Hermes-Lite 2.0 Build 7 Update

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

Elecrow has finally finished partial assembly of the 25 build 7 units. For some reason, it took just as long or longer for this round even though the FPGA and ADC will be installed here in Oregon. I should receive the units later this week and hopefully Zelpro assembly solutions will be able to do their part of the assembly next week. A picture is attached. I have more high resolution photos if anyone is interested.

73,

Steve

KF7O

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

I received the 25 HL2b7 units from Zelpro Assembly Solutions last Friday. As with every group buy so far, there was some new excitement. This batch appears to have 3 components that are failing in many boards. Fortunately they are not expensive components, but do take time to replace. First, 11 boards have a chipped or cracked shield top on L2. This is shown in the picture below. Zelpro says they arrived this way. Elecrow says they inspect and would not ship with that damage. But at some point the damage occurred. There are 3 similar inductors on each HL2b7 but it is the one L2 inductor that is damaged if damaged. This makes me think these components were originally damaged or Zelpro applied a mechanical clamp/hold always at the same location. The units still works with the damage, but may experience more power supply noise. Second, 10 boards have a bad oscillator X2. I suspect this is because I gave permission to Zelpro to use water wash to clean the boards. This uses ultrasound and can damage some crystals. Finally, 3 boards have a bad temperature sensor. Again, I suspect the water wash. These are points to pay attention to for future group buys.

I have one HL2b7 completely built with PA and filter board. I am running it extensively in TX and RX. I have programmed and fully tested another 4-5 units. Everything else appears to be fine. I am testing boards for longer periods to make sure the X2 on working boards was not damaged. I plan to ship the 4 units without N2ADR kits this weekend, the 9 units with N2ADR batch 1 kits the next weekend, and the remaining units with N2ADR batch 2 kits the weekend after the partially assembled N2ADR batch 2 boards arrive.

73,

Steve

KF7O

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

Just a quick update on my recent Hermes-Lite 2.0 activities. I have been busy making minor repairs, testing and shipping units for the build 7 group buy. So far 14 out of 22 orders have been shipped. 9 of these orders included the N2ADR companion filter kit. The remaining 8 orders plus and additional 13 orders for just the N2ADR companion filter kit are on hold until I receive the next batch of N2ADR companion filter kits, probably in 1 or 2 weeks. 

73,

Steve

KF7O

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

I've updated the wiki getting started page with kit-specific instructions, including for the N2ADR companion filter card:

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Hermes-Lite-2.0-Getting-Started

For build instructions please refer to this wiki page. It includes links to YouTube videos as well. Please feel free to contribute to the community wiki documentation. Finally, all links can be found at the central www.hermeslite.com site.

73,

Steve

KF7O

[David Wilde M0WID]

Collected my HL2 from the local post office yesterday morning and just about managed to resist playing until the evening (was working from home). According to the USPS tracking the parcel was waiting for the addressee to be informed of the custom charges, well I never was so tried entering the tracking number into the Royal Mail system and discovered it was waiting at the local distribution centre.

Soldered some coax to the rx input, installed Spark sdr and, well it just worked! Tried ft8 on 40m and had loads of decodes including the Russian station in Antarctica and a couple of VK stations. Fantastic!
Really pleased, now need to get the parts for tx soldered in and try tx.
Great work by everyone involved in the development of this rig - many thanks.

73
Dave M0WID

[Sid Boyce]

Hi Dave,
How much did you have to pay? I had to pay £16.xx.

During a SSB contest 2 weekends ago I worked a couple of Stateside
stations on 20m - the usual 59--- report. Waiting for some reasonable
weather so I can tune the new beam antenna as the SWR is way too high on
a couple of bands - mainly 20m and 17m.
73 ... Sid.

--
Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, Licensed Private Pilot
Emeritus IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support
Senior Staff Specialist, Cricket Coach
Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks

[David Wilde M0WID]

Hi Sid.  I had to pay the £16 VAT plus an £8 service charge.  I am fine with the VAT, but £8 to accept payment seems excessive.

