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Hello all, At the risk of sounding lame, here is why we haven't yet shipped last week.? First, the radios are all tested and ready to ship. We ran into a problem with the Pico, Let me explain this. Get a coffee and sit down...
BEFORE: The original zbitx had just a small crummy OLED display. The idea was that you read an IP address shown on the OLED display and type it into your phone/tab/pc and use it as a remote head from your favourite device. That continues to happen. However, if you have seen the pictures of the zbitx, we have also added a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display to the radio. This is a? 480x320?TFT touch display. It is not as common as the 320x240 display that is used in uBitx, it is half the resolution of the standard sbitx v3.We insisted on this display as FT8 needs at least 10 lines of decodes to be useful. There was a shortage of these from January onwards, we started getting them only by February last week. These are apparently commonly used in ebikes and they got wiped out in the Christmas sales.
THEN: The Raspberry Zero 2, that powers the zbitx (zero bitx because of? the RPI zero in it), can't handle this display as the GPIO pins on it are all used up. Hence, the zbitx sports a new microcontroller, the Raspberry Pico W (with Wifi and Bluetooth on it!) that handles the front panel. This offloads the user interface to this microcontroller that handles the 3.5 inch TFT display. The two talk to each other over the I2C bus (Pi is the master, Pico is the slave).
NOW: Future updates to the front panel (like moving the comms between the zbitx and the front-panel to bluetooth or even wifi to make it a remote head) will need a way to update the firmware to the Pico. It is usually done with an Arduino IDE running on a computer with micro USB cable from the PC to the Pico. That is the easy part. The hard part was that getting the Arduino going on a PC, installing the Pico package and then the TFT display libraries is like pulling teeth. There has to be a better way. We realized this last week when I shipped out the Pico firmware to our folks at HF Signals. If they(HF Signals) couldn't get the Arduino IDE setup on their PC within minutes, I?was very skeptical and most users of zbitx would.
SO, the Plan is ... First, we are shipping the micro USB cables with the radios that will allow the raspberry pi zero to move the latest firmware from zbitx's sbitx folder to the Pico. Second, we are getting a new update script that will copy the latest firmware over from the Pi to the Pico. That is taking this weekend. I took a break from writing it to post this email, I will work through this weekend and hopefully get it shipped to HF Signals in the next 24 hours. ? I hope this explains the further delay. Thanks for the understanding. We will of course keep the list updated with the progress.
73, f
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Excellence is always worth waiting for.? Thank you.? Bill AG5ZN
Hello all, At the risk of sounding lame, here is why we haven't yet shipped last week.? First, the radios are all tested and ready to ship. We ran into a problem with the Pico, Let me explain this. Get a coffee and sit down...
BEFORE: The original zbitx had just a small crummy OLED display. The idea was that you read an IP address shown on the OLED display and type it into your phone/tab/pc and use it as a remote head from your favourite device. That continues to happen. However, if you have seen the pictures of the zbitx, we have also added a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display to the radio. This is a? 480x320?TFT touch display. It is not as common as the 320x240 display that is used in uBitx, it is half the resolution of the standard sbitx v3.We insisted on this display as FT8 needs at least 10 lines of decodes to be useful. There was a shortage of these from January onwards, we started getting them only by February last week. These are apparently commonly used in ebikes and they got wiped out in the Christmas sales.
THEN: The Raspberry Zero 2, that powers the zbitx (zero bitx because of? the RPI zero in it), can't handle this display as the GPIO pins on it are all used up. Hence, the zbitx sports a new microcontroller, the Raspberry Pico W (with Wifi and Bluetooth on it!) that handles the front panel. This offloads the user interface to this microcontroller that handles the 3.5 inch TFT display. The two talk to each other over the I2C bus (Pi is the master, Pico is the slave).
NOW: Future updates to the front panel (like moving the comms between the zbitx and the front-panel to bluetooth or even wifi to make it a remote head) will need a way to update the firmware to the Pico. It is usually done with an Arduino IDE running on a computer with micro USB cable from the PC to the Pico. That is the easy part. The hard part was that getting the Arduino going on a PC, installing the Pico package and then the TFT display libraries is like pulling teeth. There has to be a better way. We realized this last week when I shipped out the Pico firmware to our folks at HF Signals. If they(HF Signals) couldn't get the Arduino IDE setup on their PC within minutes, I?was very skeptical and most users of zbitx would.
