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In an effort to comply with good engineering practices I've decided to twist and shorten my wires, trying to route them efficiently.? ?I made the wires to encoder as short as possible, and twisted them. Well in doing that I must have been careless; I verified my connections but something's wrong. The encoder is not working as it should as I rotate it will hop into a menu, almost as if I had pushed it.? I can salvage another from my other projects and try to fix it. The other two things are initially? I had very low audio and by poking around the wires from the volume it went from low to very loud. I verified my connections and resoldered volume wires again, but same result. It seems that the entire radio might be in need of shielding or maybe snap on ferrite beads. Going to look around YouTube and try CEC fw for the stock lcd. Anyone have any other ideas? Any suggestions are appreciated?
73,?
Kelly K5AID?
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?Sorry Kelly, for the problems you are having!? ?But you will eventually conquer them.
Kits tend to have an additional component packed in the box, that doesn't show up on the Bill of Materials, nor on the Schematic.? ?
If someone could name it, it might come out as "OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN THROUGH CONSIDERABLE TRIALS GETTING THIS DARN THING TO WORK"
My first radio built from a heathkit, didn't work for the first SIX MONTHS that I owned it, despite I think 2 trips back to Benton Harbor Michigan.? ?They engineered in the most horrible KEY CLICKS you could imagine.? ?As a teenager that taught me a ton
about voltmeters, and RC circuits and time constants.? ? I certainly didn't have an oscilloscope to try and understand it!? ? But the kit gave me tons of chances to learn about components, circuits and all things electronic.? ?
That's the way it is in ham radio when you venture out from "store-bought"? $$$$$ rigs.? ?Within a few years of that ignominious beginning, I was designing my own triple 811A amplifier.? ??
Gordon
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In an effort to comply with good engineering practices I've decided to twist and shorten my wires, trying to route them efficiently.? ?I made the wires to encoder as short as possible, and twisted them. Well in doing that I must have been careless; I verified
my connections but something's wrong. The encoder is not working as it should as I rotate it will hop into a menu, almost as if I had pushed it.? I can salvage another from my other projects and try to fix it. The other two things are initially? I had very
low audio and by poking around the wires from the volume it went from low to very loud. I verified my connections and resoldered volume wires again, but same result. It seems that the entire radio might be in need of shielding or maybe snap on ferrite beads.
Going to look around YouTube and try CEC fw for the stock lcd. Anyone have any other ideas? Any suggestions are appreciated?
73,?
Kelly K5AID?
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Kelly
Do verify its not a intermittent connection between things, as the raduino needs to he firmly mounted. I remember similar issues. Take a break and he patient.? some of jy own stumbles along the way are documented somewhere here. I have learned to trust the materials and design, it may be a simple assembly detail needing refinement.
Curt
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Well thank you both Curt and Gordon.? I agree it's a process. I firmly believe it is more about using good engineering practices than anything else.? I have another harness to prepare for the encoder, and will wire it directly to the encoder.? I also have another 10k pot for the volume; part wise I'm ok.?
Question,? would switching to CEC firmware (lcd 16x2 parallel) be of any use over stock firmware,? I am also familiar with python, arduino...
73,?
Kelly K5AID?
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Sounds like you soldered the push button wire (red?) to the 3 contacts of the encoder.
Raj
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At 24-03-19, you wrote: In an effort to comply with good engineering practices I've decided to twist and shorten my wires, trying to route them efficiently. I made the wires to encoder as short as possible, and twisted them. Well in doing that I must have been careless; I verified my connections but something's wrong. The encoder is not working as it should as I rotate it will hop into a menu, almost as if I had pushed it. I can salvage another from my other projects and try to fix it. The other two things are initially I had very low audio and by poking around the wires from the volume it went from low to very loud. I verified my connections and resoldered volume wires again, but same result. It seems that the entire radio might be in need of shielding or maybe snap on ferrite beads. Going to look around YouTube and try CEC fw for the stock lcd. Anyone have any other ideas? Any suggestions are appreciated
73,
Kelly K5AID
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Your symptoms looks like the yellow wire to encoder switch is exchanged
for A or B of encoder.
There could be a short on the PCB and that might be worth checking with a
meter and magnifier.
If you can send a pic of the solder side of that board.
Raj
At 24-03-19, you wrote:
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CEC is a must.. You will love it, even on the stock LCD.
As for the weird problems, they are almost certainly Physical. In my build, i found the connectors were not robust, nor were the interconnecting wires used with them. I ended up soldering direct from point to point instead of using the plugs, as they lost their grip after being plugged & unplugged a few times. I reckon if You were to assemble the radio once or twice You would be fine, but any amount of regular tinkering will take it's toll on the integrity of Your inter-connections. The thing is, as i'm sure most uBitx heads will testify to - You will be all over and in & out of the build regularly, and wear & tear is to be expected.
You need to EXPECT the budget interconnects and moving parts to fail.
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Stick with it.? I'm sure you will get it.? I very strongly suggest you get everything working with the stock firmware.? Why give yourself another variable to deal with???
