BATC Forum

Hello all
In getting ready for the contest I've discovered that my Portsdown 2020 unit has gone faulty. It's been in the rack undisturbed since last month's activity weekend. It was transmitting apparently ok then.

Yesterday it was changing bands on the front display. I didn't transmit with it. I was using my 2018 unit for tx tests to Minitiouner concluding with successful up conversion on 4m.

Today I noticed that the band light was stuck at 4m on the front panel and wouldn't shift regardless of band selection or reboots. The 2m light illuminates during start up as normal then 4m flickers twice and goes on permanently.
I connected a good resonant 4m antenna. A slim Jim. It won't go into transmit on 4m. Temp and voltage report ok. Lime report attached looks poor.

Does anyone or Dave G8GKQ have some ideas what to do? I'm hoping to have better than DVB-S on Brown Clee Hill on Sunday.

73
David M0YDH

Hi David

The LimeSDR Mini does not look too poorly - some of mine always fail like that (Lime have just released a cure for the false failure that I hope to try soon).

Apart from all the obvious things like checking the connections (especially the ground return wires), I would recommend a "restore to factory settings" as a first step. Menu 3, System Config, Restore Factory.

If that does not work, connect to the Internet and do an update. Perhaps post a copy of the Info screen here first.

Hoping to go to the same site as I worked you from in the last Contest if we fix this.

Dave

Hello Dave
Thank you for the reply. The Lime is powered. There is status light activity as usual and the fan is running.
Here's the information screen after the factory reset. It was in ugly mode until I selected Lime DVB.
As the 4m light was still on, I have begun the update.
Button pressing is easier than fault finding. I'll examine wiring after work this afternoon



David M0YDH

Hello Dave
The unit has updated. Initially it ended it's update as a blank screen and no IP address. I pressed the shutdown button and the software came back when I switched on. So did the 4m light. Info is below . . Lime report is the same as before.

David

Earlier this year I had my portsdown 2020 stick on 4m only after an upgrade reset all the per band "band outputs" to 0

Dave
G4fre

That's interesting Dave R. What did you do next? Ssh into console or on screen settings?
Unless a wire has fractured in the last month I hope it's an odd software setting.
74
David M0YDH

David

Does the Lime try to transmit when you select transmit? What do the lights on the LimeSDR do?

Dave

Hi David

I've just done a new build of Portsdown 2020 (202007310) from scratch and all the band and PTT outputs seem to work as I would expect. Please monitor the output voltage on GPIO pin 40 as you go from receive to transmit and back again.

Dave

Band settings are normal for after a reset. LO frequency was the only 0. Attenuator-10 dB I set to 0. Lime gain was 88 now is 100.

Standby lime lights are steady red with flashing green. When I choose TX with the
Test card displaying there's no TX LED illuminates. No chandeliers in lime lights.

I'll have a better go after work. Turn the spectrum analyser on to look for signals.

David

I set the values to the correct non zero values via the screen settings

Dave

M0YDH wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:17 am

That's interesting Dave R. What did you do next? Ssh into console or on screen settings?
Unless a wire has fractured in the last month I hope it's an odd software setting.
74
David M0YDH