SO, the Plan is ... First, we are shipping the micro USB cables with the radios that will allow the raspberry pi zero to move the latest firmware from zbitx's sbitx folder to the Pico. Second, we are getting a new update script that will copy the latest firmware over from the Pi to the Pico. That is taking this weekend. I took a break from writing it to post this email, I will work through this weekend and hopefully get it shipped to HF Signals in the next 24 hours. ? I hope this explains the further delay. Thanks for the understanding. We will of course keep the list updated with the progress.
73, f
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Thank you for the update, it's much appreciated.
?
Jen, N2VIP
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Thanks for the update.
Gerry
On 2025-03-09 03:16, Ashhar Farhan via
groups.io wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Hello all,
At the risk of sounding lame, here is why we haven't yet
shipped last week.?
First, the radios are all tested and ready to ship. We
ran into a problem with the Pico, Let me explain this. Get a
coffee and sit down...
BEFORE:
The original zbitx had just a small crummy OLED display.
The idea was that you read an IP address shown on the OLED
display and type it into your phone/tab/pc and use it as a
remote head from your favourite device. That continues to
happen. However, if you have seen the pictures of the zbitx,
we have also added a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display to the radio.
This is a? 480x320?TFT touch display. It is not as common as
the 320x240 display that is used in uBitx, it is half the
resolution of the standard sbitx v3.We insisted on this
display as FT8 needs at least 10 lines of decodes to be
useful. There was a shortage of these from January onwards,
we started getting them only by February last week. These
are apparently commonly used in ebikes and they got wiped
out in the Christmas sales.
THEN:
The Raspberry Zero 2, that powers the zbitx (zero bitx
because of? the RPI zero in it), can't handle this display
as the GPIO pins on it are all used up. Hence, the zbitx
sports a new microcontroller, the Raspberry Pico W (with
Wifi and Bluetooth on it!) that handles the front panel.
This offloads the user interface to this microcontroller
that handles the 3.5 inch TFT display. The two talk to each
other over the I2C bus (Pi is the master, Pico is the
slave).
NOW:
Future updates to the front panel (like moving the comms
between the zbitx and the front-panel to bluetooth or even
wifi to make it a remote head) will need a way to update the
firmware to the Pico. It is usually done with an Arduino IDE
running on a computer with micro USB cable from the PC to
the Pico. That is the easy part. The hard part was that
getting the Arduino going on a PC, installing the Pico
package and then the TFT display libraries is like pulling
teeth. There has to be a better way. We realized this last
week when I shipped out the Pico firmware to our folks at HF
Signals. If they(HF Signals) couldn't get the Arduino IDE
setup on their PC within minutes, I?was very skeptical and
most users of zbitx would.
SO, the Plan is ...
First, we are shipping the micro USB cables with the
radios that will allow the raspberry pi zero to move the
latest firmware from zbitx's sbitx folder to the Pico.
Second, we are getting a new update script that will copy
the latest firmware over from the Pi to the Pico. That is
taking this weekend. I took a break from writing it to post
this email, I will work through this weekend and hopefully
get it shipped to HF Signals in the next 24 hours.
?
I hope this explains the further delay. Thanks for the
understanding. We will of course keep the list updated with
the progress.
73, f
|
Thank you for the update!
?
Take your time! I believe that we all rather have the issues solved in advance and in house.?
excellent work and laser focused dedication!!
?
73 de CR7BOG?
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Wow, that sounds like it was a puzzle to figure out.?
|
Ashhar,
?
Thank you for all the time you have put into the ZBitx. Hopefully, after this weekend you’ll get a much needed break
?
Thank You again,
Robert AG6LK
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Thank you Ashar! Thanks for all your hard work making our hobby fun, innovative, and affordable! Truly state of the art! Doing what no one else has done! I appreciate it greatly!
Jay NM2M?
Ashhar,
?
Thank you for all the time you have put into the ZBitx. Hopefully, after this weekend you’ll get a much needed break
?
Thank You again,
Robert AG6LK
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Thank you for the update, very much appreciated.? ?Doug
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<<
THEN:
The Raspberry Zero 2, that powers the zbitx (zero bitx because of? the RPI zero in it), can't handle this display as the GPIO pins on it are all used up. Hence, the zbitx sports a new microcontroller, the Raspberry Pico W (with Wifi and Bluetooth on it!) that handles the front panel. This offloads the user interface to this microcontroller that handles the 3.5 inch TFT display. The two talk to each other over the I2C bus (Pi is the master, Pico is the slave).
>>
I understand you had to modify the main board, which has now two microcontroller: the original Zero 2 to which is added a Pico W?
