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uBitx Opto Coupler / VFO not working #ubitx-help #ubitx

 

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!
 

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


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!
 

Yep I am using the same manual, on closer inspecttion on the monitor rather then my printout the wire appears to be brown.


So I have everyting wired correctly, now what?
 

Anyone?
 

We need a bit more information in order to help troubleshoot your uBITX.
?
?1)? Which opto-coupler on the schematic drawing are you referring to as being inoperative?
????? Is it the manufacturer provided mechanical rotary encoder that you say is not working?

?2)? What test equipment do you have available?

?3)? What troubleshooting steps have you already taken, and what were the results?

?4)? Which schematic (URL) are you using to troubleshoot your uBITX?

?5)? Is it just the VFO frequency adjustment that does not work, or are there other configuration
?????? and adjustment options that do not work properly?

?6)? Have any modifications been applied to your uBITX build?

Arv? K7HKL
_._


On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 8:32 PM, kj6etl <pa1zz@...> wrote:
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!


 

Hi Arv,

Thank you for getting back to me!

Its the original opto coupler that came with the kit that I received about a month ago.
From what I recall the vfo worked when I first turned it on without an antenna. Unfortunately I have not been able to work on it for 2 weeks since first applying power. When I fired it up again the VFO / Optocoupler is unresponsive. Also the unit doesn't switch to TX any more. The display turns on and the receiver works but the display is stuck?at "LSB A : 7150.000" neither is there any response from the rig when pushing the optocoupler or rotating it.

No modifications to software or PCB have been made.

Adons to the original design:
  • Added a double throw switch On - Off - On and a 2nd power supply input for future 24volt to the PA
  • Added a speech processing board to the microphone

Trouble shooting steps taken so far:
  • Tripple checked all wiring
  • Connected evertyhing to a common ground terminal rather then metal housing
  • Disconnected peripherals
  • Power cycle
  • Pressed reset button on the Raduino board
  • Pressed reset button on the Raduino board while power cycling
  • Bridge various contacts on the optocoupler
  • Grounded various contacts on the optocoupler

The only test instrument I have available is a digital multi meter.


Hope this info helps :-)

Smiles across the wires,


Rogier
 

Roger

For purposes of troubleshooting we will use the following drawings and documents:

uBITX??????
Raduino??

Wire-up??

Minor correction...the tuning control provided with the uBITX kit is a mechanical
rotary encoder.? No optical sensors involved.?

Since the Raduino part completes its power-up cycle and goes to the frequency
adjustment function I would assume that the Raduino part is working properly, but
would not rule out a problem with one of the interconnects between Raduino and
uBITX transceiver main board.?

Because pushing the knob inward on the tuning control does not change anything
it might be possible that the push-button-function is not working, due to this lead
either being open or shorted to ground.? This drawing in the uBITX wire-up section
shows which lead between the rotary encoder and the Raduino is the push-button
connection:? .? I would use your voltmeter to verify that the switch
lead #5 on the rotary encoder is at 5V when the knob is not depressed and at ground
when the knob is depressed.? Pushing this switch closed should cause the Raduino
software to move to a different menu item, and show that action on the LCD display.?

After checking the Raduino and rotary encoder interaction, please come back here
and let us know the result, and if that lead to fixing the problem.

Thanks,

Arv
_._



On Mon, May 14, 2018 at 12:17 PM, kj6etl <pa1zz@...> wrote:
Hi Arv,

Thank you for getting back to me!

Its the original opto coupler that came with the kit that I received about a month ago.
From what I recall the vfo worked when I first turned it on without an antenna. Unfortunately I have not been able to work on it for 2 weeks since first applying power. When I fired it up again the VFO / Optocoupler is unresponsive. Also the unit doesn't switch to TX any more. The display turns on and the receiver works but the display is stuck?at "LSB A : 7150.000" neither is there any response from the rig when pushing the optocoupler or rotating it.

No modifications to software or PCB have been made.

Adons to the original design:
  • Added a double throw switch On - Off - On and a 2nd power supply input for future 24volt to the PA
  • Added a speech processing board to the microphone

Trouble shooting steps taken so far:
  • Tripple checked all wiring
  • Connected evertyhing to a common ground terminal rather then metal housing
  • Disconnected peripherals
  • Power cycle
  • Pressed reset button on the Raduino board
  • Pressed reset button on the Raduino board while power cycling
  • Bridge various contacts on the optocoupler
  • Grounded various contacts on the optocoupler

The only test instrument I have available is a digital multi meter.


