uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

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TM86
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by TM86 »

Hooked my breadboarded beastie up to the Cobra 2000 today. After beating out a couple of code bugs, it's working.

Thanks, lbcomms, for the pointer to interrupts. Made all the difference.

Now I'll just wait for your board to go on sale so I can have the same number of channels in the PC-244.
lbcomms
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by lbcomms »

zippy wrote:the Chinese have already flooded the market with 12m-10m continuous multimode radios that can be bought for £100 brand new
That may be true in the UK, but the "10 meter" things are rare down here, only available online from the UK or the USA. They are known for lots of quality and performance issues, such as noise, drifting with temperature change, LCD failures, and poor quality controls. And when they do fail, it's a nightmare getting the specialized parts for them.

In the early 2000's they started to appear locally, first bought back in peoples hand luggage and later bought online, and we began getting them in here for repairs and improvements. Temperature drift was the main one, here in Oz 27MHz is SSB only and summer temperatures go from 0 at night to close to 40 in the daytime (32 to 100 Fahrenheit, are you guys over there using metric or American temperature units?)... the ones with fine+coarse clarifiers that go +/- 5Khz were all over the place.

Fixing that one is re-engineering, not repairing (things such as adding crystal heaters and/or majorly reducing the clarifier range by eliminating temperature sensitive inductors is hardly a "repair") and radios often showed up other faults such as sticky / noisy controls or bad soldering, meaning more expense again or rejects by customers. Some faults started to show weeks/months after work had been done on them and we didn't want to risk damaging our reputation with "you fixed this last month and now it's not working again" scenarios, so we made the decision to stop servicing or otherwise working on most "ten meter" radios. About the only exception was the Uniden HR2510 / HTX100 radios, as we knew they didn't have the issues affecting many others.

The other issue over here is legality - with ACMA radio inspectors waiting to pounce at boat ramps and truck stops, a radio that looks like a standard / legal 40 channel set is not going to attract the same attention as a ranger/galaxy/etc under the dash with its 6 digit frequency readout saying "hi, bust me". Features like FM, noise generators, talkback, and high power MOSFET mobiles are not big here, most 27MHz users have a standard or modded 40 channel set, sometimes with a 100W-200W amp under the dash or seat well out of view.
I don't get the logic of some of your customers when thet want this original, don't cut that, leave this alone, and yet theres a dirty great board in there prescious radio with a computer on it.
Most of the people we are dealing with want a radio that appears stock from the outside, no "digi-scan" boxes or row of switches mounted in holes drilled into the case of the radio. With the exception of a couple of purists, they leave it up to us what we do inside the rig, as long as it's reliable and performs well. I personally don't have an issue with the big trace cut that separates the PLL from the channel switch.
your cb customers are questionable in my opinion
They are the ones that pay our wages, so if they want a certain repair or modification done and are happy to pay for it, then we are happy to do it, again on the proviso it must be reliable and perform well after it leaves here. Most of our 27MHz work is done for 4WD and "Aussie ute" (see http://www.blacktownshow.com.au/ute-muster and scroll down for an example of these) owners. Some of them spend more doing their rides up than I'd be prepared to spend on a new car, and don't blink at spending hundreds of dollars recapping and expanding a 30 year old radio...
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by lbcomms »

TM86 wrote:Thanks, lbcomms, for the pointer to interrupts. Made all the difference
Glad to see you've made progress on it. Interrupts made it mush better here too, even an old TRC-451 that had a switch so noisy the LED segments flickered when the radio was tapped encoded fine, once the micro was only looking at the INT pin.

Still waiting on the parts for the SM version, then it's make a final proto and get some boards made...
Mattylad
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by Mattylad »

lbcomms wrote: (see http://www.blacktownshow.com.au/ute-muster and scroll down for an example of these) owners. Some of them spend more doing their rides up than I'd be prepared to spend on a new car, and don't blink at spending hundreds of dollars recapping and expanding a 30 year old radio...

gets me
Forbidden - Users from your country are not permitted to browse this site.
Same for Germany too but the US works.
I dont know whay a little site like that would block Europe from viewing it - its not as if its really great or anything. :?
lbcomms
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by lbcomms »

Mattylad wrote:Forbidden - Users from your country are not permitted to browse this site.
That's bizzare, it's just a site for an agricultural show, with farmers and other country types showing off their latest farm machinery and "utes".
I hadn't anticipated it would be region locked.

For those in countries that block Aussie farmer sites, here's a few pics from it:

Image

Nothing there labelled "top secret", just a bunch of guys and a few girls (the purple one is owned by a "kowgirl") with too much spare time and cash on their hands...
Mattylad
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by Mattylad »

TBH I dont think its blocked from here - more like from there.
Techquest
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by Techquest »

sites blocked from here as well
Techquest AKA Jedi
Av101 Astro Plane Old Imax n Loads of Radios
Mmmmmmmmmmm ADAMS n other Presidents
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prettypolly
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by prettypolly »

use betternet vpn its free for windows.
Retro_CB_Dude
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by Retro_CB_Dude »

ANY UPDATES ON THIS uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype ? I'm very interested !!!

Please let me know, Jim
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cb4ever104
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by cb4ever104 »

I bought a module for my Cobra 146 from Mr Maurer . I haven't fitted it yet . I should have some time next month .

http://funkservice.at/en_pll-modul.htm

Sammy
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tecnicoloco1
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by tecnicoloco1 »

Ing. Maurer Boards works as advertised

Very helpful and customer support is top notch

Andy
lbcomms
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by lbcomms »

We had some of the first version made on proper boards, they slowly but eventually all sold here last year, then we made a few changes to make them a lot easier for a DIY installation. Other things got in the way (like work!) and version 2 still needs a bit of time to finish off. Will be easier to fit and align with just a multimeter and a basic frequency counter, but won't be ready until maybe the end of the year, workload dependent.

I'd be going with the Maurer board if you just want to quickly expand a radio without learning / experimenting with details like microcontroller coding / uploading.

When we get the new version of ours up and running I'll post the installation here with pictures and detailed explanations.
TM86
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by TM86 »

lbcomms wrote:We had some of the first version made on proper boards, they slowly but eventually all sold here last year, then we made a few changes to make them a lot easier for a DIY installation. Other things got in the way (like work!) and version 2 still needs a bit of time to finish off. Will be easier to fit and align with just a multimeter and a basic frequency counter, but won't be ready until maybe the end of the year, workload dependent.

I'd be going with the Maurer board if you just want to quickly expand a radio without learning / experimenting with details like microcontroller coding / uploading.

When we get the new version of ours up and running I'll post the installation here with pictures and detailed explanations.
All of my projects have stalled out due to frequent toddler visits. Better to put stuff away than find out too late he's flushed a few components. Still looking forward to your kit being available.
speeddemon

Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by speeddemon »

Hi sue :wave: will you be posting the programing files for this soon.? :ugeek: :Cheers n 73's
lbcomms
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Re: uPD2824 PLL expander concept / first prototype

Post by lbcomms »

Not for the first prototype, which was more a concept than a prototype. It needed careful attention to layout and then measurements after installation to ensure spurs were at an acceptable level.

The new one which will be a lot less touchy is in the works but it's a spare time project so can't say exactly when it'll be finished - we are hoping for the end of the year.
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