BinaryRock

[brandon7861]

Going to roll the dice on having boards made without prototyping it first. I have no idea if this will work but I think I thought it through well. First version is single frequency and set using binary instead of ordering it programmed to a set of frequencies.

Whatever frequency you want, convert the Hz to binary and solder it on the back. I have the parts on the way and I'll be ordering boards tomorrow after I triple check everything. Board is 30mm x 34mm and the output can be direct from the 5351 output, or by turning a resistor 90 degrees, passed through a mosfet at supply voltage (input voltage, not the 3.3v regulator). Should make the output strong enough to work the neighbors. Still contemplating resistor choice there.

This will be my first 4-layer board. I have a few little changes to make but this is about what it will look like. 6-pin header for initial programming only. Power in the 2-pin header.

Edit with updated board views. Ordered today.

 

[nomadradio]

That is exceptional! Fingers crossed it all works the first production run.

73

 

[brandon7861]

That is exceptional! Fingers crossed it all works the first production run.

73

Thanks! I sure hope it works because shipping alone hurt so bad ($106) that I ordered 1000 boards instead of 100 so I didn't have to order again. Wasn't much difference in shipping.

The schematic makes sense (to me anyhow) and DRC showed no errors but I'm definitely crossing my fingers anyhow because I am $380 total into those boards now.

 

[brandon7861]

I guess if these don't work, I'll drill holes in the corner, add a key ring, then drop them off at the local gas stations lol. Nice thing about livin' in the woods, everyone does consignment around here. Ain't like a Kwik Trip with a corporate office. I'll still make it work even if they fail.

Kinda wish I hadn't put my call sign on the silkscreen now.

 

[brandon7861]

These will work great for AM radios but not for a crystal using a varactor for clarifier control or switched pulling for LSB/AM/USB selection.

Maybe the MISO header pin hole can accomodate a wire and double as an ADC for clarifier input. Would need to know the voltage of the wiper centered and at its extremes and program it in for it to work right though. I will try to find a practical solution.

or maybe I could include a clarifier calibration routine that does that for you...

 

[TM86]

These will work great for AM radios but not for a crystal using a varactor for clarifier control or switched pulling for LSB/AM/USB selection.

Maybe the MISO header pin hole can accomodate a wire and double as an ADC for clarifier input. Would need to know the voltage of the wiper centered and at its extremes and program it in for it to work right though. I will try to find a practical solution.

or maybe I could include a clarifier calibration routine that does that for you...

For the Sidebander VI project I connected the clarifier to a +5V source and then used an arduino map function to set the clarifier limits. The hardest part was setting the clarifier pot at it's extremes and recording the voltages for the map. The rest was just math.

Not saying this is what you should do, just providing one possible solution for that particular problem.

 

[nomadradio]

This is how the Troy Radio synthesizer implements the clarifier. Don't care for the conversion lag, though. The discrete up and down steps you'll hear turning it slowly reveal the speed of the analog-to-digital conversion. I would prefer a second rotary encoder with smaller steps. Probably more of coding headache.

73

 

[brandon7861]

I was hoping this 10bit adc would hide the steps. If I can get at least 80% of the ADC input range from the clarifier then I should be able to get 1024*.8=819 steps. 5k up and down, 10k total, over 819 steps is 12Hz per step. I was wondering how fast the 5351 library will be and if I need to learn the hardware code (dont want to). I am hoping to use one of the extra binary pads for a clarifier min center max clock input to record the values to eeprom.