RX1 acting up whereas RX2 is not

[NC3Z]

So you have tried this tests with both ADC0 and ADC1 I assume?

[JJ4SDR]

Yes Gary although more sharing ADC0.

[JJ4SDR]

I didn't have any issues for about a week - thinking that I had the problem solved - but the glitch reared up its ugly head again back last night. I merely switched on the radio and almost immediately there was a considerable drop in the noise floor. The floor kept ebbing and flowing, just as it did before. The temp in the shack was 94F (I wasn't going to operate). Switched A/C on and after about 30 minutes and the resultant temp drop, the radio started acting "normal" again, just as it does in the morning with much lower temp in shack.

With the above in mind:
1. I will see if rolling back to Protocol 1 might solve this (Scott had brought up timing issues when using Protocol 2) when temp gets really high.
2. Should roll-back not change anything, perhaps this IS a thermal issue, having to do with the Orion board. Doug replaced the PA/Filter board already a few weeks ago so that should narrow it down.

Juha
NI2M

[w-u-2-o]

To clarify:

If rolling back to P1 fixes the problem at both hot and cold AND rolling forward to P2 makes the problem reappear with temperature again, then THAT is indicative of a thermally related timing closure issue for P2 firmware on your hardware (your specific serial number Orion board).

If rolling back to P1 exhibits the same problems as P2 I'd be very surprised. But since you tend to have the most unique problems of anyone with an ANAN, maybe not that surprised

[JJ4SDR]

Scott,

I will report back in a week what I am observing.

Are there many Protocol 1 firmware versions for my 7000? The serial # is: DX8300340. I got v.2.7 installed now, but I think I was using another Protocol 1 version a year ago.

Incidentally (and this is conjecture), when I received my radio (stunningly, it was packed in a single-box ), the box had a puncture in it. Unboxing the radio, I observed the ground post on back was at a strange angle. On top of that, one of the 2 handles on the front was tilted as well. It appeared like the box had been used as a football and had dropped at least once. So I shipped the brand-new radio to Doug before I even switched the thing on.

Perhaps, my "unique" situation (I have learnt since that other owners have had similar experiences) can be traced back to shoddy, unexplainably poor packing of the radio? To me, that is rather elementary a sign of poor quality. If the excuse for the low quality packing is to "save on cost" tells me all I need to know.

Juha

[w-u-2-o]

If this turns out to be a firmware issue then it's hard to see how packing and shipping could be relevant.

P1 firmware can be found here: https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-Firmw ... -Andromeda

It seems like you've got the latest installed.

[JJ4SDR]

Scott,

Whatever the case may be doesn't make me think that Quality Control works well. Perhaps my thinking is "skewed" owing to the fact that I worked for a multi-billion dollar telecommunications company where Quality started with the "small things." A case in point; an entire team of experts spent time conducting D-FMEA/P-FMEA (failure mechanisms and effects analysis from a process and design perspectives) and DOE (design of experiments) on elementary things such as product labeling (that was obviously merely one area among countless others) on a smart phone.

Juha

[w-u-2-o]

I don't think you are wrong, Juha. Just trying to stay on target. We've already posted about cracked solder joints and stuff like that, but your posts seem to rule that out.

[JJ4SDR]

Scott,

I am thinking that the fact that my radio was likely used as a "football" or perhaps a fork-lift's fork hit the box (the puncture doesn't seem consistent with that though, given the diameter and shape of the puncture), the trouble could be attributable to a cracked solder joint, maybe a partial delamination of or damage to a copper trace or, it could even be a cracked component. The very small SMD components (those in smart phones are so tiny that if you exhale very close to such a component, it would take off) don't really have a lot of mass so I am thinking a cracked solder joint on the pad underneath a SMD component could be in the realm of possibility. All of this is of course pure conjecture.

Last night (94F), while monitoring (same antenna/band as before) there was no abrupt change in the noise floor. This morning I redid the test (temp around 80F) and no problem observed. Then tonight, I did it again and almost immediately the noise floor dropped way down to a point where I thought I had no antenna connected (just like before).

So, perhaps the problem on the Orion board......very unlikely that my radio would have 2 flaky PA/Filter boards as you opined in an earlier post as well.

Doug is off on vacation but he wanted to get the latest from me after the holidays as he was still willing to "dig into this." Depending on what he suggests, I may ship the radio to him for the 4th time.

Juha

[w-u-2-o]

Was that test with P1 firmware?

[JJ4SDR]

Yes.

[JJ4SDR]

Update:

Thanks to Mark's very gracious help it appears clear that the anomaly is related to my radio and not my station set-up overall.
He had my radio in his shack (while I was operating his radio in my shack, having no issues at all with the noise floor) and observed the same exact problems with the noise floor. He also put the radio on the air for a serious work-out, doing rag-chews on AM.

Perhaps this is a "fluke," but Mark also experienced consistent drop-off of noise floor particularly after having been in transmit mode for an extended period, just like I did when the radio was in my shack. This, after the radio had been switched off for many hours, "cold starting" it the next day for instance. The noise floor sank dramatically only after a 1 minute or 2 of monitoring every morning and evening regardless of the temperature in my shack. Mark's shack temp is also much lower than mine (unless I switch the AC which I do when I get ready to get on the air). I had tried rolling back to P1 from P2 with no difference, seeing the same anomaly, regardless of shack temp too.

We also tried "cycling" through ANT1,2,3 (I am alluding to using antenna control on the form inserted below), hearing relays click and initially it seemed like this remedied the problem. This was done while my radio was in Mark's shack and I also tried it after I put the radio back in line in my shack. Perhaps doing cycling on the transmit side would help. I haven't tried it as of this morning.

Ant Filter Tab.jpg (126.36 KiB) Viewed 1181 times

Last night, as I was getting ready for a sked on 20, I noticed that the noise floor went down again, tried "cycling," to no avail. I also went in transmit mode and noticed that the radio wasn't putting out any RF at all! The anomaly seems to be getting progressively worse as I had not seen this kind of behavior previously. Having trouble with PS not correcting well at times (I had observed this several times during the past few weeks) only to work very well after a few seconds may have been a harbinger of RF out issues.

We opined that the way the noise floor went and down as depicted in the waterfall wasn't necessarily consistent with a defective relay. "The dip and rise in the noise floor isn't immediate, it takes place over about 1/4 second so there is a noticeable 'smear' in the waterfall, not a sudden 'on/off' sharp-edged delineation," as per Mark.

As those who have been following this thread know, Doug, W5WC, has had my radio on the bench (twice already), but he couldn't reproduce the anomaly. He did not do a lot of transmitting though as I had reported seeing the anomaly while in receive mode, but somehow it would seem (I could be way off-base there) that extensive rag-chewing somehow "precipitates" the anomaly when in receive mode. He also swapped the PA/Filter board, and assuming that the antenna relays are on that board, it is very hard to imagine that the new board would have defective relays as well (again, assuming that we're dealing with a relay issue) that Scott also wrote several weeks ago.

Doug has agreed to dig into this more so I am shipping the radio on this same problem to him for a 3rd time!

73,
Juha
NI2M