Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

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LAZY
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Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by LAZY » Wed Jan 07, 2015 12:58 pm

Hi All,

I received one of these for Xmas to build.

Has anyone else on here built one as I have a few questions.

Firstly, is the orientation of the Potentiometer important, as the doctmentation conflicts with itself? Is the picture below correct? In the instructions downlodable from the website (in Dutch BTW) it shows them in both orientations and unfortunatley i'm not clever enough to read the schematic and am just following the pictures and components location list.

Also someone mentioned the RD06HVF1 transistor could be replaced with a 15w version
RD15HVF1. Is this correct and if so do any other components need to be changed?

Image

Thanks in advance.

Lazy.

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by teckniqs » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:26 pm

A nice piece of kit which I plan to get my hands on in the very near future. RF-Head is probably the man to answer any of your questions. From what I remember the 15 will go straight in place where the 06 goes but RFH will be able to confirm this....

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Post by pjeva » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:43 pm

RD06 and RD15 are interchangable but RD15 will need more input to give full 15W. Regarding trimmer pots, doesn't matter how they are oriented if you put them in the right pins.

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by LAZY » Wed Jan 07, 2015 2:02 pm

Thanks guys. When you say more input, do you mean adjusting the Bias trimmer or giving it more voltage?
I should have it finished at the weeknd with the RD06 installed, I can look at chaging for the RD15 later or maybe look at ordering one of their amp kits and give that a try. I'll post up some pic of the finished product when i'm done.

Lazy.

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by LAZY » Wed Jan 07, 2015 2:06 pm

Here's what it looks like so far.
Image

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by MiXiN » Wed Jan 07, 2015 3:00 pm

Nice piece of kit that, and it's a good price as well.

Hope you get it up and running first time.

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Re: Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by pjeva » Wed Jan 07, 2015 3:42 pm

LAZY wrote:Thanks guys. When you say more input, do you mean adjusting the Bias trimmer or giving it more voltage?
I should have it finished at the weeknd with the RD06 installed, I can look at chaging for the RD15 later or maybe look at ordering one of their amp kits and give that a try. I'll post up some pic of the finished product when i'm done.

Lazy.
No, more input power from previous stage. You will need at least 300mW to get 15W output with RD15. 500mW wouold be even better. You must set bias carefully because it affects current through RD15. Best practice would be to set trimmer to minimum, and then slowly raise it while measuring voltage at the gate of RD16 (RD06 in your case). This voltage should be 2.3 - 2.8 volts DC. DO NOT EXCEED 3V! You will burn fet...
A bit of theory: Gate voltage above 3V will enable too much current through fet. This is not a big problem when you have enough drive power and large heatsink. But if your rf drive is too low and cooling is quite bad, fet will overheat from current flowing through source-drain and it will burn...

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by sinus trouble » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:56 pm

Pjeva knows his stuff and theres some good advice there! :) i would say experiment! mount the output device on a healthy large heatsink and start small! :) Monitor the temperature, output power and PLL voltage stability! Datasheets for each component will give a good guide to thier limitations! :)
I am as stupid as I look! :|

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by LAZY » Sun Jan 11, 2015 6:27 pm

Thanks for the comments guys. Not quite at that point yet but a little update with progress so far. Just the coils and the final to finish.

Image

Image

The SGA6489Z and MSA0886 were tricky little buggers, although not very pretty I managed to get them soldered in place.

Quick question before I get to testing the PLL. It directly translates as "We are now so far that we can test the oscillator and PLL . This may be connected with or without display. Turn the power potentiometer fully counterclockwise . Verify that the middle leg of the power potentiometer to ground (-) is . If there is an external potentiometer is used for the power control than the center pin to connect temporarily to ground. Connect a supply voltage of 12,5Volt to the plus and minus ."

My power potentiometer isn't connected to ground. Have I made an error, or do I need to solder a connection from ground to the power potentiometer middle pin to test?

All comments greatly apreciated.

Lazy.

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Post by pjeva » Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:18 pm

You need to turn it until it is short circuit between middle leg and ground (probably counter clockwise)

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by LAZY » Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:40 pm

Think i have soldered it the wrong way round.

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Post by pjeva » Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:31 pm

It doesn't matter. Trimmer can be used either way

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by mauri » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:11 am

This transmitter is designed by me and my brother so not RFhead :D

You cannot replace the RD06 for a RD15 to get 15 Watt because the drive power from the SGA is to low.


teckniqs wrote:A nice piece of kit which I plan to get my hands on in the very near future. RF-Head is probably the man to answer any of your questions. From what I remember the 15 will go straight in place where the 06 goes but RFH will be able to confirm this....
Last edited by mauri on Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re:

Post by mauri » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:12 am

That's the right answer :tup

pjeva wrote:It doesn't matter. Trimmer can be used either way

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by mauri » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:19 am

Nice to see someone building our transmitter :D
Because many people has problems soldering the small msa and sga smd devices i decided to pre solder them with reflow to avoid problems.
So i will place this two parts already on the pcb in the future.
Hope you enjoy the kit.

LAZY wrote:Thanks for the comments guys. Not quite at that point yet but a little update with progress so far. Just the coils and the final to finish.

Image

Image

The SGA6489Z and MSA0886 were tricky little buggers, although not very pretty I managed to get them soldered in place.

Quick question before I get to testing the PLL. It directly translates as "We are now so far that we can test the oscillator and PLL . This may be connected with or without display. Turn the power potentiometer fully counterclockwise . Verify that the middle leg of the power potentiometer to ground (-) is . If there is an external potentiometer is used for the power control than the center pin to connect temporarily to ground. Connect a supply voltage of 12,5Volt to the plus and minus ."

My power potentiometer isn't connected to ground. Have I made an error, or do I need to solder a connection from ground to the power potentiometer middle pin to test?

All comments greatly apreciated.

Lazy.

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Re: Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by pjeva » Mon Jan 12, 2015 8:50 am

mauri wrote: You cannot replace the RD06 for a RD15 to get 15 Watt because the drive power from the SGA is to low.
This is what I said few posts ago. Mauri, are you new here on the forum? And are you owner of shop in NL? :)

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Re: Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by mauri » Mon Jan 12, 2015 9:44 am

Hi Pjeva, yes i'm new here.
I was a member from the old website but it's gone...
And yes, i'm the owner from the shop :D

pjeva wrote:
mauri wrote: You cannot replace the RD06 for a RD15 to get 15 Watt because the drive power from the SGA is to low.
This is what I said few posts ago. Mauri, are you new here on the forum? And are you owner of shop in NL? :)

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Post by pjeva » Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:18 am

So mauri welcome back! And if it is dutchrfshop, you are my supplier of components ;-)

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Post by pjeva » Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:19 am

So mauri welcome back! And if it is dutchrfshop, you are my supplier of components ;-)

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Re: Dutch RF - 6w DRFS06

Post by mauri » Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:48 am

Hi Pjeva

Aaah, that's nice to hear.

Thanks :smoke

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