apache-labs.com

Tnx Everyone for the updates.

Daniel, your results look alot like mine and some others when the Hermes has not
warmed up. Just curious what that state is.

This update FW I attempted to change timings such that it would compile the FW to work with a cooler
FPGA temperature range.

I did let my ANAN-10 cool off and was satisfied that it started working on a cool power up.
In fact from 160-6 meters with significantly good PS results.

If you are up to more testing and haven't tried pre19 please do and then compare against this pre20

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fjggph7795kb134/Hermes_Protocol_2_v10.8_pre20.rbf?dl=0

Tnx!

-Rick / N1GP

Hi Rick and the others
pre20 is in the moment after a very short test my favourite and running nearly perfectly on my Anan 100.
I tested some sample rate also 1536000 and has seen no drop outs. But is only a very short impression , because is 1:30 in the morning and the job is soon.
Big thanks for this beautiful new pre20 !
regards and 73s de Tom

Hi Rick and all others here in our team

Pre 19: - Tested that last night - results are similar to those of Daniel. No cleanup with PS or PS-A. Unfortunately not usable….

Pre 20:

Congratulations Rick! I know I do only speak for myself - others may observe different things.

Pre-20 is by far the best version I have ever used on my ANAN-10 (original blue box from India). Pure Signal works all the time - no matter if the ANAN is ice cold or not.....always cleaning up!
The amp view shows a good and fast live update (also both green fields are showing quick live results) and IMD3 is down by -50dBc @ full power using my oldest commercial military tube amplifier.
"Single Cal" is similar but freezes the amp view - as it should.

There is only one little thing - but this seems to be unimportant:
"Get Peak" and "Set Peak" are frozen all the time - I thought its essential to do the calibration job - obviously its not

The correction of Pure Signal works very stable - cleanup is perfect - not even temperature issues observed so far.

I can't thank you enough - you solved a major issue at least for me. Hope others can confirm this as well….
Great job Rick!!!

I made a little movie again. I used my 80m loop antenna on a windy day - so no stable dummy load conditions (VSWR changing). Therefore the correction had to recalibrate frequently - the update process looks live and with no significant delays ….. excellent new version in my opinion:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/otpm4azjuoadxr3/Pre20.mp4?dl=0


Thanks Rick and 73!

PS: Will continue testing….

Andy

Hello Rick,
Congratulations. Pre20 looks like everything is going great.
You've done an absolutely perfect job. I don't know how you did it. I really appreciate you making P.S. work.

Hi Rick,

Just wanted to let you know the pre-20 is working like a champ, I’ve tried it on 160 thru 10 meter with 192 and 384 sample rate with no issue at all, using PS with my Anan 100 gray face and running Thetis 2.7.0 a2.

Again congrats!!

Jorge kd4jm

Thanks many times over !!! Working top shape here too: cold and warm.... ANAN100 Gray, Pre20, 2.7.0 (a3)

Jeff
N8RWS

Hi Rick,

Even after some more hours testing - all stable and all fine.
Think you won it - "The Star for your hard work"
Once again many thanks!

73,

Andy

Thanks Andy!

And thanks to everyone who helped test this.

Nice one Rick.
The latest release is currently running on my Anan100, (Thetis 270 A3) P.S. is running nicely and fingers crossed I've not noticed any other perculiarities.

Thankyou Rick.

Paul G4HDS

Hi everyone ,

Thanks Nick for all your efforts.

I have Anan100 Ver24 and I note the following :-

Since installing Version 10.8 / 20 I find that RX 2 is all garbled in all modes ? , I normally use this function for local AM radio stations .

Any hints or tips would be appreciated when you have time please.

Regards
Chris GW0DQW

A short feedback to 10.8 Rev20
It works fine on my an Anan-100, The problem with a garbling RX2 i had only once, when the sampling rates on both RX were different. Setting both RX to 192k solved the problem. Changeing the sampling rate to other values than 192k the displayed bandwith remains on the 192k value. But this is only a consmetic point for me. Rev. 20 works fine so far. Thanks again to all for your work,
Michael, DC0ZO

Thank you Michael , cured thanks to you .

73

Chris GW0DQW

Hello Rick and the other
i confirm that pre 20 here now working Pure Signal beautiful and creamy without drop outs or other problems .
working perfectly all Sample rates on my Anan 100 ( gray Face ).
A big thank you for that !
so all right then with Sample Rate 1536000 and only RX1 is working PS be nice ,
.... but when switching the 2nd receiver too ( also 1536000 Sample Rate ) the RX2 has big secq => 6 ( DDC0 DDC1) Errors . RX2 the audio is garbling or i mean sounds clipping.
we hope its also possible to fixing .

best regards and 73s Tom

Good morning I have a question for the guy’s running pro 2 firmware.Can you touch the bottom right of your radio(facing it to the right side)when I used 10.7 on my 100 gray with daughter card and using 2.7 software for an hour it would heat up so much I could not touch it as it felt is at a melting point so I stopped using it.When I run MRX pro 1 it can run all day and be Luke warm.It did not trip the fuse at the FPGA.I could try the new release again but I would like to hear from other users before attempting .By the way 10.7 worked beautiful for me and would like to try it again, thanks for your answers. Walter

Hi Walter,

Just a quick feedback - using an ANAN-10 here, but of course same Hermes H/W as your 100 (non D-version).
My ANAN is down to 600 mA....so total power consumption is just 7,2 W @ 12V. And I am using an external pre-selector as well which is included here. You find pictures here: http://www.qrz.com/db/dl6eat
7 Watt can never generate lots of heat since there are many consumers on the pcb…….but running it all day generates a hand warm housing…..some people place an additional little cooler right on top of the FPGA (I didn't)

Please do the following - just to ensure we do the same here. Please measure your power supply voltage. Is it over 13,8V please lower the voltage.
If its 13,8V please check if jumper J18 is in place - you find this one near the RJ45 connector. If its only 12V please remove that jumper.
The Hermes board makes a big difference regarding supply voltage (I had to learn this the other day as well - refer to the Hermes manual, page 7).
Temperature-wise its best to run at 12V without J18...…In the specified area (which you described as hot) is one of those major voltage regulators…..may be that one is responsible?

Last but not least - my ANAN-10 (only 10W out max) becomes way warmer (if not hot) when transmitting long periods on high power. The housing is badly cooling the inner circuits. (no air flow) So if using it on full power you need to mount an external fan on top.
Receiving is no issue at least here…….

Can you please also provide your major settings, like sample rate, fps, filter sizes etc - CPU load differs according them. What is the total current of your unit?

May be others can share their observations as well?

Thanks and 73,

Andy

Thank you Andy I will give it a look follow your advice and report back after work, Walter

Hello All,

Some of you may have missed that in pre20 I had to fix the sample rate of RX2 to RX1
even though you can still change RX2 SR in Thetis it takes no effect in the firmware. So Thetis will
be confused. Hence broken audio.

I have been working on fixing the problem of allowing RX1 and RX2 to have independent sample rates.
I may have found a way. Please test pre21, it should work as well as pre20 on PS while also allowing
independent sample rates.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fddqq7bm243l18a/Hermes_Protocol_2_v10.8_pre21.rbf?dl=0

-Rick / N1GP

Hi Rick,

Tested Pre21 very quick - sample rate 192K...….no Pure Signal any longer.
Did 20 tests not even one tx with PS.....sorry, went back to Pre20.

But "thanks" for developing this further Rick!

73,

Andy

Hi Rick and the other

PRE21 TEST

RX1 1536000 RX2 192000 Pure Signal working as before beautiful and RX2 is working also nice now !

RX1 1536000 RX2 1536000 Pure Signal is working okay as before , .... but RX2 garbled so RX2 is not usable

is RX1 1536000 and RX2 more as 192000 Sample Rate would be beginning that the signal is clipping

RX2 1536000 means Seq => 6 ( DDS0 DDS1 ) red blinking at the bottom of the RX2 bar

73s Tom

21:35 UTC just testing 192000 RX1 and 192000 RX2 is working very well , Pure Signal also nice on my Anan 100 ( gray Face )

384000 RX1 and 384000 RX2 is working very well , Pure Signal also nice on my Anan 100 ( gray Face )


today 23:00 UTC now testing

768000 RX1 and 768000 RX2 Pure Signal works creamy no drop outs or doubts
RX1 and RX2 sounding okay no problems without clipping today

mmm .... strange I thought days ago that the first and the second receiver does not run perfectly and has minimal dropouts, today I can not listen this , the second receiver is also clean

but definitely both RX1 1536000 and RX2 1536000 Sample Rate recipients are garbled

i can only " speak " for my Anan 100 the first Model from India

any other here ( with Anan 100 ) can confirm both RX 768000 Sample Rate working well and PS is okay as mine ?

73s Tom

Gray face ANAN100, Pre20 v2.7.0 (a3)

All working very well here, PS very stable... have not tested / do not use different sample rates between RX1 & 2.

Only issue I found is when I "TUN" or hit the tune button the display shows a slight frequency offset from the set operating frequency. The radio transmits on the set frequency however so this is just a display issue it seems.

Thanks again for all the work.. I am very happy with the result of it !!!

73
Jeff
N8RWS

Hi not trying to hijack your thread but curious how to modify k19 for pure signal can I just seperate the via trace to ground then feed in sample through Rx port?

I tried the 50ohm resistor in series with Rx port and my xtronic sampler does not send enough signal to use it this way and I would rather not use the external relay setup

I'm fine with modifying the radio or drilling for a new jack etc

Thanks
W4YNY

Hi,

Let me try to explain the problem:

K19 switches the RX to ground while transmitting. So the ANAN-10 is able to run "Pure Signal" without modifications but there are major downsides:

1) Feedback level must be tremendous
2) Dangerous - if K19 shows contact problems your feedback level might be too high and could damage the RX input (max is +10 dBm!)
3) Pure Signal will not work with best results as you need best possible internal cross isolation

So how to improve things:

It's pretty simple: Just open the box and locate "J29"......disconnect the plug and isolate it....put the cable back into the box and close it. You find a bit more (also pictures) here on qrz.com: https://www.qrz.com/db/DL6EAT

Now - in a next step you need to modify your software (Thetis may be) and tell it to listen on a different antenna port. RX and TX will now use different SMA plugs.
All you need now is an external little relay which switches between the 2 ports (RX to TX etc).

