Teensy 4.0 adapter board

Jim Sheldon, W0EB, Project Coordinator for the TSW (Triumvirate Skonk Worx) has announced that the team have successfully created an adapter that will allow the new PJRC Teensy 4.0 to directly replace the NANO MPU on their TSW Raduino Clone and on late model HF Signals Raduino boards where the NANO is mounted on the rear of the card.

The Teensy 4.0 is a much faster processor, providing experimenters with plenty of opportunities to add in features to their µBITx, including digital signal processing.   Comments suggest that the Teensy 4.0 is much faster, generates less digital noise and has WAY more programming memory.

The TSW programmer has successfully ported (with only minor modifications) the factory’s V4.3 and V5.1 software to the Teensy 4.0.  You still need to be familiar with HF Signal’s documentation for V4.3 and V5.1  as they have only documented changes in the accompanying manuals for the software.

A bare board and also a complete kit of parts for the plug in adapter is being offered for sale  and kits are also now available.

At present, kits are only being offered to US customers as the pricing includes shipping.    See the TSW website for more information.

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Teensy 4 arrives

PJRS, the makers of the Teensy family, have just added the Teensy 4.0 to their processor line up.  Jack W8TEE says, “It is a beast!”.  Perhaps he his contemplating an update to the JackAl board for the µBITx?
Some features of the Teensy 4 include:
– ARM Cortex-M7 at 600 MHz
– 1024K RAM (512K is tightly coupled)
– 2048K Flash (64K reserved for recovery & EEPROM emulation)
– 2 USB ports, both 480 MBit/sec
– 3 CAN Bus (1 with CAN FD)
– 2 I2S Digital Audio
– 1 S/PDIF Digital Audio
– 1 SDIO (4 bit) native SD
– 3 SPI, all with 16 word FIFO
– 3 I2C, all with 4 byte FIFO
– 7 Serial, all with 4 byte FIFO
– 32 general purpose DMA channels
– 31 PWM pins
– 40 digital pins, all interrrupt capable
– 14 analog pins, 2 ADCs on chip
–  RTC
 The footprint is actually smaller than the Teensy 3.6 and the cost is, too…$19.95.
This processor is overkill for many projects, but the depth of that resource pool opens a whole new world in many arenas!
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Nano Survivability

The Nano in the Raduino is readily damaged from wires touching 12v points, being exposed to RF, and from the Raduino being plugged in to the DuPont connector incorrectly.   Since the middle of 2018, these have been socketed, making it relatively easy to replace the unit.  Earlier units were soldered in place.

Ted K3RTA asks, “Have any of my fellow uBitx / Bitx40/20 owners experienced a different life span or robust survival rate between US$22 authentic Arduino processors over their cheap-as-dirt clones out of the Far East?”

A response from Jerry KE7ER

“Some of the Nano failures reported here can be attributed to not enough protection on the IO pins.  For example, a couple pins going out to a keyer may as well be protected from static discharge with series 1k resistors. Raduino should have protection against reverse power.  RF could conceivably get into some of these wires and zap an IO pin, though I tend to doubt that unless very long.

I had one of my stock Nano’s go south, though it could well have been something I said.  Several reports in the forum of stock Nano’s working out of the box, but sucking far more power than they should.  Suggests to me a Nano clone manufacturer with a quick go/no-go test, but not much more in the way of quality control.

When mine blew I then bought three from Elegoo at over $4 each, no troubles with them.  Expensive? Well not really, but there are Nano’s on Ebay for down around $2. Those $2 ebay boards have little pressure to maintain quality control, all they need to do is get their board a nickle cheaper and ship something that vaguely works. Seems likely that some would be built using somebody else’s reject parts.  Elegoo has a name to defend, they get good reviews, and likely monitor their sources closely for trouble.  At least, that’s my theory.  Seems worth a few bucks to (slightly?) reduce my odds of spending a day tearing at my hair.  What little hair (and time) I have is well worth $5.

