Tested Radioberry-preamp(5W-PA) and the latest juice firmware

[Yado-san]

Hi,

I tried using the latest juice firmware with radioberry-preamp.
However, it did not display PA temperature or current values.

After modifying the firmware as shown below, the measurements were displayed.
If you use juice and  radioberry-preamp  please try it.

The latest firmware had pa.c, pa.h added.
It seems that using Raspi-Pico as a TCP server to measure LPF switching, PA temperature, current, and fwr/ref-power. (RB2AMPController,  see 'pa.h')

Yado-san, jg1twp

[VU2IIA Mahesh]

Hi Yado-san,

Sorry for the off-topic question. I followed in your footsteps and successfully tested the juice board using the FT2232 Learning Module. Thanks for a nice schematic/pdf file you shared.  I am now looking forward to adding a filter board and TRX relay using my homebrew QRP labs 10W amp.

I want to use the arduino nano for controlling the filter board and TRX relay. 

I am a bit confused about i2c lines ie (CN301, pin 17&18). Can the juice board directly control i2c ? I mean normally, this i2c is connected & handled by pi.  Is it OK to use arduino nano for filter boards?  Other i2c devices are a bit expensive here.  Looking forward for some guidance. 

​Appreciate your time.

Thanks & regards

mahesh-vu2iia

[pa3gsb]

Yado-san

Tnx for letting us know that you found an issue. I have solved it. Find the code at the repo.

The data from the juice gateware coming from the i2c of the preamp board is now dircectly passed to the SDR program.

Hope this helps

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op zondag 15 september 2024 om 18:57:53 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi mahesh,

Thanks for your message.

> i2c lines for juice board.

There is an I2C block in the FPGA, please connect it to 15 (fpga-sda) and 16 (fpga-scl) of CN301. 

(Corrected diagram attached; if there is a radioberry-preamp board, pins 15 and 17, 16 and 18 of CN301 are shorted).

> OK to use arduino nano for filter boards?

It seems to be OK.

However, I think the juice I2C is implemented for the low speed ADC (MAX11613 4 Channel Slow ADC 0x34) and the N2ADRLPF board (MCP23008 0x20). Therefore, the Arduino-I2C address needs to be 0x20.

I added a print statement to Johan's Arduino program to check. 

I got the lpf switching data when I switched bands. :)

Tnx,

Yado-san, jg1twp

2024年9月16日月曜日 16:48:56 UTC+9 VU2IIA Mahesh:

[Yado-san]

HI Johan,

Thank you for your quick response and fix :)

and..

  Please replay if you find any errors or advice in my reply to mahesh.

Tnx, 

Yado-san, jg1twp

2024年9月16日月曜日 20:36:34 UTC+9 pa3gsb:

[VU2IIA Mahesh]

Hi Yoda-san,

Thank you very much, its clear now.  I will continue building further. 

regards

mahesh-vu2iia

[Yado-san]

Hi mahesh

SRI, forgot to post the link to the reference.
 radioberry-juice-i2c:  line179-
   https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/blob/master/gateware/rtl/radioberry/juice/i2c_bus.v
 Johan's Arduino program:   Wow! code from chatgpt
   https://groups.google.com/g/radioberry/c/t8YOojkBZJ4/m/jUMdUIrRAQAJ
 
p.s.
 I was very interested in the juice with Pi3b your posted, so I tried it last weekend, but it didn't work :(
 it's not transferring over FT2232HL!?...  please post if you find out anything.

Yado-san.
 

2024年9月16日月曜日 22:25:01 UTC+9 VU2IIA Mahesh:

[VU2IIA Mahesh]

Hi Yoda-san,

Sorry, but I am a bit confused because of my limited skill set. About "radioberry-juice-i2c:  line179- ....juice/i2c_bus.v", do I need to recompile gateware ie  *.rbf, or just recompile "Radioberry-2.x/juice/firmware" on pi4. 

If it's gateware, can I request you to share a .rbf file that will work with i2c based lpf.

