Re: [Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers
Someday, let's say in the year 2185, a restorer of warp drives and old HF radios will stumble upon your cache of pristine KSYN3 modules and make your great-great-(...)-great grand-daughter an offer she can't refuse. So go ahead. Collect 'em :) 73, Wayne N6KR On Jun 25, 2015, at 9:47 AM, inventor61 . invento...@gmail.com wrote: Based on the feedback I've received: -- Lots of people are willing to give away their old KSYN3 modules, for just the shipping costs -- No one has an immediate application for the devices other than their original purpose -- The fear I had that controlling these things was rather complicated was confirmed and amplified -- It's not worth $100 to make the thing 'play' by itself All quite illuminating. Thanks for the bandwidth everyone. 73 Steve KZ1X/4 __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to n...@elecraft.com __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
Re: [Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers
Ah, but the original KSYN3 does have a nice chunk of Aluminum attached :-) 73, Phil W7OX On 6/24/15 10:06 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Hi Steve, Not to throw cold water on this, but the original KSYN3 requires a ton of firmware support, including a hand-tweaked table of thousands of PLL divider values pre-calculated and stored in flash memory. We shoehorn the DDS reference signal through a 3-kHz wide crystal filter in order to ensure no close-in spurs, then adjust the PLL divider values in real time so there are no gaps in the tuning range despite a nominal 20-kHz PLL step size. Lots of idiosyncratic math, and a critical calibration step (VCO CAL). So if each of your repurposed KSYN3s comes with a K3 front panel MCU and flash, no problem :) 73, Wayne N6KR __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
[Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers
Based on the feedback I've received: -- Lots of people are willing to give away their old KSYN3 modules, for just the shipping costs -- No one has an immediate application for the devices other than their original purpose -- The fear I had that controlling these things was rather complicated was confirmed and amplified -- It's not worth $100 to make the thing 'play' by itself All quite illuminating. Thanks for the bandwidth everyone. 73 Steve KZ1X/4 __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
[Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers
I printed out the schematic of the original K3 synthesizer module. The diagram says 'rev. A4' and is dated 8 Jan 2010. Hope that's close to the as-built! (probably is) This gizmo appears to have an output range from 8.7 to 46 MHz. I don't know how much sauce it can develop but I have to imagine +10 dBm or so into 50 ohms, I bet it's flat across that range, and it looks like the thing would be whistle-clean. To get that, it needs a tight 49.38 MHz reference oscillator (I found a 0.5PPM TCXO for ~$30 from mainland China), and several common DC supply voltages. It also needs a small microcontroller or other way of providing the correct serial peripheral interface command lines and interaction. That processor would also control the output frequency, perhaps with an encoder, or whatever human interface might make sense. But first, I am trying to see if developing a 'host' PCB would even be fiscally wise to design and construct. I mean, who needs a 8.7 to 46 MHz VFO? And, how mad would Eric or Wayne be with me about the ... um ... semi-inverse engineering research ... I'd have to do to make this thing operate? On the other hand, I wager there's a thousand-plus of these modules sitting around the planet looking for something to do. The capitalist in me is intrigued. So, a bit of market investigation here: a) what would you do with such a device if you had one? bench signal generator? beacon transmitter? VFO for another radio? b) would you pay, say, $100 for a host board to operate your now-surplus synthesizer? c) if someone *else *needed YOUR spare module for THEIR project, what would you be willing to sell it to them for? Free? $25? More? 73 es tnx Steve KZ1X/4 kz1x at yahoo . com __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
[Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers
Well, USD25 for the old synthesizers is good enough for me and I will be happy to sell it. However, I cannot think of any interesting project for it. 73 Johnny VR2XMC 寄件人︰ inventor61 . invento...@gmail.com 收件人︰ elecraft@mailman.qth.net 傳送日期︰ 2015年06月25日 (週四) 10:18 AM 主題︰ [Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers I printed out the schematic of the original K3 synthesizer module. The diagram says 'rev. A4' and is dated 8 Jan 2010. Hope that's close to the as-built! (probably is) This gizmo appears to have an output range from 8.7 to 46 MHz. I don't know how much sauce it can develop but I have to imagine +10 dBm or so into 50 ohms, I bet it's flat across that range, and it looks like the thing would be whistle-clean. To get that, it needs a tight 49.38 MHz reference oscillator (I found a 0.5PPM TCXO for ~$30 from mainland China), and several common DC supply voltages. It also needs a small microcontroller or other way of providing the correct serial peripheral interface command lines and interaction. That processor would also control the output frequency, perhaps with an encoder, or whatever human interface might make sense. But first, I am trying to see if developing a 'host' PCB would even be fiscally wise to design and construct. I mean, who needs a 8.7 to 46 MHz VFO? And, how mad would Eric or Wayne be with me about the ... um ... semi-inverse engineering research ... I'd have to do to make this thing operate? On the other hand, I wager there's a thousand-plus of these modules sitting around the planet looking for something to do. The capitalist in me is intrigued. So, a bit of market investigation here: a) what would you do with such a device if you had one? bench signal generator? beacon transmitter? VFO for another radio? b) would you pay, say, $100 for a host board to operate your now-surplus synthesizer? c) if someone *else *needed YOUR spare module for THEIR project, what would you be willing to sell it to them for? Free? $25? More? 73 es tnx Steve KZ1X/4 kz1x at yahoo . com __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
Re: [Elecraft] [K3] ideas for re-purposing our old K3 synthesizers
Hi Steve, Not to throw cold water on this, but the original KSYN3 requires a ton of firmware support, including a hand-tweaked table of thousands of PLL divider values pre-calculated and stored in flash memory. We shoehorn the DDS reference signal through a 3-kHz wide crystal filter in order to ensure no close-in spurs, then adjust the PLL divider values in real time so there are no gaps in the tuning range despite a nominal 20-kHz PLL step size. Lots of idiosyncratic math, and a critical calibration step (VCO CAL). So if each of your repurposed KSYN3s comes with a K3 front panel MCU and flash, no problem :) 73, Wayne N6KR On Jun 24, 2015, at 7:18 PM, inventor61 . invento...@gmail.com wrote: I printed out the schematic of the original K3 synthesizer module. The diagram says 'rev. A4' and is dated 8 Jan 2010. Hope that's close to the as-built! (probably is) This gizmo appears to have an output range from 8.7 to 46 MHz. I don't know how much sauce it can develop but I have to imagine +10 dBm or so into 50 ohms, I bet it's flat across that range, and it looks like the thing would be whistle-clean. To get that, it needs a tight 49.38 MHz reference oscillator (I found a 0.5PPM TCXO for ~$30 from mainland China), and several common DC supply voltages. It also needs a small microcontroller or other way of providing the correct serial peripheral interface command lines and interaction. That processor would also control the output frequency, perhaps with an encoder, or whatever human interface might make sense…. __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
