[hpsdr] Help! Pennylane has apparently died

Tue Mar 28 10:19:44 PDT 2017

Hi Helmut

I’ll certainly give that a try ASAP but with JP2 pins 1 & 2 jumped there doesn’t appear to be any drive visible on those pins at 3.7MHz with a scope.

I’m wondering if the problem could be in Alex and that is causing the FPGA to send a false DAC_ALC level to U7 D/A. Maybe the ‘take-off’ damaged the dual log amp in Alex. I’ll try disconnecting the 3-wire lead from Mercury to Pennylane and see what happens.

Chris

> On 28 Mar 2017, at 13:35, Helmut <dc6ny at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Chris, maybe you should remove JP2 jumper and measure RF voltage at pin1 with full drive slider and max. pa settings: 140 mV or 4 dBm should be available.
> 
> 73. DC6NY
> 
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Hpsdr [mailto:hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org] Im Auftrag von Chris Smith
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 28. März 2017 13:11
> An: laurence at cmlelectronics.co.uk
> Cc: hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org list
> Betreff: Re: [hpsdr] Help! Pennylane has apparently died
> 
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> Sorry Laurence I forgot to say thank you very much for your input. Apologies.
> 
> Chris
> 
>> On 28 Mar 2017, at 11:52, Chris Smith <chris at vspl.co.uk> wrote:
>> 
>> [This sender failed our fraud detection checks and may not be who they appear to be. Learn about spoofing at http://aka.ms/LearnAboutSpoofing]
>> 
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>> 
>> Hi Laurence
>> 
>> Yes, I realised that I was getting into the digital domain so was hoping for pointers and your suggestion re the 125MHz clock is apposite.
>> 
>> I’m in the very north west corner of West Sussex just before you fall into Surrey or Hants. I have a good friend (G4EFO) who has some very classy test equipment so I could probably call on him for assistance - I already have one of his ‘scopes on semi-permanent loan.
>> 
>> I will soldier on and see what I can see (or not see as the case may be).
>> 
>> I used to design digital electronics for avionic test equipment/aircraft simulators as my day job, but that was over 20 years ago and i’m a bit rusty!
>> 
>> Cheers & 73
>> 
>> Chris G4NUX
>> 
>>> On 28 Mar 2017, at 11:35, Laurence Barker <laurence at cmlelectronics.co.uk> wrote:
>>> 
>>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>> 
>>> Hi Chris
>>> 
>>> You can't go too much further back than J2 before getting into the digital electronics....
>>> 
>>> It sounds like the FPGA is still behaving. You could check for a 125MHz clock on the DAC (spectrum analyser or expensive oscilloscope), and see if the input bits to the DAC are toggling (choose say 1.8MHz and most oscilloscopes will be happy with that). Look also at the output of T3. You could solder tiny wires to help with getting scope probes in.
>>> 
>>> Where in UK are you - I have a Penelope board and test equipment.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Laurence Barker
>>> 
>>> laurence at nicklebyhouse.co.uk
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Hpsdr [mailto:hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org] On Behalf Of Chris Smith
>>> Sent: 28 March 2017 11:01
>>> To: hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org list <hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Help! Pennylane has apparently died
>>> 
>>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>> 
>>> Addendum to the following:
>>> 
>>> PTTOUT on pin 13, PTTIN on pin 1 of J6 are still working as are the keyer pins of J6 (7 & 6?).
>>> 
>>> Chris G4NUX
>>> 
>>>> On 28 Mar 2017, at 10:47, Chris Smith <chris at vspl.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> [This sender failed our fraud detection checks and may not be who they appear to be. Learn about spoofing at http://aka.ms/LearnAboutSpoofing]
>>>> 
>>>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>>> 
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> I�m looking for pointers as to where to continue debugging my faithful old Pennylane.
>>>> 
>>>> I recently bought a 100W linear to go with my Atlas based HPSDR kit (Metis, Mercury, Pennylane, Excalibur+Trimble Thunderbolt, Pennywhistle, Alex).
>>>> 
>>>> When I�d connected all the units up and used �Tune' into a dummy load, the set-up �took off� and drew large amounts of current. I immediately (or as fast as my arthritic hands would allow) turned the PSU off. I started to work through the connections between the units and eventually found that a short piece of BNC-BNC co-ax didn�t have braid continuity. Further investigation revealed that neither end of the braid was making contact with its BNC plug! This was the connection between Pennylane & Pennywhistle so I had about 8� of unshielded antenna going into Pennywhistle. No wonder it took off.
>>>> 
>>>> Having remade this lead and rechecked every other lead, I tried again only to find I had no RF power going into the dummy load.
>>>> 
>>>> To cut an awfully long story short - I found that I had no output from Pennylane. At this point I worried that the RF feeding back into the open braid lead had blown the OPA2674 amps (U6A/B). Further investigation showed that I don�t have any drive to the driver stage at J2 pins 1 & 2. So whatever happened has caused damage much further back in the chain.
>>>> 
>>>> I haven�t yet determined whether there are signals on the 10MHz and 128.8MHz pins of Atlas but as the Mercury Rx is still working I assume there are.
>>>> 
>>>> I don�t have a Pinocchio extender so probing with a scope is difficult in the extreme.
>>>> 
>>>> I don�t have a PC which runs Windows so I use a Raspberry Pi 3 and John Melton�s pihpsdr software. This was working well up to the �take-off�.
>>>> 
>>>> Any pointers please?
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers & 73
>>>> 
>>>> Chris G4NUX
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