HobbyPCB HARDROCK-50 Assembly Instructions Manual
Automatic antenna tuner
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Summary of Contents for HobbyPCB HARDROCK-50
- Page 1 HARDROCK-50 Automatic Antenna Tuner 50 Automatic Antenna Tuner 50 Automatic Antenna Tuner Assembly Instructions Assembly Instructions – Rev D. Jim Veatch WA2EUJ 3 March 2017...
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Page 2: Table Of Contents
RETROFIT (FOR HR50 AMPS BELOW S/N 1400) ....................17 INTEGRATION ..............................18 FIRMWARE UPDATE ............................22 Installing the USB drivers and Bootloader ......................22 Updating the Hardrock-50 firmware ........................23 Updating the ATU Firmware ..........................24 SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM ..........................28... -
Page 3: Introduction
5 to 500 ohms on the 80-10M bands with smaller matching ranges on the 160M and 6M bands. The ATU is fully integrated with the Hardrock-50 power amplifier and stores tuning solutions either by the selected band or the specific frequency (if the transceiver is sending the HR50 frequency data). - Page 4 Contract Manufacturer Yield The printed circuit boards in the HR-50 are fabricated, assembled and tested at a contract manufacturing facility in China. The bare PCB’s are 100% electrically tested before the parts are put on. The manufacturer that we use to put the parts on the PCB’s reports an 85 – 95% yield when assembling a board.
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Page 5: Specifications
2. SPECIFICATIONS ITEM SPECIFICATION Frequency Range 160, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6 meter Amateur Radio Bands Input Power 50W maximum, >1W drive required for tuning Tuning Range 10:1 nominal (lower on 160 and 6 meters) DC Power 11-16 Volts, <... -
Page 6: Assembly Overview
3. ASSEMBLY OVERVIEW Assembling the Hardrock-50 ATU kit should be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. If at any time you feel frustrated or are having difficulty, take a break, ask questions on the forum or email, and remember that if you are having a problem with something there’s a good chance that someone else has had the same issue. -
Page 7: Atu Inventory
4. ATU INVENTORY PART ID PART NUM PART NUM DESCRIPTION PICTURE PICTURE QUANT 1009 1009-0004 10 PIN DUAL ROW HEADER LA, LB, LC, LD, LE 1003 1003-0005 T68-6 POWDERED IRON CORE LF, LG 1003 1003-0004 T68-2 POWDERED IRON CORE 1003 1003-0002 T50-2 POWERED IRON CORE... - Page 8 DIRECTIONAL COUPLER #22 WHITE TEFLON 6” 15cm WIRE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER WIRE #30 KYNAR WIRE 3’ 76cm RF_IN, RF_OUT RG-316 1’ 30.5cm 1012-0001 3-PIN HEADER WITH BARE WIRES...
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Page 9: Inductors And Transformers
INDUCTORS AND TRANSFORMERS This section describes the construction of the inductors and the transformer that will be installed on the ATU PCB in the next section. You can order prewound toroids inductors the Toroid Guy. An order form is available on the ATU Resource Site: https://sites.google.com/site/hr50atu/ Tips for Winding Toroidal Inductors:... - Page 10 LA - 2 turns, 2" or 5cm of #20 enameled wire on a T68-6 Core (yellow), tinned. NOTE: Wind this toroid by placing new turns to the left as shown. All other toroids are wound by adding turns to the right. LB - 4 turns, 5"...
- Page 11 LC - 6 turns, 7" or 17cm of #20 enameled wire on a T68-6 Core (yellow), tinned. LD - 9 turns, 10" or 25cm of #20 enameled wire on a T68-6 Core (yellow), tinned.
- Page 12 LE - 13 turns, 12" or 31cm of #20 enameled wire on a T68-6 Core (yellow), tinned. LF - 17 turns, 15" or 38cm of #20 enameled wire on a T68-2 Core (red), tinned.
- Page 13 LG - 24 turns, 21" or 53cm of #20 enameled wire on a T68-2 Core (red), tinned. T1 – There are a total of 4 windings on T1’s BN43-202 core. At this time we will be installing the two 10 turn windings. The 2 single turn windings will be added when the core is soldered to the ATU PCB in the next section.
