SBE Sidebander VI PLL problem

[nomadradio]

Hmm. Used the "Pro-Mini" and not the "Nano" controller.

Had to do that when Windows update started assassinating "Nano" boards that had bootleg USB chips on them.

Rock on!

73

 

[TM86]

Hmm. Used the "Pro-Mini" and not the "Nano" controller.

Had to do that when Windows update started assassinating "Nano" boards that had bootleg USB chips on them.

Rock on!

73

I vaguely remember the stories of Nanos getting zapped, but that wasn't the reason for my choice of part. I use the Pro-Mini because I'm cheap.

 

[TM86]

I think this is the last post I'll be doing on this radio. Which for some of you I'm sure is the best part of this post.

Things did not fit together the way I thought they should. Then there was that wonky channel display problem, which turned out to be a broken trace with a floating solder pad. Which meant moving or reterminating that wire. And since I was going to have to tear stuff apart...

Built a second board, this time I copied the VCO buffer amp circuit and moved a few other components around to accommodate it. (So now I'll call that little amplifier the VFO buffer.) Completely pulled the old PLL board and carefully moved wires from the old VFO board to the new one, then added a wire to replace the out of lock detector output that I had hotwired on the old PLL board.

Fired it up and it failed immediately.

Which, as you can imagine, was not the result I was hoping for.

Checked voltages, output from the +5V regulator was low. Touched the regulator, painfully hot. OK, must be a short somewhere. Started checking, no shorts. Plugged Arduino into the PC, board lit right up. Hooked frequency counter to the output of the VFO buffer and got the 19.whatever MHz I was expecting.

Which I found to be a bit odd considering it didn't work at all a few minutes before.

Took radio back to bench to recreate the problem, and it started working. So whatever was shorted was unshorted when I moved stuff around. Which tells me I need to insulate the entire board since I don't know which part was shorted.

But the channel display problem seems to be fixed.

 

[Retro CB Guy]

TM86 I'm amazed at all this and Kudos to you for all the experimenting and working with Sidebander 6 like this! I'm a big fan of the SBE radios and own many of them. I just now caught this post by chance while looking up the PLL chip they use. I've also been into the wonderful world of the DDS setup which can bring back to life and upgrade MANY cb radios, lovely stuff...

There is an outfit in Texas that has worked with a person who programmed them nicely, called TRS Online now - used to be called Troy Radio ! And a group for that on Facebook as well...

I have what appears to be the 1st Console 6 that has the DDS installed in it.

All the best very cool what you have done 73's, Retro

 

[TM86]

TM86 I'm amazed at all this and Kudos to you for all the experimenting and working with Sidebander 6 like this! I'm a big fan of the SBE radios and own many of them. I just now caught this post by chance while looking up the PLL chip they use. I've also been into the wonderful world of the DDS setup which can bring back to life and upgrade MANY cb radios, lovely stuff...

There is an outfit in Texas that has worked with a person who programmed them nicely, called TRS Online now - used to be called Troy Radio ! And a group for that on Facebook as well...

I have what appears to be the 1st Console 6 that has the DDS installed in it.

All the best very cool what you have done 73's, Retro

Thank you for the kind words.

I am aware of TRS, they just didn't have what I was looking for at the time. They do have a lot of nice features in their product.

But if you don't need all the bells and whistles, you can roll your own. After all, I'm not all that bright and I did it.

 

[goudie]

What is the m

The computer didn't die, so pretty happy about that.

I ended up doing a +5kc shift only, but it combines with the +10kc shift so I can get to the spots between the the "A" channels and the next channel up.

Parts have been ordered, arrived, and I've taken everything off the breadboard and installed it on a perfboard. Lots of point to point soldering. It's ugly, but then I'm not planning on winning any awards with this thing.

Because I'm not too bright I decided to just throw some volts at it and see what happens. It came right up and started generating a signal. Lucky for me, it was the signal I was expecting. Low pass filter could be better, but I don't want to attenuate the signal too much.

Which means now I have to either integrate this into the radio or sell the radio as parts only on fleaBay.

I guess since I've come this far, might as well keep going.

od to unlock the clarifier, the 5kc mod and 10kc mod please?

 

[TM86]

The clarifier "mod" in this case is to use the clarifier pot as an analog control for the Arduino. The Arduino reads the voltage from the clarifier pot and then calculates the frequency data to send to the Si5351.

The 5kc and 10kc is much the same. The Arduino takes input from the keypad and then calculates the new frequency and sends that data to the Si5351.

This is not a simple mod of the "cut this trace, move this wire" variety. This requires removing the board the PLL sits on as well as the microprocessor and installing your own board that has modern components to replace both. I very much do NOT recommend doing this to a working radio. The only reason I did this was because the radio I had was dead with a failed PLL.

 

[Retro CB Guy]

The clarifier "mod" in this case is to use the clarifier pot as an analog control for the Arduino. The Arduino reads the voltage from the clarifier pot and then calculates the frequency data to send to the Si5351.

The 5kc and 10kc is much the same. The Arduino takes input from the keypad and then calculates the new frequency and sends that data to the Si5351.

This is not a simple mod of the "cut this trace, move this wire" variety. This requires removing the board the PLL sits on as well as the microprocessor and installing your own board that has modern components to replace both. I very much do NOT recommend doing this to a working radio. The only reason I did this was because the radio I had was dead with a failed PLL.

Well at this point I have my radio back and it does have a full setup with DDS now thankfully! I appreciate the input and will try to attach a short video clip. Though I'm referring to my Console 6 but this also has the HF RXer installed.

Retro

 

[TM86]

Nice! Your Console VI is in better shape than mine. Mine got a little crushed in shipping and I had to pound the frame for the meters and clock straight again, as well as some other minor metal work. Came in the same box as the Sidebander VI. I've since seen the shipper critiquing other people's packing techniques on YouTube.