Pico Tuner (BoM and schematic now found)

[g4nmd]

Have "lurked" around BATC (and UKMG) on and off for years but only recently started to think seriously about this aspect of the hobby.
Having met G4EML and others at the Ridgeway RT last week I have ordered a board and NIM for a pico tuner.

My difficulty (and it may be a navigation or search term issue) is I cannot find schematics or part lists for me to assemble parts etc before the boards arrive. I have looked at the WiKis but seem to go round in circles.

My initial aim is to receive QO-100 DATV and then move on to Portsdown etc.

2025 is my 50th year of being licensed and I have decided the challenge to meet is TV, microwaves and use CW!

73

Graham G4NMD

[ON1AVO]

Graham,

https://wiki.batc.org.uk/PicoTuner_Hardware#Rev_3

[g4nmd]

Thank you!

I completely missed those links.

Board and NIM have just arrived too

Graham G4NMD

[g4eml]

Hi Graham,

I also find the Wiki a bit difficult to navigate sometimes. There is good information there but some of the newer items are at the end of a chain of links and don't appear in the main menu.

You should enjoy building the PicoTuner. As I said on Saturday if you have any questions someone on this forum will usually be able to answer them. If you do get stuck I am happy to help with testing and fault finding and I can always bring some test gear to your club meeting.

73
Colin G4EML

[g4nmd]

Thanks Colin

I have printed some info and used the BoM to order parts I don't have.

Thanks to all who responded

Graham G4NMD

[G1BVI]

Im late in the game in making a Pico Tuner but the parts have all arrived today.

Checking parts against BOM I noticed that the BOM Listing for LED 3 and 4 are transposed.
Builders take note.
This is power and LNB Fault indication

Im considering 3d Printing my own case and see that there is a handy stl for the back panel, but I cannot find the front panel on the Wikki to aid positioning the 4 LEDs.
Am I going blind or is there not one?

There is a 4 pin LCD connector on the rev 3 board.
If I connect a serial LCD to this what will I see?
If its worthwhile Info I might include this on the front panel.

Need to get myself a 1% 1K resistor, I missed the tolerance in the BOM as I have LOTS of 5% values but this sets up a Potential divider for the 4.1V.

Time to get out the spotlight and clear the bench


73 all
Nick

[g0mjw]

I am very tempted to remove the BOM as people keep finding issues with it. Mostly Digikey stock changes and parts no longer available. That way people can work through the catalogue themselves and chose what they want at buy time. In fact I should probably do that now to avoid any further confusion. They are really hard work to make up and they age quickly.

You don't have to order a 1% resistor. Simply measure the ones you have and if they are within 1% it will be fine. Probably fine even if not. Do the maths for the regulator based on the measured values and see if it is close enough to 4.1V.

There is no STL for the front panel and there won't be. There is no need, just drill 4 holes. This might help:

Screenshot 2025-08-01 192013.png (30.16 KiB) Viewed 164 times

If you connect an LCD to the LCD header you will see nothing at all. This was only there in case we thought it might be useful in future. You are welcome to develop the firmware to display something. It sits on the I2C bus.

Mike

[G1BVI]

Hi Mike
The BOM is VERY useful.
It was not intended as a criticism, just warning constructors to get the LEDs in the right place.


Red for a fault. I noticed it as I had to manually go through my bags printing the component designation on each (my bad for not adding this when I ordered.)


I was just measuring a few resistors and out of the 100 or so I have the first five were actually all within 1%.

That drawing is a great help thanks Mike.

Will start work on a design next week.

Thank you for the heads up on the display

Kind Regards and 73

Nick