I have yet to spend big bucks on a genuine Arduino Nano.

A response from Jack W8TEE

There’s no doubt that “real” Arduino boards rarely have any problems when used and are of better quality than the clones. I used nothing but the real thing for years. Somewhere along the line I started trying the clones…

I’ve been pretty lucky with the clones. The biggest problem I’ve had is the non-standard drivers. However, in most cases, downloading/installing the CH340 device driver fixes that problem. More recently, I thought I was seeing the driver problem again, but even installing the CH340 didn’t fix it. Turns out some of the clone manufacturers are using an ancient bootloader that is confused by the recent versions of the IDE. Fortunately, it’s easily solved. Use the menu sequence Tools –> Processor: “ATmega328p” –> ATmega328P (Old Bootloader) and do another compile/upload sequence and that should take care of it.

At times, I do feel guilty that I’m no longer using the “real” Arduino controllers. I try to make up for this by making a small donation every time I download a new release of the IDE. I think that probably more than makes up for the small profit they might have made had I purchased the real thing. I hope so. I also hope everyone else does make some kind of donation from time-to-time. Now, if they want to integrate a full symbolic debugger….

Reference 

Teensy audio board schematic and simplified audio “board”

Dr Flywheel (aka Ron N7FTZ) has provided some details of the Teensy audio add-on board.  This is used in the upcoming JackAl add-on board expected to be available shortly, but can almost certainly be home-brewed by savvy constructors using the Teensy 3.6 and audio add-on board.

Here is the circuit diagram for the PJRC audio module:

The CODEC part is very much the reference design provided by the part manufacturer. The support for the EEPROM and the SD card is optional.

The libraries will be compatible with any SGTL5000 or for that matter a long list of other I2S compatible CODECs (look at the source code). If you are homebrewing an audio processor on the Teensy you should consider integration of the CODEC. The libraries will support the internal A/D-D/A of the Freescale ASIC with very few components (resistors, capacitors) added.

Sample resolution of 12-bits is sufficient for the type of audio DSP that we need, though the higher bit-rate CODECs are much better. It is a matter of cost effectiveness and board space.

An alternative simpler approach

 

Below shows mono circuits for a lower grade Teensy, however the circuit is the same for the Teensy V3.6 with the corresponding pins.

The input circuit (mono):

Here is the output circuit (mono):

Reference

Video on the JackAl system

Jack W8TEE and Al AC8GY have been working on a display replacement for the µBITX for quite some time. They now have a preview video that gives an overview of the JackAl system.

There are some software hiccups in the preview that should be fixed soon. We just sent Rev 4.0 of the JackAl board off to the PCB fabricator.  They hope that this will be the final version of the board. All SMD’s will be included on the board.

JackAl makes use of either 5″ or 7″ 800×480 displays (US$34-$44) using the Teensy 3.6 microcontroller (US$30) and its companion audio board (US$14) for the DSP.

The Teensy has 1Mb of flash memory and 256K of SRAM, or which they are using less than 20% and 15%, respectively.  Jack and Al have also brought out a dozen “empty” pins for experimentation, so along with the I/O pins, there plenty of resources left to play with.

Pay particular attention to the ALS Tuning it uses. It really makes it so much easier to zero in on a station. Details are all in the video.

https://vimeo.com/290318066

New release of VU2SPF firmware v3.1cU now available

A new version ofSP Bhatnagar VU2SPF  firmware for the low cost MCUfriend TFT with Touchscreen based VFO + BFOs is out now along with an illustrated manual.

This version (3.1cU) provides the following new features:

  • a row at the bottom to set / adjust both BFOs
  • PTT type selection (Toggle or Normal)
  • auto Time out duration setting
  • individual offsets for each band
  • Touch Sensitivity
  • Lower and Upper limits for displays of S-meter and Power meter.

