DIY KIT FM Broadcast PLL Professional Exciter - Veronica NRG 2025 - 88-108 MHz.

[BriansBrain]

I got one of these from this asshole in October 2024 when he was called >>> marconi_electronics
The board and the Circuit itself had Serious Design Faults + many of the components were missing.

DIY KIT Veronica NRG 2024.jpg

I informed him about the problems with the kit.
He then stopped returning my emails.
Then unregistered from ebay.

marconi_electronics = unregistered.jpg

He then re-registered in October 2024 as >>>> Yaesuk_es

Rre-registered in October 2024 as yaesuk_es.jpg

He's now selling them again so he can rip more people off.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/336009046999?i ... Sw~4BoScD0

Capture.JPG

[BriansBrain]

The reason I have put this in Anorak Corner is because of the technical problem I had with the board.

This is the board I received before I started construction

NRG Veronica 2024 - PCB - Front.jpg

The nasty little... but catastrophic physical connection bug can clearly be seen if you zoom in.

Lets see who of you in the forum can spot it.
But... do NOT post the answer here.
Send me a private message me if you think you have found it.

[King Croccy]

Yes that guy is a nightmare, I've ordered bits from him before. Once ordered a mrf300 broadband amp, months went by and nothing, ended opening a resolution on Ebay. The guy said he was really busy but would build the board and get it sent out. Another week passed and he just refunded the money. I guess the pressure was on

[shuffy]

I think I see something. I suspect he's using Sprint
On a different subject though. I really don't like his PA layout. Has this been cloned from another board or is it unique to this "design"?

[Frequent Lee]

If I recall correctly this is a rip off of a prototype that the guy in New Zealand was experimenting with in the period he'd purchased the rights to market, manufacture and use the branding for the PLL Pros final revision of Stephen's originals and use the name on any future revisions, I believe this version was scrapped and the version he sells now is the redesigned and improved NRG revision.

[radionortheast]

Think this was the one were you had to register with a different ebay from outside the uk, It was interesting I managed to construct my own device wasn’t needed, had alot of dissapointment with ebay.. thought someone sold 1w pll driver kits a while ago that were good used the prescaler ic.
Looks like this veronica clone was using bcd, so you could get the frequency without needing a code, entering through the switches.

[BriansBrain]

OK

I think I see something.

Then a private MSG from shuffy

Perhaps IC5 Pin 2 thermal pad is shorting to pin 3?

=

When the 0.1MHz Frequency Setting Switch is at position 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9
then it shorted out the 5V rail and blow R37 the 33 Ohm sacrificial resistor.

I had already made the board and blown R37
Then I had to remove IC5 to find the error

Veronica 2024 DIY FM Exciter - Board Short-S.jpg

Pin 3 Short Schematic Diagram.jpg

And to make it worse I had paid £125 for this

[King Croccy]

Probably using a shit pcb routing software with no drc enabled

[shuffy]

Probably using a shit pcb routing software with no drc enabled

I suspect it's Sprint. I wouldn't call this a bug, more an oversight in the design - it doesn't prevent the copper on thermal pads shorting with adjacent pads or tracks, so you've got to be careful.

I like Sprint because you don't have to start from a schematic which means you don't have to define components that aren't in your package's library. Obviously there are swings and roundabouts, because a schematic forces you to think harder about the design and the layout together and enables the tool to help with routing and error checking (before you just do it your way anyway!). I don't think there's much in the way of DRC on Sprint - I just use the fab house's.

The thermal pad gotcha still catches me out occasionally despite having used Sprint for years and done some quite intricate SMD stuff with it.

That said, it might not be Sprint but I think it is

[shuffy]

When the 0.1MHz Frequency Setting Switch is at position 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9
then it shorted out the 5V rail and blow R37 the 33 Ohm sacrificial resistor.

I don't usually design in sacrificial components to compensate for my own shit board layouts

I had already made the board and blown R37
Then I had to remove IC5 to find the error

Doh. Massive pain in the backside, annoying.

[BriansBrain]

I had already made the board and blown R37
Then I had to remove IC5 to find the error

Doh. Massive pain in the backside, annoying.

Tell me about it

Took me all of 3 seconds with a scalpel to sort it once IC5 was out

.

[Albert H]

That's sad. It also looks like the RF side of the board has been butchered too. I'd hate to look at the RF mess that it produces. I presume that L6 is some kind of hairpin - which will do practically nothing at 1 Watt. What is the output device?

[shuffy]

That's sad. It also looks like the RF side of the board has been butchered too. I'd hate to look at the RF mess that it produces. I presume that L6 is some kind of hairpin - which will do practically nothing at 1 Watt. What is the output device?

It's a FET, you can see the bias components (all muddled up with the drain inductive load). As he says it's developing 15W and probably driving it with a few hundred mW out of the 4427, I guessed it might be a RD15HVF1. The look of his output match implies low impedance as you'd expect with those 12.5V FETs. If it is a RD15HVF1 though, it's going to want more than a 1A fuse if he's going to get the full 15W out of the device. I could go on - every time I look at it I see something else I don't like or doesn't make sense!

[radionortheast]

it just goes to show how hard it is to make these things work, if something on a proper pcb can’t work, what chance has someone got of making one off their own bat, even if you get your own pcb etched, get all the components together, I think it would be unlikely, its cheap but it won't work, looks like the rf amplifier dosen’t work either by the sound of it.

[BriansBrain]

What is the output device?

RD15HVF1