FT8 ?today.
I have problems on the transmit for another post.
Definitely interesting for projects with the pi and ubitx.
Bo W4GHV?
|
Re: UBITX Assemly Wiki Page
#ubitx
One small point.?
If your using diode for reverse polarity protection it is better to place the
fuses BEFORE the diode as then the fuse blows and the diode is less
likely to be fried and also down stream circuits.
Allison
|
Re: UBITX Assemly Wiki Page
#ubitx
Sent from Yahoo Mail. Get the app
--------------------------------------------
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sun, 5/13/18, W7PEA <patrick@...> wrote: Subject: Re: [BITX20] UBITX Assemly Wiki Page #ubitx To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, May 13, 2018, 8:35 PM I updated the Assembly page with pictures, no making fun of my soldering. ;-) I could use help with two things as I did not do a vanilla installation of these two. 1. The microphone? 2. The Keyer If you did a no-modification build, please snap some pics and post them or send them to me and I'll do it. Thanks! W7PEA
|
Re: ubitx 9 bands in 1 day
Great job!?
I work qrp also.looking forward to rebuilding my antennas. Several years ago I qualified for the 1000 mile a watt award.
But I was using an Argonaut 509. Great job!
Sent from Yahoo Mail. Get the app
--------------------------------------------
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sun, 5/13/18, Tom Christian <tmchristian@...> wrote: Subject: [BITX20] ubitx 9 bands in 1 day To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, May 13, 2018, 8:51 PM The uBITX continues to be great fun!? As per the attached logbook snapshot, I was able to work 9 bands in 1 day last week with 10 meters through 80 meters.? The contact on 10 meters was only a quarter watt on the power meter but a contact is a contact!......:)? I don't yet have 160 meters up and running so I couldn't try for 10 bands.? The uBITX results continue to amaze me!? Great rig! Tom AB7WT
|
Re: UBITX Assemly Wiki Page
#ubitx
Hey Bo,?
According to all drawings and the HFSignals wireup page:
I hope that helps
|
Should work fine.
Note that the Nano has an FT232RL USB-to-serial chip that includes a 5v to 3.3v regulator.?
This currently powers the si5351 through the Nano's J2 pin 14.? On the clones, it's CH340 chip.
? ??
You will need to replace that regulator with something else if you remove our CH340 chip.
This new 3.3v regulator could be mounted on the Raduino board.
Jerry
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 06:21 pm, Nick VK4PLN wrote:
I was wondering something similar, to remove the USB section of the Arduino Nano to clean up any birdies caused by it.. thoughts?
|
Re: UBITX Assemly Wiki Page
#ubitx
Can you verify that the orange PTT goes to the sleeve? It is shown to the tip on the Randino schematic I found
Bo W4GHV
|
I was wondering something similar, to remove the USB section of the Arduino Nano to clean up any birdies caused by it.. thoughts?
Nick VK4PLN
|
The uBITX continues to be great fun!? As per the attached logbook snapshot, I was able to work 9 bands in 1 day last week with 10 meters through 80 meters.? The contact on 10 meters was only a quarter watt on the power meter but a contact is a contact!......:)? I don't yet have 160 meters up and running so I couldn't try for 10 bands.? The uBITX results continue to amaze me!? Great rig!
Tom
AB7WT
|
Re: UBITX Assemly Wiki Page
#ubitx
I updated the Assembly page with pictures, no making fun of my soldering. ;-)
I could use help with two things as I did not do a vanilla installation of these two.
1. The microphone?
2. The Keyer
If you did a no-modification build, please snap some pics and post them or send them to me and I'll do it.
Thanks!
W7PEA
|
Re: Broadband HF Folded Dipole Antennas
I really need to purchase EZNEC or something similar, because I need to be able to run some reasonable simulations.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On May 13, 2018, at 18:41, Gordon Gibby <ggibby@...> wrote:
Thanks, Allison!
On May 13, 2018, at 14:26, ajparent1/KB1GMX <kb1gmx@...> wrote:
r
|
Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, May 13, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 04:37 pm, Tom VE3THR wrote:
they are starting to come out of the woodwork. Hearing stations from Nova Scotia VE1ESP to Alabama.
I hear one other station intermittently. Lots of QRN here. ? -- John - WA2FZW
|
Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, May 13, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
they are starting to come out of the woodwork. Hearing stations from Nova Scotia VE1ESP to Alabama.?
|
Re: Buyer beware! RD16HHF1
Bear in mind,....? ?sometimes when you buy RD16HHF1 fets? from EBay, China... you don't always get what you expect,.......
Sent from Samsung tablet.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
-------- Original message -------- From: K9HZ <bill@...> Date: 13/05/2018 22:07 (GMT+00:00) Subject: Re: [BITX20] Buyer beware! RD16HHF1
Much of it is already captured on UBITX.net ? ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? Moderator ¨C North American QRO Group at Groups.IO. ? email:? bill@... ? ? ? ?I don't know if y'all have already done that....but writing up a little "white paper"" and putting it on the web site about little bite-size improvement steps like going to the RD16HHF1 for example, would make very helpful little bite-sized projects.? ? Again, you may have already done all that. ? I'm submitting gerber files right now to get my cheap homebrew soundcard-interface done as prototype batch?--- it is very similar to the EasyDigi but includes gain potentiometer trimmers and a RELAY for the push to talk, LED ptt indicator.? ??If it works....it will be freely available.? ?The previous (expensive-PCB-company-version) went through about 40 [expensive]??copies locally and elsewhere and many are 24/7/365 in service).? ? You guys have taught me a lot!!!! gordon ? ?
Also, keep in mind that if you plan to move from the IRF510 to the RD16HHF1,?
the uBitx final should have some adjustments to the transformer ratios and such.
The RD16HHF1 is not quite a drop in replacement.
Jerry
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 09:17 am, Jerry Gaffke wrote: Allison has quite a few posts here.
None have discouraged experimentation with the IRF510's.
Quite the contrary.
She did however suggest you get your RF parts from reliable vendors,
be they IRF510's or RD16HHF1's.
Jerry . . . ?
On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 08:54 am, Russ Hines wrote:
Gents and ladies, I don't post much as I'm a busy broadcast engineer.? But I try to read often.
Allison's post contains wisdom.
Education tends to be expensive.? If your goal is IRF R&D, then knock yourselves out.? You will go through a lot of parts, and likely as not, spend a lot more time and money in acquiring the knowledge and experience.? In the end, you'll know what a part can or cannot do.? If that's YOUR goal, great.
For myself, my time is worth something to me.? I think it's false economy of both my time and money to blow up a few dozen $0.50 parts, chasing issues created by the selection of an inferior part from an unreliable source, when one appropriately selected and sourced $4.75 part will accomplish MY goal - to use a piece of equipment that I built.? The former is not worth the hassle.
If you need a cliche, here's two:? I'd like to "not reinvent the wheel," but would much rather "stand on the shoulders of giants."
Two cents duly submitted.
73,
Russ Hines
WB8ZCC
--
Reply to: russ@.
|
Re: using the BITX on RTTY
Hans, would it be possible to pull the crystals in a filter using the LED or Zenor Varicap diodes??
-Justin N2TOH?
|
Skip Davis
kj6etl
Nick VK4PP