It continues to provide:

  • 3 VFOs (A/ B and Memory -100 channels)
  • Direct Band selection
  • LSB/USB setting
  • Setting the frequency change step size from 1 Hz to 1 MHz
  • exchange of frequency between VFO and Memory
  • saving all parameters on demand
  • split frequency operation
  • auto band Up /Down scanning and CAT control

This system uses a standard Arduino Mega board with compatible MCUFriend type TFT / Touch shield and either a standard Si5351 breakout board or one designed specifically for it to replace the Raduino board.

This combination makes it very simple to assemble in a short time.

Please note that this system is only for experimenters who have some practical experience with Arduino and the relevant hardware and are keen to learn. There is no ready-made kit as of now and all information is already available on our blog and on Github.

If there is someone willing to kit it for ham friends Raj would be only too happy to assist.

Reference

Further details on Nextion Display and second arduino

Ian KD8CEC, in his third article on using a second arduino with the µBITx, demonstrates the signal scope feature made possible with having a dedicated ardunio nano connected to the main Raduino control processor via i2c lines.

The signal scope shows a section of the band surrounding the currently tuned frequency IN REAL TIME.    The nano and the serial connections to the Nextion doesn’t have the agility to provide a full blown waterfall display, but a real time display of signals around where you are currently tuned is still pretty impressive.

The other feature that is present in the Nextion display version of this arduino add-on, is a CW decode function.

Bring on the release of v1.097 of CEC firmware!

Another Raduino Replacement – this time with a Blue Pill

Joe W3JDR is working  on a  Raduino Pill board which is a direct replacement for the stock Raduino, but with an STM32F103 processor and much more I/O. I think it hits all the points on your wish list. I released the PCB to fab a few weeks ago and am waiting for boards to arrive from China. Assuming it functions without major rework, I’ll post the CAD files and Gerbers on my web site and encourage others to develop for it. I plan to immediately mod the stock uBITX firmware to run on it, then will expand functionality to incorporate the work I’ve done with TFT displays, hi-res encoder and software S-meter & AGC. I’ve cleared my bench in anticipation of arrival and am checking the mailbox every day.

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Getting prepared for the JackAl

Some of you are waiting with baited breath for the JackAl Board, announced by Jack W8TEE.   You can get yourself geared up for the JackAl by pre-purchasing some of the kit required, as it is due to be released shortly.  You will need a colour touch display panel, a Teensy 3.6 processor and associated Teensy audio board.

Display panel

There are two display options for the JackAl board: 5″ or 7″.  Neither is likely to fit in your existing µBITx enclosure, so you may also want to purchase a new enclosure.

The panels can be purchased from BuyDisplay.com. Their order numbers are:

ER-TFTM050-3 (5″)
ER-TFTM070-5 (7″)

Both displays use the following options:

4-wire SPI interface
3.3V
Resistive touch
No font (the library is being used for fonts)

Both are 800×480 displays using the RA8875 chip. If you run the samples using a touch screen, make sure you run the Calibration sample program first.

Teensy 3.6 and audio board

The Teensy 3.6 and its associated audio board can be purchased from the manufacturer’s website or from other sources.

Reference

Warning for those using a Teensy 3.5 or 3.6 or Biteensio board


Jim Sheldon, W0EB notes that the tiny power jumper on the back of the Teensy 3.5 or 3.6 MUST be cut when using external power to the Teensy (from the BITeensio board). Left intact, it is possible to have power being applied to the Teensy through BOTH the BITeensio board AND the USB connection, especially during programming or remote control operation via the USB port. This may cause board power and USB power to conflict with each other and can destroy the Teensy.

The jumper is pointed out on the back side of the pin-out card that comes with every Teensy and it states: “Cut to separate VIN from VUSB, if using a battery charger or external power.” with an arrow pointing to the jumper between the two pads.

Carefully cut this tiny jumper with a very sharp hobby knife to avoid any possible problems.  After cutting the jumper, you will have to power the board externally through the BITeensio card (or other means) when programming or re-programming the Teensy through the USB port.  This holds true for Teensy boards used in just about any application, not just on our BITeensio board.

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