I build a little external box which includes a preselector as well and added auto-band switching and amplifier switching as well.
Also here you find a couple more pictures on qrz.

Pure Signal improved by another 10dB and peaked -60dBc (IMD3)
BTW, my ANAN-7000 is achieving the same numbers.

So, finally - why didn't I just modify the ANAN-10 inside the box? Because that way the ANAN-10 stood unmodified and can be sold any time later without any modifications - no holes, no drilling, no soldering! So the choice is yours

If you need further help let me know - good luck!

Andy, 9A/DL6EAT - W6EAT

My setup.
Anan 10. 10.8pre20
Thetis 2.8.11 21f
1.5kw ldmos amplifier.
-55db coupler.

İ seem to be having an issue getting pure signal to work with this setup. Turning on or off pre distortion only makes a marginal improvement to the Imd please see the photos.

One thing I did notice is that there are 2 blue lines in the amp view. İs this normal.? No matter what settings I try or power levels I can't seem to improve things.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to fix this.

Thanks in advance

vk3amp wrote:My setup.
Anan 10. 10.8pre20
Thetis 2.8.11 21f
1.5kw ldmos amplifier.
-55db coupler.

İ seem to be having an issue getting pure signal to work with this setup.

What was your setup before this? Whatever it was I'm assuming it worked? Or is this a brand new setup?

Turning on or off pre distortion only makes a marginal improvement to the Imd please see the photos.

One thing I did notice is that there are 2 blue lines in the amp view. İs this normal.?

No. That is indicative of bad data.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to fix this.

Without any additional data, I'm going to guess that this is the first time you've tried to run P2 firmware on this particular hardware. The sad fact is that P2 firmware in the 10.8pre series, while substantially improved over previous efforts, still is not guaranteed to run successfully on every serial number Hermes out there. That is, most likely, the cause of the problem.

It is always worth trying other, older versions of the P2 firmware to see if you might hit on one that works OK for you.

This is just an update to my earlier post, after much fussing about, I have figured out the issue with no predistorion correction.

Initially, I assumed the problem was within the software or firmware. So ended up testing the same setup with a different amplifier and it worked.
After this test, I hooked up my dual LDMOS amplifier again and started investigating what may be causing the issue. I could see the amplifier had asymmetric im3 products which I found to be unusual. I figured out the negative feedback circuit was causing the issue.

The original value for my negative feedback circuit consisted of 200 ohms and a 10nf series capacitor. I changed the capacitor value to 1nf and it fixed the asymmetry of the distortion products. Now everything is working perfectly with close to -60 imd3 products.

Thought I share my experience with anyone that has had similar issues.

Regards Onder
VK3AMP

Great news!

I think I found a fix for needing RX1 & RX2 at the same sample rate.

This is working pretty stable on my ANAN-10 with different sample rates and PS locking nicely,
please give it a try:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6v4pu329lkw9vxz/Hermes_Protocol_2_v10.8.22.rbf?dl=0

Tnx,

Rick - N1GP

Hi Rick,

just tested with Thetis 2.8.11g on x64.

Looks very promising, PS runs excellent on all bands, receivers working independend on all samplerates.

Just 3 little quirks:

1) Panadapter is offset by CW Pitch during Tune. This was the same in older versions, at least since pre20.
2) MON only works when RX1=192000. At different samplerates audio is garbled.
3) DUP shows signal with wrong bandwith if RX1<>192000.

All 3 may be related to Thetis in ANAN100 mode, but they are ok with ANAN200D.

Will doing some tests for tx spectral purity next evening, its already late...

Many thanks for your effords,

Walter

DL2XY wrote:Hi Rick,

just tested with Thetis 2.8.11g on x64.

Looks very promising, PS runs excellent on all bands, receivers working independend on all samplerates.

Just 3 little quirks:

1) Panadapter is offset by CW Pitch during Tune. This was the same in older versions, at least since pre20.
2) MON only works when RX1=192000. At different samplerates audio is garbled.
3) DUP shows signal with wrong bandwith if RX1<>192000.

All 3 may be related to Thetis in ANAN100 mode, but they are ok with ANAN200D.

Will doing some tests for tx spectral purity next evening, its already late...

Many thanks for your effords,

Walter

FYI: Regarding this point: 3) DUP shows signal with wrong bandwith if RX1<>192000. This occur with me only when PS is turned on. If not running PS the TX bandwidth is accurate. I am running: ANAN 100, V2.8.11~2/V10.8.0, 21k7, Firmware: 2 10.8 pre20

Thanks for all the support!!!

Good day,

Wondering if anyone found fix for TX bandwidth error in dup mode? The visual in the display looks to be double the bandwidth I am actually running. This occurs only when pure signal is on.

I am running: ANAN 100, V2.8.11~2/V10.8.0, 21k8, Firmware: 2 10.8 pre20