Schematic Updates

[NZ0I]

The Transmitter and Receiver schematic designs have been updated to utilize the updated Digital Interface design. This resulted in a much simplified Dual-band ARDF Transmitter schematic: down to three simpler pages instead of five. The additional GPIO pins on the Digital Interface also allowed the port expander on the transmitter to be dedicated to just the 80m automatic antenna tuner; making it possible to place the entire antenna tuner on its own independent plug-in PCB.

I need to assign some more footprints (land patterns) to some of the components, and then start the PCB layouts. I'm hoping that using stacked boards will allow the entire transmitter (with antenna tuner,  power supply, and battery) to fit inside the same waterproof Hammond clear-lid box that has been targeted for use with the Receiver. This would make it feasible to fit six transmitters, and their antennas, inside a standard backpack without any problem. They shouldn't weigh all that much, but I haven't run the numbers - but I think they will be less than three pounds each, making a full backpack weigh less than 30 lbs when the antennas are included.

With WiFi and a smartphone, it should be possible to configure, synchronize, and test each of the transmitters without ever removing them from the backpack.