13-05-2018, 08:07 PM
Wow. What an afternoon.
Talk about frustrating. While I was away the bits I ordered turned up.
So full of anticipation I plugged in the all new $3.50 USB sound card and $40 CAT Cable.
First up, what was supposed to be an FTDI chip in the CAT cable, turned out to be a Prolific and probably a fake as I needed to load some old drivers and run it up using CHIRP first. It mostly works.
Which is more than I can say for the sound card. It is worse than the one it was to replace. Nada, Zilch, Nothing.
OK. I break out the USB mixing desk. I plug in the phones, run up some mixing software and all good it works, both in and out.
I run up the FT-857 with data I/O through the isolation board I built and via the desk and lo and behold, decodes all over the place. So far so good.
Still no output. The radio is triggering but nothing is going out. Checked a few settings on the radio with no joy.
Now the fun begins. For tracing purposes I decided to use the Phones Out of the desk to drive into my interface board. Using crocodile clips and an old speaker I started tracing the sound.
It doesn't get to the end of the Data I/O cable. Nor does it get to the output of the board. Nothing at the output of the transformer. I jumped to the input of the board and there is sound.
I then bypassed the small filter capacitor with a jumper and now I get the sound at the input of the transformer, but still nothing at the output.
On a whim, I reverse the transformer still nothing. Looks like we have the culprit. I then turned the Phones fader right up. I was getting the smallest signal on the output.
I fed sound into the other transformer and the signal on the output was somewhat attenuated but nothing like the other one.
The tally so far is two faulty USB Sounds Cards, two bodgey CAT cables, a possibly faulty capacitor, a faulty transformer and a noisy USB hub power supply.
Someone doesn't want me to get this working.
Next step will be to get some 1/4" plugs and make up a Data I/O lead to allow me to bypass the isolation board and test via the desk and maybe a DI box to break any ground loops. Actually, I am amazed I didn't have any 1/4" plugs kicking around.
Onwards and Upwards (and backwards and sideways).
Talk about frustrating. While I was away the bits I ordered turned up.
So full of anticipation I plugged in the all new $3.50 USB sound card and $40 CAT Cable.
First up, what was supposed to be an FTDI chip in the CAT cable, turned out to be a Prolific and probably a fake as I needed to load some old drivers and run it up using CHIRP first. It mostly works.
Which is more than I can say for the sound card. It is worse than the one it was to replace. Nada, Zilch, Nothing.
OK. I break out the USB mixing desk. I plug in the phones, run up some mixing software and all good it works, both in and out.
I run up the FT-857 with data I/O through the isolation board I built and via the desk and lo and behold, decodes all over the place. So far so good.
Still no output. The radio is triggering but nothing is going out. Checked a few settings on the radio with no joy.
Now the fun begins. For tracing purposes I decided to use the Phones Out of the desk to drive into my interface board. Using crocodile clips and an old speaker I started tracing the sound.
It doesn't get to the end of the Data I/O cable. Nor does it get to the output of the board. Nothing at the output of the transformer. I jumped to the input of the board and there is sound.
I then bypassed the small filter capacitor with a jumper and now I get the sound at the input of the transformer, but still nothing at the output.
On a whim, I reverse the transformer still nothing. Looks like we have the culprit. I then turned the Phones fader right up. I was getting the smallest signal on the output.
I fed sound into the other transformer and the signal on the output was somewhat attenuated but nothing like the other one.
The tally so far is two faulty USB Sounds Cards, two bodgey CAT cables, a possibly faulty capacitor, a faulty transformer and a noisy USB hub power supply.
Someone doesn't want me to get this working.
Next step will be to get some 1/4" plugs and make up a Data I/O lead to allow me to bypass the isolation board and test via the desk and maybe a DI box to break any ground loops. Actually, I am amazed I didn't have any 1/4" plugs kicking around.
Onwards and Upwards (and backwards and sideways).