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Page 14: Atu Pcb
6. ATU PCB This section covers the assembly of the ATU PCB. Required tools and supplies are; soldering iron, diagonal cutters, tweezers and long-nose pliers. Carefully inspect the ATU PCB looking for poor soldering on the SMT components look for unsoldered ferrite beads; they seem to be prone to re-flow issues. - Page 15 Step 1: Solder the two 3.5mm terminal blocks one at position RF_IN and the other at RF_OUT on the top side. The openings in the terminals for inserting wires should face the silk screen markings for RF and GND. Step 2: Cut 2 each, 1.5” (3.8 cm) pieces of white #22 Teflon wire, Strip the ends so that the insulation remaining is 7/8”...
- Page 16 Step 5: Insert 10 pin dual row header into position J1 on the top side of the PCB. Orientation of the header is not important. Solder all of the pins. It’s easy to melt the plastic base of the header which causes the pins to become misaligned.
- Page 17 Note for Rev C and Rev E amplifier boards (S/N less than 1200) you MUST reverse the red and black wires in the 3 pin connector. Use a small screw driver to press on the locking tab and slide the wire and pin from the housing Step 9: Cut a 6"...
- Page 18 reference lines to verify that your printer is scaling the drawing correctly, if it doesn’t, you can adjust the print scaling factor in the Adobe Reader print screen so the lines are printed the correct length. Cut out the template. Before removing the bottom cover of your HR50, use a piece of tape to mark the bottom cover where the front panel is attached.
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Page 19: Retrofit (For Hr50 Amps Below S/N 1400)
For amplifiers with serial numbers below 1400, you will need to make some changes to the amplifier to accommodate the ATU please contact jim@hobbypcb.com for further instructions. All amplifiers shipped from January 2015 and beyond ate 100% compatible with the ATU and need no retrofit. -
Page 20: Integration
INTEGRATION This section covers the final integration steps needed to get the ATU in the Hardrock-50’s case and working with the HR-50’s firmware. At this point, you should have the ATU board mounted to the bottom cover and if necessary preformed all necessary retrofit to the amplifier PCB. If you haven’t done so, use the instructions in the ‘Firmware Update’... - Page 21 Step 4: Attach the new three connector ribbon cable to front and rear panel PCB’s, leaving the center connector unplugged. Be careful to observe connector orientation and registration. Powering the amp with these connectors on the wrong pins may damage the amplifier.
- Page 22 Step 5: Turn the bottom cover around so the 10 pin header on the ATU board is adjacent to the center connector on the ribbon cable. Then plug the center connector of the ribbon cable into the 10 pin header on the ATU board.
- Page 23 Step 6: Place the bottom cover onto the amplifier making sure none of the wires is pinched between the covers and install the four screws that hold the cover to the front and rear panels. Step 7: Apply power to the amplifier and turn it on. After several seconds, the splash screen will appear.
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Page 24: Firmware Update
9. FIRMWARE UPDATE Currently shipping Hardrock-50’s and ATU’s are completely up to date o with the latest firmware. If your amp reports FW:3.0D and ATU 1.3, you do not need to update the firmware at this time. When you first turn on the HR50 the screen is blank for a few seconds while it waits to see if the bootloader will... -
Page 25: Updating The Hardrock-50 Firmware
Updating the Hardrock-50 firmware Download the latest Hardrock-50 firmware ‘HR50 FIRMWARE VX.X.HEX’ from the ATU files page: https://sites.google.com/site/hr50atu/home/files Turn the HR50 on and connect it to a USB port on the computer. Launch the bootloader program and you will be presented with the mikroBootloader and 4 steps to follow. -
Page 26: Updating The Atu Firmware
After you change the settings, power your amp OFF and press and hold the ‘+’ button on the Hardrock-50 and turn it ON again, keep holding the ‘+’ button for 5 seconds then click the connect button. The amplifier will remain in bootloader connect mode indefinitely. - Page 27 Download the latest firmware for the ATU from the ATU files page: https://sites.google.com/site/hr50atu/home/files The file will be called HR50 AUTOTUNER VX.X.HEX. If the file you have does not have the word AUTOTUNER in the file name, you have the wrong file! Connect the HR50 to a USB port on the computer, turn on the HR50 and launch the bootloader program.
- Page 28 Press the ‘MODE’ key to change the ATU Mode and use the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ keys to select ‘Update FW’: Press the ‘MODE’ button to set the ATU into firmware update mode: At this point the HR50/ATU is waiting for the bootloader to connect and wait forever until the bootloader connects or the power is cycled.
- Page 29 Last, click "Begin uploading" to upload the new version of the firmware to the ATU. After successful upload, you will need to cycle power on the amp and should notice the version change on the splash screen.
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Page 30: Schematic Diagram
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM...
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