Regarding pi3b, the juice board didn't work with it. Johan tried to help me with various inputs, but I could not get it to work. For a test, I pulled out a sd-card from pi3b and inserted it on pi4. Radioberry-juice worked fine on pi4. After re-inserting the sd-card back to pi3b, it didn't boot properly, as there were some changes made to the sd-card by pi4. My idea was to use pi3b to give a Lan support to the juice board, like HL2 & remotely operate within home network.

Thank you for taking time to reply.

mahesh-vu2iia

[Yado-san]

Hi Mahesh,

Ok, Gateware does not require modification.

When I checked with my Arduino-Nano, no data was displayed except for I2C address 0x20.
so I think it is probably a limitation of the gateware (i2c_bus.v) and I have shown URL as a reference.
but I only understand about half of gateware! Sorry if I am wrong.

I wanted to find out how much performance I could get with the RPi3b and juice combination, but it didn't work either.
Maybe a driver problem??... I'll do some more research.

Tnx!

Yado-san, jg1twp

2024年9月17日火曜日 15:55:03 UTC+9 VU2IIA Mahesh:

[VU2IIA Mahesh]

Hi Yado-san,

Thanks for replying, I have no experience with working/compiling gateware. I will try to read/learn more about it. I am sure you will find some solution for pi3 in your free time. For now, I will focus on wiring lpf / trx & amp.

Appreciate your time.

mahesh-vu2iia

[VU2IIA Mahesh]

Hi Yado-san,

In one of your files, ie Radioberry_Juice_r1.pdf, I see that you are using MCP23018, which is not easily available here. For making LPF for the juice board, I have three options locally available: PCA9555, MCP23008 & MCP23017. Which one do you recommend that would work without making any changes to *.rbf.  I just need it for 4 bands, ie 40m, 20m, 15m & 10m. 

Appreciate your time.

regards

mahesh-vu2iia

[Yado-san]

Hi Mahesh,

MCP23008 can be used without making any changes to *.rbf.

The arduino-nano can also be used if you set the I2C address to 0x20, modifying the arduino code is necessary.

For around 10W(?), the HL2 N2ADR filter board can also be used.
https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/blob/master/hardware/companions/n2adr/n2adr.pdf
https://www.makerfabs.com/hermes-lite-2-n2adr.html

These days I have been experimenting with the HL2-PA30(30WPA), which uses the MC23008 to perform the LPF switch.
https://github.com/ji1udd/HL2-PA30/blob/master/Schematic/PA30_v2r1_schematic.pdf

Tnx,

Yado-san, jg1twp

2024年9月18日水曜日 14:58:51 UTC+9 VU2IIA Mahesh:

[VU2IIA Mahesh]

Hi Yadi-san,

Thank you taking for taking time to reply. I will first try nano, with changes to code as suggested by you.

regards

mahesh-vu2iia

[Yado-san]

Hi Group,

Share about the following.   (pdf document attached)
* How to compile a juice firmware on a Windows10/11 PCs.
* How to compile FPGA and generate RBF "Raw Binary File" files on a Windows10/11 PCs.

By doing,
* You can run radioberry-juice on a CL016 board.
* You can build juice firmware for Windows-PCs.
* Currently, the TXDrive values and the Radioberry transmission output are not linear, but you can improve yourself.
  -> https://groups.google.com/g/radioberry/c/LoCRvkD_wYk/m/O_tKMsJzAgAJ

* Environment for compiling juice firmware
Installing Chocolatey (The Package Manager for Windows)
https://chocolatey.org/install#individual
Installing Mingw-w64 and GNU make.
　> choco install mingw
　> choco install make

* Generating 'radioberry.rbf' file in Intel Quartus Prime Lite.
Installing Quartus Prime Lite Edition
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software-kit/825278/intel-quartus-prime-lite-edition-design-software-version-23-1-1-for-windows.html
Set the path to the “Environment Variables” in Windows.
-> C:\intelFPGA_lite\23.1std\quartus\bin64

Actually, I recently discovered that can perform command-line compilation for FPGAs on Windows PCs.
“To those who use it, this might seem obvious, but it took me over few years to find it. (^^);

if you can use the tools yourself, it will deepen interest in Radioberry, so I hope this will be helpful.”

Yado-san ,jg1twp

2024年9月18日水曜日 19:43:26 UTC+9 VU2IIA Mahesh: