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#sBitx suddenly deaf #sBitx

 

I¡¯ve been working on my own mods to the sBitx software for my DE with the latest mods. My development cycle is edit, compile, run. My testing so far has been receive only. I was working on some screen drawing routine and suddenly when I ran the program, the receiver is totally deaf. It¡¯s also deaf with the stock software. I powered off for 20 minutes, still deaf. What should I check? I don¡¯t hear any relays click when changing bands - should I?
--
73,
Mark, N8ME
 

Do you have any signal generator or an oscilloscope? The proper way to debug this is with test equipment.
The other way is this,
1. Is cw tx working? If yes, then the tx side is alright, the si5351 and the wm8731 are alright.
2. What happens if you touch a piece of wire to the input side of the demodulator? The other side of the if amp? Mixer input? With a piece of wire as a noise generator you can step further and further away

On Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 4:56 AM Mark Erbaugh <mark.election@...> wrote:
I¡¯ve been working on my own mods to the sBitx software for my DE with the latest mods. My development cycle is edit, compile, run. My testing so far has been receive only. I was working on some screen drawing routine and suddenly when I ran the program, the receiver is totally deaf. It¡¯s also deaf with the stock software. I powered off for 20 minutes, still deaf. What should I check? I don¡¯t hear any relays click when changing bands - should I?
--
73,
Mark, N8ME

 

I have an oscilloscope and signal generator (an Elecraft XG3).
--
73,
Mark, N8ME
 

1. Check if si5351 is putting clocks on the bfo and the front end mixers with the oscilloscope.
2. tune away? from the signal generator freq by about 100 khz to preven the IF overload, now switch the xg3 to 0 dbm level. Can you see the signal either side of the lpf?
2. Next, switch to -33dbm and set the freq of the sbitx to the sig gen. Do you see the signal at the output of the IF amp?


On Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 7:20 AM Mark Erbaugh <mark.election@...> wrote:
I have an oscilloscope and signal generator (an Elecraft XG3).
--
73,
Mark, N8ME

 

Good news. After a few hours away doing something else, I turned the radio on - still deaf. I noticed split was on. I had been playing with the buttons as part of my testing. I¡¯m not using the web interface, instead working on cleaning up the original GTK interface. I clicked the split button, the the VFO A/B button and the receive came back. I clicked the VFO A/B button again and heard a sound like a relay kicking in and out rapidly for about a second but the receive still worked. I tried clicking the VFO A/B button several more times and it worked as expected, and no relay chattering. ?Hopefully, I just managed to mess up some settings with some wired edge case of clicking buttons and there is nothing wrong with the hardware. I¡¯ll continue testing tomorrow. I should be getting some Zener diodes tomorrow to protect the GPIO pins.
--
73,
Mark, N8ME
 

Unfortunately, miniature relays may malfunction. I experienced this while building a Polish-designed sdr radio.
It happened in the reception of one of the bands that it worked once, and at other times it worked quietly.
I checked the BPF band switch relays at the receiver input and replaced the one that was not working.
Out of curiosity, I carefully cut off the plastic cover.
I turned it off and on several times, but the error did not occur.
I came to the conclusion that it is enough if the cover is only slightly crooked during production or soldering, then it will cause this error.
Uncertain operation, which is the bane of bug fixers.
--
Gyula HA3HZ

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