Only 1 Watt Output?

[Art C]

I received the Hermes setup Main board, Filter board and enclosure. I would consider myself a very experienced end-user also a amature radio operator and using Apache Labs ANAN's for years. Simple assembly seems to receive fine, but can only get almost 1-watt out of this unit. I've tried V3 Console step by step setup for transmit also tried the latest Thetis for Hermes Lite and still only 1-watt out into a good quality dummy load. Heavy duty Astron power supply. My Anan 7K with 5-watt in gives 565watts out on my low input SS Amp.. The Hermes I received drives  it 38watts just under a watt of drive input.

Any help with this would be apprciated 

Thank you,

Art Caico  N4QNT

["Christoph v. Wüllen"]

In the "PA menu" of the SDR program, you can set the (anticipated) total
amplification in dB for each band. If the output level is too small, try
REDUCING the value and look whether the output increases.

I seems your PA calibration setting is still way too high, reduce it
to about 42 dB (just measured it on my HL2). The default value
(about 53 dB) would correspond to very little output, however,
the TX attenuator in the HL2 can do at most about 7 dB, so
1 Watt output is probably the minimum one.

FYI, with PA calibration = 53 I get about 1 Watt output and
580 mA PA current, with calibration = 42 I get 5 Watt output
and a PA current of 1120 mA.

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[Ron Lewkowicz]

Wondering if some applications are customized more to ANAN radios?  I tried getting mine configured for TX last night for a bit.  Started with Quisk to check the PA bios as shown in the youtube video.  Set spot to zero and output showed about 170ma which seemed pretty close so I didn't change the settings. Brought it up to full power and it's about 6 watts out FM carrier into dummy load.

Moved on to piHPSDR.  If I enable PA for Tune it's also about 6 watts out.  Switching to FM carrier and hitting the MOX button the max setting allow per band in the PA menu is 38.8.  This only give about 3 - 3.5 watts out maximum.  So Quisk seems to be the only one able to get the HL2 up to full power. I'll have to read through the source for piHPSDR and see if it's safe to enable some higher setting than 38.8.

Bottom line test with Quisk first.

[Alan Hopper]

Hi Art, welcome to the HL2 world,

It is always worth checking the filter settings as well as the pa settings, maybe try on number of bands as well. Should you try SparkSDR you need to enable PA in radio settings/PA, select one of the  N2ADR filter presets in radio settings/filters and put the drive up on the main screen.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Mark Herbert]

I think this is software dependant. I was seeing the same issue with Thetis on an older version, but it was resolved by upgrading to the latest release with the HL2 specific configuration. Note that you'll need to remove the config settings that are stored in your personal profile and the remove programs tool doesn't remove them. If when you install and run the new version it goes through the Fourier transforms calcs again then it's working.

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From: herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ron Lewkowicz <ron.le...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2023 7:56:26 PM
To: Hermes-Lite <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Only 1 Watt Output?

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/06bd9081-2ad6-4fe4-898a-4dc20300a5een%40googlegroups.com.

[radi...@mail.com]

I use SDR Console V3 with my two HL2s. Can confirm it gives a full 5W out. Actually with the Hermes Lite I just purchased from the last run I see 7W on some bands. 

(1) Are you using the latest version of SDR Console as downloaded from the site? HL2 integration has undergone a number of updates since it was first introduced on SDRC by the author, Simon G4ELI. You must run latest version to be sure it's fully optimised. I recommend the Beta version. It's very well tested and of course is the most up to date:

https://www.sdr-radio.com/download

(2) There are a number of places in the SDRC setup where it's possible to inadvertently introduce an issue with the power output.

If you have issues specifically with SDRC, please post on the support forum and there are several of us there to help:

https://sdr-radio.groups.io/g/main

However, it sounds odd that you are having the same issue on other software. Coincidence or hardware issue? Also as Ron mentioned, I believe that you need to make sure with Thetis that you are using the version that has been specifically optimised for use with the HL2?

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Thetis-Setup

73

Max

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Art,

One watt output is usually incorrect software configuration. Units are tested to produce at least 5W before leaving Makerfabs. If something has broken since leaving Makerfabs, I'd expect no power output. The HL2 is not an exact clone of an ANAN so there may be some new configuration for you. What others have already mentioned is good advice. Did it help? Here is a partial checklist for this problem:

1. Ensure your "PA menu" per band settings are not lowering your power. There is a YouTube video for PowerSDR which goes over this, but will apply to other software too.
2. Ensure your TX drive is set to the maximum. It can be varied by 7.5 dB.
3. Ensure your filter settings are correct. The filter can attenuate if set incorrectly.
4. Clear your Thetis database, and use only the HL2 aware version of Thetis
5. Connect a straight key to the CW key jack and test for 5W out with key down. This bypasses most software signalling and can identify if it is a software configuration issue.

As far as I am aware, all applications listed on the software wiki page can achieve 5W output with the HL2 if configured correctly.

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Software

73,

Steve

kf7o

["Christoph v. Wüllen"]

There is no "PA calibration" setting with a value smaller than 38.8. This value yields the maximum
possible value (255) for the drive level which is an unsigned 8-bit integer.

If you get only 3 Watt, this is probably due to an incorrect setting for the TX LPF.
However, if you freshly start piHPSDR, this should not happen since for HL2 it will
automatically select the N2ADR filter board upon startup and apply the correct open-collector
setting. To be sure, go to the radio menu and see if "N2ADR" is checked, and perhaps
un-check and re-check it.

This could only be the case if you start from a corrupt or out-dated "props" file.

I cannot speak for older piHPSDR versions, compile the version from my github.

P.S.: without TX LPF engaged you will get 6 watts instead of 5, simply because
the insertion loss of the filters is about 1 dB.

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[Steve Haynal]

Hi Art,

There was no report back from you. Did you resolve your low power issue? If so, can you share so others can benefit.

73,

Steve

kf7o