On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 01:31 PM, Bruce W4BRU wrote:

I'm not clear why we need a Rasp Pi 5 for the sBitX. I have demonstrated the sBitX running SSB and also projecting a slide show (LO Impress) at the same time. The Pi didn't even seem to be taxed at all.

The case where I see performance lags is if I spin the tuning dial even moderately fast. This could be a software issue or a hardware issue. One reason why I prefer the TUI (Gtk) over the GUI (browser) is that it is more responsive. It'll be interesting to me at least if those tuning lags are reduced both by (a) going to the new Pi OS, bookworm, that has a new graphics stack with Wayland instead of X Windows and (b) going to Pi 5 hardware. Farhan says in one of these threads that his performance profiling shows memory copying is the main user of time. Pi 5's memory system is like twice as fast as Pi 4 so I will find it interesting to see what kind of difference it makes. If Pi 4 is fine, then I'll re-purpose the Pi 5.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

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Jack, I am with you. I have learned so much— so so much! from this group and from these radios. I am a little bit concerned about spurious signals ?in the manufacturing production line. This is such a fantastic advance that it deserves to be a very clean radio and I’m concerned that we’ve got an issue with the filtering and bleed around. The filters them selves look fantastic! ?I understand this had happened to other firms’ radios as well and so it’s not unheard of with new devices. I’m pretty convinced that we will get it fixed and then I’m looking forward to moving on to working on software, I’m especially fascinated with getting back into digital signal processing?

More speed could help with FT8 decodes.
I also ordered one from the PiShop us but no info on shipping yet. I ordered it with the case with active cooling but for sBITX you would need another solution.
--
73
??? Bob? KD8CGH

I'm not clear why we need a Rasp Pi 5 for the sBitX. I have demonstrated the sBitX running SSB and also projecting a slide show (LO Impress) at the same time. The Pi didn't even seem to be taxed at all.

I am looking forward to the Pi 5 but for me with its speed it will replace an old laptop.

I have been lucky enough to work with my two sBitx rigs (the DE and also the V2) and the uBitx V6 before that. I have learned far more along the way about transmitter and receiver design than I could have any other way. If I want an easy contact I can simply switch on my Icom or Kenwood or Yaesu, but that’s not what I wanted. I have benefited beyond measure from the community of engineers and fellow tinkerers who have helped me. Hopefully I have helped others through my posts as they have walked me through my fits and stops. It has at times been frustrating but all in all I haven’t had this much pleasure in ham radio since I was a teenager going to TV repair shops, taking apart junked tube TV sets and building homebrew rigs. It’s like hiking for days in the mountains. There’s no hot water or wifi, but that’s not the reason to make the trip.?

Enjoy the trip.

73,
Jack, N6LN

A few quick notes:

A) the firmware in the RPi 4 has always supported USB booting, the RPi 3 had the ability to modify the firmware to boot off USB directly, otherwise a bootloader on a MicroSD could do the same thing. (Boot off MicroSD, then transfer to USB)

B) the RPi 5 can have an SSD attached via USB adapter OR an NVMe SSD can be added to the new PCIe header on the top (component) side of the RPi 5 with an adapter cable.



The PCIe interface may be the best option *if* a long enough cable is supplied to relocate the NVMe SSD can be located away from the RPi/system board "sandwich". I suspect such a cable will be available once the RPi 5 starts shipping.

Ken, N2VIP

Carl
As a post script to my last message, on a personal level I intended no direct offence to you as a person.
As has been seen by the plethora of replies since, there is still a willingness to assist you to have a working
rig (as expected by you). I do wish you every success in your quest to do so.
Dave
G4JBE (UK)

Back in the day I'm told as it was before my time, if you wanted a radio you had to build it yourself. There are a bunch of us hams that are happy those days are in the past. Today you can lay your cash down and buy tricked out appliance rigs that do things that were once impossible. That is pretty much what most of the new stuff is today, appliances. They have no soul, they are cold electronic wonders of modern technology. If i were to buy a 7300 and someone a thousand miles away bought one they would essentially be identical. It is awesome that we have the technology to do that. However it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Ashhar came up with? the BITX and all of the different versions from the BITX 40 to the sBITX to encourage others to build them. HF Signals came along mostly to put local people to work. These radios were made to be hacked on modified and made to make it your way. We have this awesome community here to help you do just that. The radios that HF Signals sell are not meant to be a McTransceiver where they are the same as everything else out there. These are all open source where they put everything out there including the coding and let you take it from there. Ask Elecraft for the coding for their latest and greatest. Homebrewing is a dying art. People has gotten to the point where they just want to lay down their cash and expect instant gratification. Everyone has to have the radio that just came out last week and it will be their pride and joy until the next model comes out next week. You learn the menu's get on the air and brag about how great of a radio operator you are because you have the newest disposable radio. The same radio that everyone else can buy. You "personalize" it through the menu settings. Your not going to crack the case open and warm up the soldering iron to truly personalize it. No way would you do that, it would be the ultimate no-no because it would void the warranty. You got to keep the resale value as high as possible cause you know that after the new wears off your gonna sell it because your newest pride and joy is about to hit the shelves. Most hams want that safeness. They don't care how their radio works as long as they can yell "Your 599 599, wait say again your lost in the noise and I can't hear you but you are 599 599!" all weekend long. You have turned into appliance operators. BITX has never been touted to be an appliance. They are made to be just bare bones radios to keep the cost down and more importantly encourage you to heat up the soldering iron and turn it into the rig that you want. You want AGC? Add it yourself. Have broadcast interference? There are schematics to help you with that. What is the advertising slogan for the sBITX? "An SDR you can hack" Just think of the power that gives you. That means you pick your options, not some EE in Japan or China who is telling you want you want. YOU decide what you want. You just have to take the time to learn how to do it and then do it yourself.?
I have been in this group for a few years now. A lot of people can testify that I have had a lot of problems. I'm constantly in the hospital having one surgery or another. In 2022 I set a personal record of 33 surgeries. In 2023 I have surpassed that. I don't have the finances you go out and buy the latest and greatest. I have to support a family of 4, including a son who is autistic and a daughter (she has her license) who is a senior in HS and deserves all of her SR stuff (prom dress, SR ring, pictures etc.) on my disability check once a month. I would give just about anything to be able to go back to work but that isn't an option. I don't have the option of buying the latest and greatest. When the sBITX came out I fell hard for it. It does everything I want in a radio. It has been out for a few years now, I still do not have one. I'm getting closer to it. Since all of my money goes to taking care of my family, I have to be willing to wait longer for my goals. Last month I got some resistors. Next month I plan on buying diodes if I'm lucky.? I have been trying to learn electronics and programming like mad. Many people in this group and other groups can testify to that from the endless questions that I have. If I set my mind to it, I could buy me a nice used radio and be done with it. That isn't what I want. I want the experience and knowledge that you get when you build or modify a radio. The sBITX was never intended to be the next Kilobuck radio. It is much better than that. It is a basic platform for you to build, modify and experiment with so you can make it better than the next appliance radio fad. The schematics and coding is out there free to the world just waiting for you to improve it.?
--
'72

When googling for sbitx info, I ran into the sbitx group on facebook ( ) and it seems Carl has been able to get his sbitx to boot with some help from other sbitx users.

The key post seems to have been:

Daniel Wendt-Fr?hlich
It worked for me with the raspi-imager and "other/own image".
Maybe the image is not working? Maybe you want to try my shrinked image for SBITXv2: https://drive.google.com/.../1fzAxP5e3n19EEBIejtB.../view...
Just download and unrar it and use it with the raspi-imager.
This image will expand to the card size at first boot. Just plug it in, start the raspi in the SBITX and let its work done. After reboot it will be the standard-SBITXv2-Image.
BUT (and this is really important):
As all calibration data is lost you won't have any PA-Output-Power.
You have to do both, Power Meter calibration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJLXfQv_C6U) and Trasmit Power calibration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tCVoCxx_R8)
After that you want to check the Drive-Setting/BIAS on your Board. You don't want to exceed 30 to 35W at 40m on a dummy load. Believe me, you don't want that ?
Check this for setting the right bias: https://www.sbitx.net/index.php/category/repairs/

It appears that notes on some of these procedures can also be found at ( not ).

I believe you can avoid the calibration steps if you were able to save the files in the /home/pi/sbitx/data folder from the sdcard the radio came with. At least that's how I interpret the response to a question I asked earlier on this group.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

I am learning a lot from this discussion despite the rancor.

If it would be beneficial, I could start a page on this site's wiki on how to build a new sdcard from scratch, since I'm about to give this a try myself. I think doing so is much more work than one might think. The details are in one of the text files in the sbitx folder on the Pi. I could try to make the instructions more user-friendly but IMO they are still more than we'd want a newbie to try to do. Ideally we'd just have a Pi image under the Releases area of Ashhar's github site that contains the source code. That's how many open software projects do things.

