PixelRadio, a DiY FM Transmitter with RDS RadioText

lightsonlipan said:
I'd like to have one of these for my show next year. Before I go ordering everything I figured I would see if any of the offers for boards bare or otherwise were still available?
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It's been almost a week since your post, so you may have already either had a response or ordered, but I have have five boards on the way, and would be glad to pass one along to you if you still need it. Regarding other parts in the BoM, I don't have a full complement of spares, but most of the components came in large quantities, and I could create a goodie bag if desired.

I found a link to this thread on Christmas Eve while searching for sources of low-power FM transmitters, and placed orders for most of the parts the next evening. In true male fashion, I rushed to the order phase before reading all of the docs, but the only part on the list that I am now unsure of is the 15-pin SIP socket for the MCU. After reading this thread I found that it must be a specific height in order to work with the 3D-printed end panels, and I ordered the sockets from a different trader that doesn't publish the height. Cross fingers they're compatible. Other than that, I feel good about the orders, and am anxious to get to building!
 
I had two other questions that came up while getting familiar with the schematics and looking into the MCU flashing (the latter of which I still need to focus on):

The project has been open for almost two years now and this hasn't been mentioned at all in this thread, so at the very least it isn't functionally impacting, but... Shouldn't C8 and C9 (the audio coupling capacitors) be non-polar? I don't see any DC bias being applied, and the memories from my E.E. classes (which, granted, were almost 40 years ago) is that AC coupling capacitors should always be non-polar unless there's a DC bias present. Just wondering...

Regarding the IDE, I see where the instructions call for VS-Code, with the PlatformIO extension loaded. I could probably install VS-Code, but I already have Visual Studio 2019 (Community Edition) installed, which I use for developing Visual Basic software. While I haven't used it before, my understanding is that VS-Code is sort of the baby brother to Visual Studio. Could the required extensions be loaded into it? Is there any documentation along those lines? My only reason for not installing both would be potentially creating conflicts with default extension handling, etc. The last thing I want to do is to mess up the VS installation...
 
Distractible said:
It's been almost a week since your post, so you may have already either had a response or ordered, but I have have five boards on the way, and would be glad to pass one along to you if you still need it. Regarding other parts in the BoM, I don't have a full complement of spares, but most of the components came in large quantities, and I could create a goodie bag if desired.

I found a link to this thread on Christmas Eve while searching for sources of low-power FM transmitters, and placed orders for most of the parts the next evening. In true male fashion, I rushed to the order phase before reading all of the docs, but the only part on the list that I am now unsure of is the 15-pin SIP socket for the MCU. After reading this thread I found that it must be a specific height in order to work with the 3D-printed end panels, and I ordered the sockets from a different trader that doesn't publish the height. Cross fingers they're compatible. Other than that, I feel good about the orders, and am anxious to get to building!
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I'd take you up on a board and whichever components you have sufficient spares of. Shoot me a message and let me know how much you want for them and shipping.

Thanks,
Ron
 
Yep, I caught that one. No problems there. I did find out after my post last night that one of the inductors was 390 nH, not 390 uH. I knew that going in and had it right on my spreadsheet, but clicked the wrong link in the AliExpress page. They haven't shipped yet, and I put a message in to the seller, so hopefully I can get that fixed in time.
 
Shouldn't C8 and C9 (the audio coupling capacitors) be non-polar?
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Feel free to use non-polar at C8 and C9. But the recommended electrolytics are fine because the QN8027 module's audio inputs provide the DC bias.

While I haven't used it before, my understanding is that VS-Code is sort of the baby brother to Visual Studio. Could the required extensions be loaded into it?
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Here's my best analogy to why this is not practical. Grandma's sweet little poodle is a baby brother to the wolf breed. But the differences are so extensive that expecting them to play well together will end up in a messy disappointment. :(

- Thomas
 
ThomasLED said:
Here's my best analogy to why this is not practical. Grandma's sweet little poodle is a baby brother to the wolf breed. But the differences are so extensive that expecting them to play well together will end up in a messy disappointment. :(
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Haha! Good analogy.

I did some additional searches, and found the following info for anyone else who may have the same question, and wants some additional comfort:

Regarding extension compatibility between VS Code and VS, this is from a StackExchange post:
As far as I know, VS Code extensions are javascript-based, while Visual Studio extensions are c#/.net based; I haven't heard of a way to write a single extension for both editors.
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and
"the extension can be packaged as a VSIX file, which is what Visual Studio uses as the extension file" is just an illusion. The file extension doesn't matter at all, as VS .vsix are completely different from VS Code .vsix (manifest format and contents). They are just ZIP packages and incompatible with each other. Microsoft's choice of sticking to the same file extension is a mistake.
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Regarding co-existance, I found numerous posts saying that VS-Code can safely co-exist with Visual Studio. I kind of suspected they could. My main worry was about the new VS-Code install taking over the default application that Windows uses for certain file extension. No one seemed to report that as an issue, however.


ThomasLED said:
the QN8027 module's audio inputs provide the DC bias.
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That's the info that I couldn't find anywhere in the PixelRadio docs, or in the mfg datasheet. Thanks for the explanation!
 
Just an update, still looking for the boards, I know I have 5 somewhere, I looked at my old order. Once I find them I will let you know in case you or someone needs one.
 
Regarding co-existance, I found numerous posts saying that VS-Code can safely co-exist with Visual Studio.
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I overlooked the comment where you were concerned about interaction between these two IDE's. I have Visual Studio and VS Code on the same workstation. No issues, they ignore each other.

- Thomas
 
lightsonlipan said:
Thanks for checking.
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Hey! It's amazing what pops up when you spring clean. I have 5 blank boards and 1 with all the soldered parts. It does not have the ESP32 TTGO- T8 board nor do I have any spare parts. Just what's in the Pic. Let me know if you want anything.
 

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Maybe I need to put it up for bid? LOL!
lightsonlipan was the first to ask, I just didn't find anything until now.
$5.00 plus shipping. Give me a pm and we'll go from there.

Any takers on the bare boards? send a pm.
 
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