Thursday, August 24, 2017

N6QW Simpleceiver revisited updated 8/26

Over a year ago I was working on a version of Pete N6QW's Simpleceiver and my version of a SMD Bitx.  Then Farhan came out with his amazing Bitx40 board.  I dropped my original projects and went to work on the Bitx40 with a homebrew SI5351 VFO.
Now Pete has returned with the Simpleceiver Plus and has plans of eventually converting it to a transceiver.  From the response Pete has received, it looks like there is quite a bit of interest in this project.

http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-new-line-of-transceivers-difx_19.html

I think I will revisit the Simpleceiver and restart on what I had been doing.  Pete is doing this with simple building blocks that can be reused for several functions in his design, and also other projects.
Taking the product detector and audio amplifier circuit published on his blog, I started doing simple circuit boards for each of these.
Because the boards can be combined into a larger assembly, I am using expressPCB software to design the boards.  They will be laid out for etching using the toner transfer method.  I also decided to do two versions of each board, one using leaded components and another for size 1206 SMD .  Checking my available parts, some of the parts used will be have to be leaded, so I have made provisions for using them in both versions.


The first circuit Pete  published was for a dual J310 product detector, this basic circuit will be used several times in the final system.  The leaded version is laid out similar to K7QO's "Muppet" style with fairly large pads for mounting components.  I also placed large ground pads to help align components, and to make soldering to the ground plane a little easier. The SMD version is laid out larger than it could be, but I wanted to make it easier for construction without a solder mask.

Pete has several different audio amplifier circuits, a LM386 version and a higher power LM380 circuit. I will probably go with the LM380 version, but will build both and test to see which one I like best.  I have the LM380 version layout finished, and hope to get the LM 386 version done in a day or two. 

8/26/17
Finished the LM386 version of the audio amplifier board and generated toner transfer image files for both versions.   I am putting all these files in a dropbox folder at

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dnfrinb62q1djob/AADtKt96CBMoh9ZQjPqG3u0Ua?dl=0




In the next couple of days I plan on etching and building up some boards.  Then I can test them and see which one I want to use for the final project.










4 comments:

  1. Thanks DuWayne for making the Simpleceiver files and actually all your project files available. Really enjoy your posts and projects are first class. All the best,
    KG7WFM
    David

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm late to the Simpleceiver party but wanted to thank you for making the .pcb files available in your dropbox. Not only can I get a quick start building the amp but I can pick up some best practices from your layouts. Thanks Again!
    Dave, KZ0H

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are you still selling the DDS VFO PCBs? I bought a few some time ago and found them very handy.
    Jack, W6VMJ

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi DuWayne.

    I finally had chance to use one of your PCBs that I bought several years ago. However, I couldn't get the rotary tuner to effect the displayed frequency on a 0.96 inch OLED. Every things seemed to be OK and I checked and double check the continuity of of the PCB traces that connect from the connector to D2 and D3. I unplugged the Nano replicated everything on a plastic BB. I have no glue as to why this doesn't work. It's doorbell wiring ..
    Any ideas?
    Jack

    ReplyDelete