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Minima Digital Board
10 February 2016 | by After procrastinating for a very long time I finally summoned up the ‘whatever it was I needed to summon up’ to get a move on with the Minima transceiver. I planned on tackling the digital board first as it seemed logical. It did however need me to solder an Si570 onto the board without any solder paste. So it was going to be a bit of a struggle.
The method I chose was to put a healthy load of flux on the pads and a blob on both of the ends. Align the chip then solder one end, applying a small amount of pressure onto the chip. Then the other end, then back to the first and then to the second again. Making sure I had seated it correctly. after that the other pads seemed dead easy.
The result was that it worked (I think). Although I am unsure as to why is does stay on a single frequency. This will need a bit of looking at. Here’s a very brief video.
4 Responses to “Minima Digital Board”
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Did you make the board yourself, or are they available for purchase somewhere?
@Dave WD8CIV:
The Minima site here:
http://www.hfsignals.org/index.php/Minima
Says:
To join the Minima mailing list you can go here:
http://www.freelists.org/list/minima
Perhaps ask on the mail list, it is active.
The last I hear was that their was some issue with the first mixer – too much L.O. leakage or something. Maybe their needs to be some design changes before the next board iteration.
Anyway, I don’t want to propagate incorrect info. The like to the mailing list is above, ask their.
Typo: The link to the mailing list is above, ask there. (Sorry)
Dave, I was lucky enough to be given a board by a fellow ham. They aren’t available as a kit or similar which is pretty frustrating but I think, looking at the mailing list, that there are moves afoot to do something a bit more accessible.
David, I’m now on the mailing list thanks. I’ve got it to be happy in the ‘pot’ mode but not with an encoder, it keeps resetting the thing. Must try harder
Alex