Hope this info helps :-)

Smiles across the wires,


Rogier
 

I desoldered all wires from the encoder.
The push putton funktions works from open circuit to 0 ohm when I push it.
Connecting the yellow and red wire doesn't change a thing on the display.

I disconnected all wires from the encoder and measured the following:

?

The following measures to common ground on chassis:

Yellow -0.03v

Brown + 4.73v

Red + 0.01v

Black + 4.73v

?

?

Measurements between controller wires:

Yellow > Red + 0.04v

Yellow > Brown + 4.73v

Yellow > Black +4.73v

?

Brown > Red 0.00V

Brown > Black 0.00v
 

When I press the Raduino reset and the controller button the display briefly shows "Raduino 2.0" before returning back to VFO A: ?7.150:000
 

Any advice for me?
 

With "Lead #5" do you mean the #5 as marked on the encoder as shown in the diaram??or is it pin #6 on the raduino (red wire 3rd from the right ?

When I disconnected the connector and measured pin #6 on the Raduino to ground I have no voltage.
 

KJ6ETL

The rotary encoder seems to be working, but there may be a lead connection problem.
The "A" and "B" leads on the encoder do a phase dance to tell the software which direction
the shaft is being turned.? You can see this with your voltmeter if you monitor the A-lead
while slowly turning the knob and then monitor the B-lead while slowly turning the shaft.?
Both connections should change back and forth between ground and approximately 5
volts.? If either A or B phase is stuck high or stuck low it can cause the software to not
understand that the shaft is bring turned.?

Pushing the knob inward closes the normally open push-switch and causes the software
to step to the next menu item, and indicates this by a change in the display.? When you
monitor the push-switch leads on the encoder you should see one lead permanently at
ground and the other at approximately 5 volts, going to ground when the switch is activated.?

Any discrepancies in the above measurements would indicate that something is either
shorted or not connected properly between the rotary encoder and the Arduino board.?

I know that these are very basic tests, but they need to be performed as a prelude to
going further with the troubleshooting process.?

Next step(s) will involve digging a bit into the schematics, connection drawings, and
possibly into the software itself.? If necessary I can open up my own uBITX and do
some comparisons to see what is different between my rig and yours.?

Arv
_._


On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 5:27 PM, kj6etl <pa1zz@...> wrote:
Any advice for me?


 

Pin 5 on the encoder and Pin 6 on the radiuno are connected by the red
wire.

If you don't see any voltage on pin 6 of the raduino then there is a
problem on the raduino card.

Do you see 5v on the encoder pins at the raduino? That's pins 7 and 8.

tim ab0wr

On Tue, 15 May 2018 16:55:16 -0700
"kj6etl" <pa1zz@...> wrote:

With "Lead #5" do you mean the #5 as marked on the encoder as shown
in the diaram? is it pin #6 on the raduino
(red wire 3rd from the right ?

When I disconnected the connector and measured pin #6 on the Raduino
to ground I have no voltage.
 

Update I measured between the red and yellow wire on the arduino a NEGATIVE -5Volts
 

KJ6ETL

Interesting that you measured a negative voltage on the red and yellow wires.?
There is no negative voltage supplied to the Raduino board.? Did you have the
voltmeter connected backwards??

Arv? K7HKL
_._


On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 8:53 PM, kj6etl <pa1zz@...> wrote:
Update I measured between the red and yellow wire on the arduino a NEGATIVE -5Volts


 

Red should be positive +5v while the yellow should be ground. I suspect
you had your voltmeter leads backwards. It's a good indication that you
have 5v however.

Does your multimeter have a resistance scale? Can you measure the
resistance across the encoder pins 4 and 5 with the encoder pushed in?
It should read Zero ohms.

tim ab0wr

On Tue, 15 May 2018 19:53:01 -0700
"kj6etl" <pa1zz@...> wrote:

Update I measured between the red and yellow wire on the arduino a
NEGATIVE -5Volts
 

I thought the same, I even checkd the polarity with a battery just to make sure.
Yes the encoder pins are OK.
 

Correction!
I miscounted the pins for the yellow wire.

Red to Yellow is 0 Volts!
 

Rogerio

I just sent you a private email discussing possible wiring errors regarding the Raduino
wiring diagram.? I am going to redraw the image to make some of the connections more
obvious.

Arv
_._

On Wed, May 16, 2018 at 3:26 PM, kj6etl <pa1zz@...> wrote:
Correction!
I miscounted the pins for the yellow wire.

Red to Yellow is 0 Volts!


 

Thanks!

I send you replies :-)

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