At the risk of being repetitive, I think and states the business policies of HF Signals:

GETTING HELP

If you are interested or building any of the HF Signals’ kits, you can join the BITX20 group by visiting /g/bitx20. That’s the only support we provide. The level of collective wisdom and experience on the Forum is enough to sort out almost any technical problem or question you may have. You will also meet some really great builders on the Forum. If you need information specific to your shipping, billing and other commercial matters, you can drop us a mail to hfsignals’ inbox at gmail. The mailbox is in the name of hfsignals followed by the regular gmail.com.

What kind of support will I get?

The HF Signals kits and radios are supplied as-is without any promise that they will work to any particular specification. That said, thousands of BITX transceivers supplied by HF Signals work across the world. There is an active and very informative forum for learning and getting help that is entirely driven by the builder community. Join us on /g/bitx20 For queries about your specific order, shipping, etc., you can write to at sales @ hfsignals.com . We can only respond to specific questions about your order, so remember to include your order ID from paypal.

I would interpret "as-is" to mean "no refunds". Personally I bought the sbitx before reading these statements, but I assumed this would be the case. I had already bought Hermes Lite 2 SDRs twice from China and knew when I sent the payment there was a chance I would get nothing back at all, or would not get a working product, but also knew there was an active forum with the lead developer personally involved. I did enough research on sbitx to know that this would also be the case. I was interested enough in the product to buy it knowing it may not work well or may not work at all, but knowing there were people interested in getting it to work and willing to help make that happen.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 04:02 AM, Rafael Diniz wrote:

And there is a PCIe lane, which can be used for NVMe without using the USB3 if I remember correctly.

Yes, and they are developing an official NVMe "HAT".

It is nice that there is extra room inside the sbitx, hopefully that would allow for Pi5 with both NVMe and a fan to fit inside the sbitx enclosure.

Now that I think about it a day later, the main hope is that all the hardware is compatible.

I too await winter when I will have more time to work on this device.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

Nice job, @WK4DS ! I'm a software guy, I get intimidated by milling machines, so I am envious!

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 07:46 AM, Evan Hand wrote:

Have you tried the RX key on the screen?? I do not have my sbitx DE set up now, so I can not verify it for you.? I am going from memory when I was playing with my DE.

Mine is also packed up, the weather is nice the next two days so I'm going to go do some POTA!

The other alternative would be to create a macro and link it to an open key on the macro keyboard.

I will explore this approach. I have open keys. I looked at the macro language ( based on N1MM's ) and don't really see an effective way to do this. I'll have to read the sbitx source code to see what it does.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 04:26 AM, ramonlh@... wrote:

I have some family matters that prevent me from dedicating enough time, perhaps I can dedicate more time to this matter starting in December.

Please do not feel obliged to spend any time on this, I am just asking questions about what is already known.

It will also depend on the evolution of the new version that Ashhar is preparing, we should not invent the wheel twice...

I think it is OK to do both, work on the current code and await what may come in the future.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

Dave,

Have you tried the RX key on the screen?? I do not have my sbitx DE set up now, so I can not verify it for you.? I am going from memory when I was playing with my DE.

The other alternative would be to create a macro and link it to an open key on the macro keyboard.

73
Evan
AC9TU

Any news as to when the new cession will be coming out

I’m still a few days away from being back home but I dug up some information about the types of inductors that appear to be used for the 47 micro Henry in the low pass filter diode switching network decoupling system. ?The images of data sheets are attached and clearly show that you can expect series resonances ?well within the RF spectrum of our harmonics. ? This helps explain the bleed around (as great as -25 DB) that I unexpectedly discovered when measuring the RF filter performance, when no particular filter was selected.

that bleed around may be a major part of why we aren’t getting the harmonic suppression that we would want.?

it’s likely that the solution will be adding (or replacing )a small series inductor without a damaging series resonance. ? I think a few microhenries could easily be wound on a small ferrite or iron powder core and would do what we need. ?

Gordon Kx4z?

?

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My $.02 worth here too,

Hi Dave,
I have some family matters that prevent me from dedicating enough time, perhaps I can dedicate more time to this matter starting in December.
It will also depend on the evolution of the new version that Ashhar is preparing, we should not invent the wheel twice...

Saludos,
Ramón EA4GZI

And there is a PCIe lane, which can be used for NVMe without using the USB3 if I remember correctly.

- Rafael