Unfortunately I have a problem with my HL2, hopefully someone can help.

I have assembled the filter board, balun etc, and used Quisk to sucessfully set the bias for the PA.  I can hear the filter board relays change over as bands are changed, and RX is still fantastic.  I cannot however get the current to increase when pressing PTT, as shown in the video.  I have Quisk set to CW, Spot level set to 100%, filter settings as in the N2ADR companion board documentation.  When PTT is pressed I hear relays switch over, but no increase in current above the 200ma bias.  Monitoring the low power TX no signal is detected.  Monitoring at DB3 also no signal detected.  There does not appear to be a change in voltage at FB14/B66, which stays at 3V3, so U10/11 are not changing over.

If I use Powersdrmx, then I see signals at DB3, DB2 and also at the low Power Tx connector on the N2ADR board, so I know the D/A and OPA2677 is working (relief - didn't fancy swapping that one out!), and also confirms that the relays U10/11 are not switching.

I have checked continuity from pin 11 of the FPGA to FB14/B66, all OK.

I have however noticed that R117 on the TX inhibit input is fitted, though the schematic suggests it should not be.  C47 is not fitted.  The input (tested at CB8) sits at 3v3 as you would expect.  Is this likely to cause the lack of TX?  What sense is the input?  3V3 to inhibit or pulled down to 0V to inhibit.  Too late now to test any more, will perhaps try fitting a jumper at CN8 tomorrow night to test.

Perhaps PowerSDR does not look at the TX inhibit input, but Quisk does?  

Any other suggestions?  Is there some software configuration that I have missed?

These challenges make it more interesting than just switching on go!

73

Dave M0WID

[Jaroslav Škarvada]

Lucky you :) I had to pay Czech Post cca. 63 USD in total for
VAT/customs/their poor service and it took ages for them to deliver the
package :)

When I was setting the bias currents I had to click the 'write' button
in quisk each time I changed the values, otherwise the setting wasn't
transferred to the HL2, so it didn't work for me the way shown on the
video. I am using quisk-4.1.23. I also "pre-heated" HL2 to cca. 40
degrees Celsius when calibrating to simulate real TX conditions.

Other than that and some minor trouble with the broadcast auto-detection
code in the current quisk, both HW/SW is working great and seamlessly
for me in both analog and digital modes. I think in this price range and
taking into account it's OpenHW/SW with very friendly community, there
is no real competitor for it. It's awesome radio and SW, thank you for it

73! Jaroslav, OK2JRQ

David Wilde M0WID napsal(a):

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[Steve Haynal]

Hi Dave,

Did you specify a valid audio input for the microphone device? If you don't, even for CW which does not use the microphone, Quisk will not generate any signal during TX. See the sound tab discussion at around minute 3 of the Quisk setup video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pPbQplSBoo&feature=youtu.be

73,

Steve

kf7o

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[Steve Haynal]

Hi Jaroslav,

I just checked with Quisk 4.1.23 and the bias adjustment still works the same as the video. I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. If you have bias adjust enabled, and you click one of the bias values up or down, the bias doesn't change unless you do write? Or the screen value changes, but you don't see any change of current on the HL2 until you press write?

73,

Steve

kf7o

On Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 4:26:57 PM UTC-7, Jaroslav Škarvada wrote:

> an email to hermes-lite+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:hermes-lite+unsub...@googlegroups.com>.

[Jaroslav Škarvada]

Hi Steve,

the b), i.e. the screen value changes and I see no current change until
I hit write (and of course TX). Also there is no debug message in the
console about changing the bias as seen on the video. But after hitting
"write" it seems it is correctly set, i.e. the current changed. It seems
I have sane values for 200 mA in total (at least similar values as seen
on the video) - I used 105 for both setting and it gives 100mA + 100mA @
40 degrees Celsius. Maybe I missed something, I am going to recheck & debug

73! Jaroslav, OK2JRQ

Steve Haynal napsal(a):

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> > <mailto:hermes-lite...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:hermes-lite%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.

> > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout

> <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>.

>
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[David Wilde M0WID]

Steve,  Thanks for that - setting the microphone input sorted out Quisk.  So hardware seems to be 100% working, operator only 10%.  Also found a post about enabling the PA in PowerSDR, so that is also now working (might be good to add these points to the getting started guide).

I cannot however find a way of enabling the PA in SparkSDR ( I am running 1.0 beta 9).  Also how should the filters be set up in SparkSDR?  I see drop downs for P16, N2ADR-hpf-lpf, n2adr-lpf, n2adr-no-rx filter, and have selected N2adr-hpf-lpf and set the boxes in the same pattern as for Quisk.  Relays operate on TX, but no power out.

Jaraslov, when you first go in to the Quisk config, the radio has retained its previous settings, and Quisk does not (or maybe cannot) read those.  If you then change the value in the bias box, that new bias value is written to the radio straight away.  So to start at zero you have to say put 1 in then change back to 0.  You will see the current change immediately.  No need to write each time you make a change.  Got me first time as well.

Dave

[Alan Hopper]

Dave,

In SparkSDR the radio settings menu (... on the bar above the panfall) has a PA Control tab that lets you enable  the pa.

When you select one of the N2ADR filter settings the boxes are ignored as they can't describe all the options for multiple receivers (they will be hidden in the next release).

73 Alan M0NNB

[Jaroslav Škarvada]

David Wilde M0WID napsal(a):

> Steve,  Thanks for that - setting the microphone input sorted out
> Quisk.  So hardware seems to be 100% working, operator only 10%.  Also
> found a post about enabling the PA in PowerSDR, so that is also now
> working (might be good to add these points to the getting started guide).
>
> I cannot however find a way of enabling the PA in SparkSDR ( I am
> running 1.0 beta 9).  Also how should the filters be set up in
> SparkSDR?  I see drop downs for P16, N2ADR-hpf-lpf, n2adr-lpf,
> n2adr-no-rx filter, and have selected N2adr-hpf-lpf and set the boxes in
> the same pattern as for Quisk.  Relays operate on TX, but no power out.
>
>
> Jaraslov, when you first go in to the Quisk config, the radio has
> retained its previous settings, and Quisk does not (or maybe cannot)
> read those.  If you then change the value in the bias box, that new bias
> value is written to the radio straight away.  So to start at zero you
> have to say put 1 in then change back to 0.  You will see the current
> change immediately.  No need to write each time you make a change.  Got
> me first time as well.

No, it doesn't seem to work for me - no matter what I write to the box,
the current is still the same, it changes only after hitting 'write'.
It's probably some SW problem, I will take a closer look later. I am
using Fedora 27 and our testing build of quisk-4.1.23 - I am Fedora
devel and we are trying to get it working out of the box in the distro
(from the distro repo)

Jaroslav

>
> Dave
>
> On Friday, 5 October 2018 08:09:37 UTC+1, Jaroslav Škarvada wrote:
>
> Hi Steve,
>
> the b), i.e. the screen value changes and I see no current change until
> I hit write (and of course TX). Also there is no debug message in the
> console about changing the bias as seen on the video. But after hitting
> "write" it seems it is correctly set, i.e. the current changed. It
> seems
> I have sane values for 200 mA in total (at least similar values as seen
> on the video) - I used 105 for both setting and it gives 100mA +
> 100mA @
> 40 degrees Celsius. Maybe I missed something, I am going to recheck
> & debug
>
> 73! Jaroslav, OK2JRQ
>
>

[James Ahlstrom]

Hello Group,

This problem keeps coming up, so I guess I must fix it. The next release of Quisk will not need a mic device unless you want to talk.

Jim

N2ADR

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Dave,

Yes, it would be good to add points to the getting started guide. It is a wiki page for the community to edit. All you need is a free github account and anyone can add to the wiki pages.

73,

Steve

kf7o