Hi, Lloyd
Step 1 - Take 2 full size paper towels and fold them into a pad
maybe 6 inches on a side.
Step 2 - Rubbing / Denatured / Isopropyl / Gin / Vodka and an old
toothbrush - Give the area with the appearance of a battlefield a
good scrubbing. Hold the board on its side and allow the alcohol
to run down into the towel pad. Follow while still wet with a dry
towel, patting it down. Now that you can see the board, inspect
thoroughly and double-check that you have the right wire in the
right hole. Once you are sure you have repaired all visible opens
and shorts, give the board a few minutes with a hair dryer on
high, both sides.
73
Jim W4JED
On 4/20/19 12:35 PM, Lloyd K3ESE wrote:
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I really thought I'd be taking my time and doing everything right.
but then I noticed that I installed the three smaller windings on
T1 wrong. After ripping it out and redoing it, I've wrecked pads
on the bottom of the board. Primary 1, the center small winding,
is shorted, somewhere, to S3, the large winding. Argh.
Can someone tell me some spots to check for continuity with
various places on this transformer that I can use to try and
salvage this, maybe by adding some jumpers? oy
red arrows point to P1. orange is S2, blue is S1, yellow is S3
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Stock QCX-17 just scored its very first 12m reception !
So, I thought to myself, "Self, where, within the 12m band ( or almost *any* band, for that matter ), are we most likely to find a readable signal or two on the stock QCX-17 ?".
"Within the FT8 segment !", I thought. So, we hovered, centered near 24916 kHz ( had to allow for the -17's 800 Hz CW offset, plus a bit extra ).
And, there he was, KN4MKX, all of five miles from my QTH, calling PU2OZD.
Hmmm, wonder whether this thing receives at all on 10m...
72 / 73,
Bill, N4QA
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First get some q tips and 90+% alcohol and clean the crud up so you can see what¡¯s what. Firm but gentle. You will not be able to get rid of all the black but should be able to make it much easier to inspect closely. Mine looked similar, it was surprisingly difficult to get the wires out of those plated thru holes without lifting and destroying the pads. If I had it to do again I might leave a toroids thickness length (or more) of wire extending from the top of the board and then figure out how to snuggly solder the new winding to that. Too late now. I did remove a bit of solder mask from the trace coming from hole that no longer has a pad on the bottom side, having the wire come thru that hole & then fold down on top of that trace and solder the wire to the trace. No where near as pretty but I completed the rest and the radio works well.?
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Thanks! I was picturing little drop down feet in the back like Mountain Toppers from LNR have. I'm not sure about the color either, that was just what filament I had on the printer that day.
The box was a pretty easy print overall, big flat surfaces sometimes tent to warp on me but at 110 x 90 mm, its not too bad. I tried to avoid overhangs except for the holes in the sides, but printers can bridge those without supports. I'll have to rethink that anyway, I can't get it in the box with all the connectors soldered in. I'll probably split into two pieces that sandwich the PC board in between. I'll post the final design on thingiverse.
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Lloyd
Likewise I don't see any board damage. I myself might be tempted not to remove those wire stubs, but back them up toward the top and use them to attach to. Proceed with least risk to the board. You can later stake appropriately. This coil is a work of art to cancel the unwanted sideband, inspect carefully before soldering it. Use the picture book that Hans gave us.
Uh ohs happen. Did one yesterday to an accessory homebrew item for my ubitx, trying to add a S meter (for next time you ask me for RST when you give me less than a watt)
73 from dude across the lake
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Hi Lloyd
I may have misunderstood what's happened but looking at your picture I think the bottom yellow dot (S3)? and the left hand red arrow (P1) are both connected to the ground plate.? I've also looked at the schematic and that is how it is supposed to be.? So it is correct to see continuity between P1 and S3.? Its likely that all is well.
73
Peter
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Lloyd
That isn't the serial number it is the order ID. I need to update the list. Manually. I will do so this evening.
73 Hans G0UPL? ?
On Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 19:49 Lloyd K3ESE < llachow@...> wrote: my recent QCX20 had the order number 26826. that number isn't listed on the serial number page...??
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my recent QCX20 had the order number 26826. that number isn't listed on the serial number page...??
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pretty! I'm not sure if I would box mine, or set it on a little tilted display... but I'd have to successfully complete one, first... was it easy to print that box?
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I really thought I'd be taking my time and doing everything right. but then I noticed that I installed the three smaller windings on T1 wrong. After ripping it out and redoing it, I've wrecked pads on the bottom of the board. Primary 1, the center small winding, is shorted, somewhere, to S3, the large winding. Argh.
Can someone tell me some spots to check for continuity with various places on this transformer that I can use to try and salvage this, maybe by adding some jumpers? oy
red arrows point to P1. orange is S2, blue is S1, yellow is S3
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Here is a picture of the resistor.? It measures 38.5 ohms.?
Al?
Hi Al
The colour codes are 5-band. Did you measure 38 ohms? That is the while 5-band code?