--
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Kit building is all about the adventure and the accomplishment when finally complete....LOL
On Sat, Mar 23, 2019 at 9:09 PM Gordon Gibby < ggibby@...> wrote:
?Sorry Kelly, for the problems you are having!? ?But you will eventually conquer them.
Kits tend to have an additional component packed in the box, that doesn't show up on the Bill of Materials, nor on the Schematic.? ?
If someone could name it, it might come out as "OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN THROUGH CONSIDERABLE TRIALS GETTING THIS DARN THING TO WORK"
My first radio built from a heathkit, didn't work for the first SIX MONTHS that I owned it, despite I think 2 trips back to Benton Harbor Michigan.? ?They engineered in the most horrible KEY CLICKS you could imagine.? ?As a teenager that taught me a ton
about voltmeters, and RC circuits and time constants.? ? I certainly didn't have an oscilloscope to try and understand it!? ? But the kit gave me tons of chances to learn about components, circuits and all things electronic.? ?
That's the way it is in ham radio when you venture out from "store-bought"? $$$$$ rigs.? ?Within a few years of that ignominious beginning, I was designing my own triple 811A amplifier.? ??
Gordon
In an effort to comply with good engineering practices I've decided to twist and shorten my wires, trying to route them efficiently.? ?I made the wires to encoder as short as possible, and twisted them. Well in doing that I must have been careless; I verified
my connections but something's wrong. The encoder is not working as it should as I rotate it will hop into a menu, almost as if I had pushed it.? I can salvage another from my other projects and try to fix it. The other two things are initially? I had very
low audio and by poking around the wires from the volume it went from low to very loud. I verified my connections and resoldered volume wires again, but same result. It seems that the entire radio might be in need of shielding or maybe snap on ferrite beads.
Going to look around YouTube and try CEC fw for the stock lcd. Anyone have any other ideas? Any suggestions are appreciated?
73,?
Kelly K5AID?
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When I assembled mine, it would would tune the opposite way than I intended so don't feel bad. To prevent damaging anything when by re-soldering the wires yet again, I used a miniature flat-head screwdriver to remap the wire connections on the plug side. Pressing the exposed tang on the side of the pin allowed its removal.
-Tom
KF5NWC
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My volume control was wired backwards... my encoder was fine initially; I somehow fouled it up; I remember now having to press very hard to get it on the encoder shaft... so if I used too much pressure, then that MIGHT explain it's strange behavior of jumping into and out of menus randomly, if I broke the pushbutton inadvertently. I have an extra 4 pin harness with connectors ready.
I ordered 2 replacements from digikey just now. reference # PEC11R-4020F-S0012-ND. This is the direct part number as per this thread.
I have an extra 10k linear pot?in the junk box?that I can replace the volume pot with... hopefully we can get things fixed up in a couple days.
73,?
Kelly K5AID?
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I meant to say I had to press the tuning knob onto the encoder shaft very hard...
Kelly K5AID?
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Playthatbeat Mrdjp: I noticed that as well with the wires and connectors.? Luckily I had red black and green wires of 22 gauge and larger for use with my build.?
On the front panel board I didn't use the relimate connectors, I used the right angle pins supplied with Sunil's kit (the Nextion display enclosures). And thank you, I remembered a couple of items I need to check; my grounding of the ubitx circuit board to the case needs to be verified also. Thanks everybody for the ideas. I will systematically? address all of these in the morning? when I go out to the workshop
73,
Kelly K5AID?
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Kelly.
The volume control should be preferably LOG or 10KA
Raj
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At 25-03-19, you wrote: My volume control was wired backwards... my encoder was fine initially; I somehow fouled it up; I remember now having to press very hard to get it on the encoder shaft... so if I used too much pressure, then that MIGHT explain it's strange behavior of jumping into and out of menus randomly, if I broke the pushbutton inadvertently. I have an extra 4 pin harness with connectors ready.
I ordered 2 replacements from digikey just now. reference # PEC11R-4020F-S0012-ND. This is the direct part number as per this thread.
I have an extra 10k linear pot in the junk box that I can replace the volume pot with... hopefully we can get things fixed up in a couple days.
73,
Kelly K5AID
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On Sun, Mar 24, 2019 at 06:44 PM, Kelly Mabry wrote:
I have an extra 10k linear pot?in the junk box
You might be able to place a resistor from the low side to the center of the potentiometer to approximate a log pot.? Here is an example article. Tom, wb6b
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?Well after a few hours of teardown and reassembly, I salvaged the encoder and the board. It tunes flaky, tends to jump around, very sensitive tune rate....I also was able to hear wwv on 5 mhz. It does not jump in and of menus.
I have my Carolina windom connected to the ubitx, and am hearing strong signals, but not many so I am encouraged only slightly.?
Next step is to relax, and fix the volume control..tomorrow.? At least it works and sounds like a radio!
73,
Kelly K5AID?
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Raj vu2zap
AA9GG
M0OOZ