Posts Tagged ‘ubitx’
uBITX V6 turns up the heat!
December 14th, 2019 | 
Author: Huge sales of the uBITX around the globe is one kit that has certainly raised the profile of Amateur Radio. An HF radio kit which got many back and involved in the hobby, with many interested in construction once again. It has proved easy to put together for most, with a pretested PCB, along with a simple set up procedure. Asharr Farhan and his small company HF Signals, have been credited with a huge success story of uBITX sales, on top of his now retired BITX40 single band 40m kit. It has kept a small team in employment back in India and that is also a good thing.
Where could he take the uBITX from here?
Well you have only got to blink these days and things always get updated very quick!
The new V6 uBITX could be the wolf that eat the cat meooow!
Gone is the two line 1602 display, a new 2.8" LCD touch screen is it's replacement. No soldering required is part of the new uBITX sales statement, is this a rig that now plugs together like lego? Gone are connections that once had to be soldered with wire to the 3.5mm sockets for mic, key etc. These are now attached to the new V6 PCB, along with the variable resistor for the volume control, even the encoder doesn't need a soldering iron anymore it comes already attached and soldered up with a plug ready to push into the revised board.
There are two flavours of kit, as before you can just buy the tested PCB kit with raduino, display, hardware and stuff it in a box of your choice (Basic kit) . Or there is now a second choice of a professional predrilled case, (Full kit) which really takes the uBITX to retail standard and looks the part. Both kits, even come with a fist microphone ready to plug in and a speaker for those that purchase the full kit.
Those that have purchased V5 PCB can upgrade to the 2.8" display and update the Raduino firmware, and should read these notes:
I also found the displays are available on ebay.
Further details on it all read this thread here
Head down to HF Signals here for full details about the kit.
Where could he take the uBITX from here?
Well you have only got to blink these days and things always get updated very quick!
The new V6 uBITX could be the wolf that eat the cat meooow!
Gone is the two line 1602 display, a new 2.8" LCD touch screen is it's replacement. No soldering required is part of the new uBITX sales statement, is this a rig that now plugs together like lego? Gone are connections that once had to be soldered with wire to the 3.5mm sockets for mic, key etc. These are now attached to the new V6 PCB, along with the variable resistor for the volume control, even the encoder doesn't need a soldering iron anymore it comes already attached and soldered up with a plug ready to push into the revised board.
There are two flavours of kit, as before you can just buy the tested PCB kit with raduino, display, hardware and stuff it in a box of your choice (Basic kit) . Or there is now a second choice of a professional predrilled case, (Full kit) which really takes the uBITX to retail standard and looks the part. Both kits, even come with a fist microphone ready to plug in and a speaker for those that purchase the full kit.
Those that have purchased V5 PCB can upgrade to the 2.8" display and update the Raduino firmware, and should read these notes:
For those who are using the 16x2 display and you would like to upgrade, you will have to do three things:
1. Add a heatsink to the 7805 of the raduino
2. Buy https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32815224002.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.3b9548336X8T43 and hook it up as per http://www.hfsignals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/raduino_tft.pdf
3. Grab the new Arduino sketch from https://github.com/afarhan/ubitxv6
I also found the displays are available on ebay.
Further details on it all read this thread here
Head down to HF Signals here for full details about the kit.
uBITX professional case
Amateur Radio Kits India, owned by VU3SUA. Is now producing a commercial grade aluminum case in a variety of different colours for the uBITX.
The case comes predrilled, with the cut out of the panel for the frequency display, ready to house the uBITX PCB. This sure makes the uBITX look the part in the shack. Complete with all the missing fittings, speaker, knobs, USB, SO239, mic skt, etc (the full list of parts is on the website).
Shipping starts early March.
Link here for:
Universal Case DA Grey
The case comes predrilled, with the cut out of the panel for the frequency display, ready to house the uBITX PCB. This sure makes the uBITX look the part in the shack. Complete with all the missing fittings, speaker, knobs, USB, SO239, mic skt, etc (the full list of parts is on the website).
Shipping starts early March.
Link here for:
Universal Case DA Grey
A SWR power bridge for uBITX
A damp cold Saturday here at Rugeley, the postman has not long been and dropped off my January issue of QRP Quarterly- Journal of the QRP ARCI.
Something good has just caught my eye, especially if your into the uBITX right now.
This month there is an excellent article for a VSWR bridge for the Arduino, which confusingly KW5GP (Glen Popiel) appears to take all the credits? But it appears the article was written or most of it by KV4QB (DuWayne Schmidlkofer)? A better explaination of the confusion, might be to just nip down to DuWayne's Place to understand what has actually gone on.
Why is this article good for the uBITX builder or users? Well at the moment there is no SWR/PWR bridge hardware built into the uBITX, although VU2ESE's Arduino code does appear to implement something for a basic S meter.
The article has a full bridge directional coupler circuit, along with amplified outputs, which are then fed into the Arduino. Along with this, there is the code, that could be easily adapted to work with the uBITX Arduino. Anyway Duwayne, has been good enough to drop off the details along with the code at his Dropbox site here
Something good has just caught my eye, especially if your into the uBITX right now.
This month there is an excellent article for a VSWR bridge for the Arduino, which confusingly KW5GP (Glen Popiel) appears to take all the credits? But it appears the article was written or most of it by KV4QB (DuWayne Schmidlkofer)? A better explaination of the confusion, might be to just nip down to DuWayne's Place to understand what has actually gone on.
Why is this article good for the uBITX builder or users? Well at the moment there is no SWR/PWR bridge hardware built into the uBITX, although VU2ESE's Arduino code does appear to implement something for a basic S meter.
The article has a full bridge directional coupler circuit, along with amplified outputs, which are then fed into the Arduino. Along with this, there is the code, that could be easily adapted to work with the uBITX Arduino. Anyway Duwayne, has been good enough to drop off the details along with the code at his Dropbox site here
uBITX now on back order.
The uBITX kit as I predicted, proved so successful when it went on sale on Saturday 9th December, by Monday 11th, Asharr Farhan was telling us all on the BITX20 group, current stock of the first uBITX production run was exhausted!
Demand has just outstripped supply, by what the thinking was there was enough stock to last for 2 months?
Anyone ordering the uBITX now, will not get shipped until after at least the 25th December. This is now being flagged up when you come to order.
Did the uBITX become more successful overnight than the ICOM IC-7300, did it sell more in it's first days of sale? Or does it say to the main three radio manufacturers, you missed a market for a plain no bells and whistles multiband radio that everyone can afford and muck into and understand?
One thing for certain Asharr Farhan has proved without a doubt that he has been the first to achieve and do this, putting into mass production a multiband rig at a price point that everyone can be part of and enjoy! I am sure as well as the uBITX there is a lot more to come from HF Signals in the future!
Well done VU2ESE!
Demand has just outstripped supply, by what the thinking was there was enough stock to last for 2 months?
Anyone ordering the uBITX now, will not get shipped until after at least the 25th December. This is now being flagged up when you come to order.
Did the uBITX become more successful overnight than the ICOM IC-7300, did it sell more in it's first days of sale? Or does it say to the main three radio manufacturers, you missed a market for a plain no bells and whistles multiband radio that everyone can afford and muck into and understand?
One thing for certain Asharr Farhan has proved without a doubt that he has been the first to achieve and do this, putting into mass production a multiband rig at a price point that everyone can be part of and enjoy! I am sure as well as the uBITX there is a lot more to come from HF Signals in the future!
Well done VU2ESE!
