Minitiouner V1, Sharp NIM to Serit NIM Upgrade...

[Wolfie G8VAT]

I'm struggling to find where I asked previously but thanks to Dave and his article in the BATC Mag, I ventured forth yesterday and swapped out the Sharp NIM for the wider coverage Serit NIM in my Minitiouner.

The article looked daunting for me knowing very little about how the Minitiouner Hardware works, but the Instructions became clear once the soldering iron was out, perfect Dave, thanks again.

Now I just need to know how to drive the Minitiouner Software properly, although I do feel a lot knowledge-abler about it these days.
When I start the Software a Version and NIM message appears, behind it is a window which I cannot bring forward and can only close (red X), I get a glimpse as I close it, it says something about a standard filter? then the Minitiouner Window opens.

PIC1.JPG (40.24 KiB) Viewed 10945 times

When I TX to GB3EY I can get into the repeater which tells me my TX is OK. But can't get a picture on the Minitiouner.

Portsdown.jpg (363.11 KiB) Viewed 10945 times

Far as I can see I have set things correctly... I have a full carrier lock, I have a full SR Lock. My Callsign appears in the Channel List and once selected the PIDs are correct and H264 is correct, so what am I missing (apart from my picture)?

Minitioune.jpg (226.64 KiB) Viewed 10945 times

Am I missing pressing a button somewhere?
Or maybe the Filter somethingorother window at startup?

[G8GKQ]

Pleased that the tuner mod seemed to work.

Two comments:

The message about a filter is probably saying that you do not have the right video filters loaded on your PC. A complex area that I am not familiar with.

Try selecting FEC 9/10 on the Portsdown transmitter. 333 kS at FEC 1/4 does not leave much room for any video - three quarters of the data will be concerned with error correction. Setting to 9/10 means that only 10% is error correction and the rest is available for a picture.

Dave, G8GKQ

[Wolfie G8VAT]

Cheers for the quick reply Dave..

Changing to 9/10 hasn't made any difference I can see (still no image).. I have it set low because my signal into EY is borderline and that gives me the best chance of access.. I daresay I'll be QRT on EY again soon, since the Trees (that I'm surrounded by) are now sprouting again.

I'll do some Searching about this Filter message, see what I can come up with, but to be fair if it's out of your reach then I'll probably be completely out of my depth.

[DL1BJV]

Hello Wolfie,

I'm not an expert but if you open the 'MinitiouneV09beta8_9 package' file you should have two files which need to be installed manually if you have not
already done so:

install_usrc_ax_winXP_win10.exe

LAVFilters-0.71-installer.exe

Double click each file to install.

On the right hand side of the Minitiuone screen there is a square LED (next to the GRAPH reset button) Showing Red, this should be Green when all is working.

The rest looks ok, and you have FPlug B selected as input.

BTW. 'Minitioune v1.0_1.0r for beta test' is the latest Software version.

Wolfgang

[G3GJA]

Hi Gra

Wolfgang is correct; that error only pops up when you haven't installed all of the prerequisites.

Note that the last release of Minitioune does not have them in the installer archive. You need the v0.8 package that has the LAV filter installer and the USR-AX installer. Once those are in you run the later versions.

If you can't find them let me know and I'll put them in the Cloud for you.

Clive

[i2NDT]

don't forget that the VLC version needed is the 32bit one, regardless the win version you have...

[Wolfie G8VAT]

Ah thanks guys, I'm away at the moment but rest assured I'll be having a look for the filter files soon as I get back.

When all else fails.... Read the instructions.

Fellas eh?

[Wolfie G8VAT]

Back home now and as promised when I installed the Filter files, all is now well.. Thanks once again to everyone who pointed me in the right direction.

In my own defence though, I there weren't any instructions within the V09beta8_9 package I downloaded where it mentions to do this. I had to refer to a readme file in the V08 Package as above.

N E how, another problem solved.. And proves the NIM does indeed work down to 2m.