<<
NOW:
Future updates to the front panel (like moving the comms between the zbitx and the front-panel to bluetooth or even wifi to make it a remote head) will need a way to update the firmware to the Pico. It is usually done with an Arduino IDE running on a computer with micro USB cable from the PC to the Pico. That is the easy part. The hard part was that getting the Arduino going on a PC, installing the Pico package and then the TFT display libraries is like pulling teeth. There has to be a better way. We realized this last week when I shipped out the Pico firmware to our folks at HF Signals. If they(HF Signals) couldn't get the Arduino IDE setup on their PC within minutes, I?was very skeptical and most users of zbitx would.
>>
Did you manage to find an easy and better way for plain OMs to setup the Arduino IDE?
73 - Pierre - FK8IH
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The zbitx main board has a Pi Zero 2W and the front panel has the pico W. The pico2W didnt work with the display, nor did we need it to work the front panel.
Which raspberry pi zero does it have?
the Pi zero W (Broadcom BCM2835 ARMv6 1GHz 1 core + WiFi)
or the pi zero 2W? (Broadcom BCM2711A1 Cortex-A72 1GHz Quad-Core 64bits +WiFi)
or the 1.3 (Broadcom BCM2835 ARMv6 1GHz 1 core no WiFi)?
?
Thanks for the clarification.
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Pierre,
?
As Farhan said:
First, we are shipping the micro USB cables with the radios that will allow the raspberry pi zero to move the latest firmware from zbitx's sbitx folder to the Pico.
?
The Pico is updated by the RPi Zero 2W, the user doesn't get involved beyond attaching a USB cable from one device to the other (that's how I understand it)
?
Ken, N2VIP
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I'm confused with all this. When I open the package, install the batteries I want it to work. I'm not interested in jumping through a bunch of hoops like the DX FT-8. Please don't ship until it works.
?
Aaron
W4AAN?
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From what I understood the email from Farhan was explaining that in the future should there be any need to update the firmware to the raspberry pico that to avoid issues with end users needed to install the software to update the pico on their PC that he was working on a work around where you will connect a cable from the raspberry zero W2 to the pico and update the firmware that way.?? No radio is perfect out of the box and especially sdr like radios where software/firmware is always changing .
I would assume that the radio would be radio to go out of the box . What he explained was to make things easier to upgrade the firmware in the future when they need to fix bugs.??
Also the bitx radios are to be expected some hacking around will be required at some point.?
I'm confused with all this. When I open the package, install the batteries I want it to work. I'm not interested in jumping through a bunch of hoops like the DX FT-8. Please don't ship until it works.
?
Aaron
W4AAN?
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Aaron,
The radio works out of the box, have no doubts. However, you can tinker with it if you want to, but no one insists on it.
The sbitx wouldnt be what it is without the contributions of so many folks who have tinkered with it. The aim of making it programmable is just that.
You can use this like a traditional radio that works all the modes like SSB, CW. What makes the sbitx and the zbitx different is that it keeps getting better with age as folks keep adding features and modes to it. Just look at JJ's team's mind blowing port of QSSTV and FreeDV as an examplr
On Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 6:46 AM David T-- VE3TOS via <digiital= [email protected]> wrote: From what I understood the email from Farhan was explaining that in the future should there be any need to update the firmware to the raspberry pico that to avoid issues with end users needed to install the software to update the pico on their PC that he was working on a work around where you will connect a cable from the raspberry zero W2 to the pico and update the firmware that way.?? No radio is perfect out of the box and especially sdr like radios where software/firmware is always changing .
I would assume that the radio would be radio to go out of the box . What he explained was to make things easier to upgrade the firmware in the future when they need to fix bugs.??
Also the bitx radios are to be expected some hacking around will be required at some point.? I'm confused with all this. When I open the package, install the batteries I want it to work. I'm not interested in jumping through a bunch of hoops like the DX FT-8. Please don't ship until it works.
?
Aaron
W4AAN?
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sbitx is being praised while zbitx is being talked about.
Those who have little knowledge of the knowledge of certain components believe that one day it will be able to do what the sbitx can do with the many developments.
Don't believe it, it won't be able to do that. This is a small radio that you can take up to the mountain with you and make a few digital and cw QSOs with it.
If you choose the right microphone, you can also use it in voice mode.
This is what it was designed for. If you are interested, you can compare the knowledge of the individual parts on the Internet using the search engines.
--
Gyula HA3HZ
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Bill AG5ZN
tzsantos CR7BOG
Kevin
HA3HZ