73 Hans G0UPL? Is there a reason I am left with one resistor that measures 38 ohms (Orange/White/Black)???
All the white spacers in the kit will accept the screw in one end.? The screw wont fit in the other end of the spacer.?
Al Lipinski?
Hi Al
Yes. Non-critical. The most non-critical place for the low one would be C21 or C22.
73 Hans G0UPL? ?
Section 3.16 of manual?
Install 1uF capacitors (3).??
I measured two caps at 0.978 uF I measured one cap at 0.775uF? ?.? About - 22% tolerance Should I install the low cap?????
Thanks,?
-- Al Lipinski
--
Al Lipinski
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Hi All,
I have an interest in making QCX and other QRP-LABS products send JS8.
The idea being that you send ASCII characters to the QCX and it forms JS8 packets and sends them as long as there are characters in the buffer.
I that way your typing goes out maybe a different antenna and you can receive JS8 with your normal XCVR and computer at the same time :).
You can also easily experiment with remote JS8 data collection sorts of things by just sending ASCII to the remote QCX.
There is source code already on the web that runs in the QCX though off hand I don't remember where and haven't compiled and run it myself yet.
Generating JS8 directly with the 5351 should give a very clean RF signal since the RF is created directly by that chip.
Is anyone else interested?
John
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On Sat, 20 Apr 2019, Andy Brilleaux via Groups.Io wrote: On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 12:46 PM, Alan G4ZFQ wrote:
Serves you right:-) Built for Windows so you can have some of
the updating pain we have?
Ironically, pre-built binaries for Raspberry Pi's (including v2.01) work
fine ;-)
But for those of us using our daily work machines, on stable and LTS support
code bases were completely disowned in favour of OS versions that are barely
out of beta testing.
- Andy -
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Re: U3S transmitting through the case
...i also had an open circuit track on the PCB (link wire to relay #1). Once fixed (added a wire to the PCB to fix the track), the relay board started working.
--
Best regards,
Chris
M0XFL
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Re: U3S: Apparent WSPR frequency error
On 20/04/2019 12:35, Hans Summers wrote: Hi Alan
The change wasn't done, the U3S still transmits the specified frequency as
the WSPR's lowest tone, which is 2.19Hz below the center frequency. Hans, Thanks, shows my check was pretty close! 73 Alan G4ZFQ
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Al, by any chance did you do a parts inventory before starting your build? I always start with a sort and inventory count just to make sure nothing is missing. I measure and sort first and my favorite material for holding part is a medium size piece of anti static foam that I insert the parts into. It¡¯s my method of pluck and insert.
Skip Davis, NC9O
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Re: U3S: Apparent WSPR frequency error
Hi Alan
The change wasn't done, the U3S still transmits the specified frequency as the WSPR's lowest tone, which is 2.19Hz below the center frequency.
73 Hans G0UPL? ?
>From version 3.04 (of the old AD9850 DDS based U3), the U3S was changed to match the behaviour of the WSPR decoder (i.e. centre frequency). However, on migrating to the Si5351A this change got lost.
So I will try and put it also into the next U3S firmware version
Did this get done?
No problem. I was just wondering. Using v3.12a and WSPR is showing ~2 Hz higher on my test RX. I do not think it shows on Firmware history.
73 Alan G4ZFQ
?
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Stock QCX-17 just scored its very first 15m CW QSO !
Having been stoked by RBN reports of the stock QCX-17 on 15m from skimmer EA8BFK in the Canary Islands and PJ2A on Curacao yesterday, I thought I'd fire up on 15 a bit earlier today.
Tuning around, I found Jack, W4TJE down there along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a distance of some 35 miles south from me, as the crow flies.
Have a look at Jack's bio on QRZ. He runs some power and his antenna farm is a thing of beauty !
We had a pleasant QSO on 21007 kHz. We wished for each other good DX and, then, continued elsewhere.
OK, QSOs now successful on 30, 20, 17 and 15m using the stock QCX-17 !
Onward !
72 / 73,
Bill, N4QA
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On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 12:46 PM, Alan G4ZFQ wrote:
Serves you right:-) Built for Windows so you can have some of the updating pain we have?
Ironically, pre-built binaries for Raspberry Pi's (including v2.01) work fine ;-) But for those of us using our daily work machines, on stable and LTS support code bases were completely disowned in favour of OS versions that are barely out of beta testing. - Andy -
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I wonder what the default setting is, on or off ?
Andy, The default is indeed "ON". Said to give a 1% improvement in decodes, |I think, by using the hashtable to identify previous decodes. Unfortunately it seems to work too hard and although the false decodes are mostly reasonably obvious they do stand out. Most find this annoying.. I just tried to install the latest WSJTX on Linux to find out, but the dev team insist on using
a new C library, and expect everyone to do a new OS upgrade just to run it.
Serves you right:-) Built for Windows so you can have some of the updating pain we have? 73 Alan G4ZFQ
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Getting those plastic threads to mesh can be very frustrating and take a whole lot of fiddling. Some times when you are ready to give up it will suddenly for no good reason work.
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James Daldry W4JED
Peter GM0EUL
Lloyd K3ESE
Skip Davis