New SDR CommRadio CR-1

[nanZor]

1) Slower than SLOW or user configurable AGC. I find its AGC too fast for SSB with the end result of too much ambient/atmospheric background noise to listen to. That can become tiring over time.

Remember that the agc defaults to medium upon power-up. I would like to see the agc state default to the last state it was in upon power-down.

Note too that the R75, like the Icom 718 actually has too fast of an agc when in ssb mode too! In the case of the 718, I actually had to modify the agc circuit to emulate the agc of the am side - small jumper mod. I never did perform that on the R75.

2) Configurable maximum AGC gain. As for (1) that would greatly improve the listening experience.

I would like to see that as well, BUT total configurability may be beyond the Mirics chipset capabilities - from a user standpoint, I think we could end up in never-never land, and make it unusable *thinking* we have optimized the agc, when we truly have not.

3) The metallic tuning knob is not that comfortable for fast and constant tuning, a polished surface would had been more comfortable.

Yep - but given the size of the unit I suppose we are limited with what we've got. A good grasp of the unit with two fingers just above the encoder, and the thumb lightly pressed into the dimple gets me around. Auto-tuning with 4 revs seems about right for me.

Funny thing - pulled out a Yaesu qrp 817 rig - going from the CR1 to the 817 was a nightmare! Now THAT is a small vfo knob!

The background hiss is not a problem to me, headphones with volume control solve the problem.

No hiss here either - thankfully that is one awesome audio amp. However when you use a higher-fidelity external speaker, I think I'm sensitive to the 2.6k filter. I don't know what the slope of that is, and would have preferred a 2.4. Simple fix with say a Yeasu FT-2000 external speaker or the like is to passively roll it back to a 2k with 12db octave slope. My tastes.

I actually like the 2.2k filter, BUT that rolls off the bottom end unlike the 1.8 and 2.6k filter. Good for dx'ing and crowded conditions, but I like fidelity with the CR1. I've got other dx'ing rigs.

The morse decoder is mostly unusable, even with a clean signal. If flash and ram are limited I would get rid of that feature and focus on the listening experience (see 1 and 2).

Agreed! Use that ram for other things, like perhaps more user-controllable high and low filtering, maybe a dc-voltage indicator, etc. I think it was a showcase for 3rd parties to deal with. And I know morse already. RTTY might have been a bit more cool - but oh well.

Thanks to CommRadio for that great radio. With (1) and (2) that would make the CR-1a my main receiver when a waterfall display is not required.

I'm having a blast with mine, despite having other rigs. It is just too much FUN, and the only portable that you can use with real hf antennas!

I just hope that Commradio recognizes that for the most part, we are appreciative of all the work that has gone into it, and of course we all want more. Dealing with engineer customers can be like herding cats at times.

 

[darkwarkonian]

Remember that the agc defaults to medium upon power-up. I would like to see the agc state default to the last state it was in upon power-down.

I do return the AGC to SLOW prior to listening to SSB transmissions. I would also prefer the AGC to come back to the last selected mode at boot time.

There is an inconvenience that is bugging me: When using the auto-stepping, the demodulation mode always comes back to what the CR-1A believes the mode should be for the current frequency. That stops me from using that feature. Note: I am using the manual selection of the demodulation mode, not the automatic one. I will read again the user's manual, I must have missed something here.

Hopefully CommRadio will provide the mentioned improvements. I could also look at that by myself, no hardware changes involved.

 

[nanZor]

Ran the supply voltage up to 16.8v today - no drama although we are getting close to the 18v spec of the CR1a.

Used 4 identical 2600ma Tenergy flat-top batteries in a 4-cell holder. Normally these holders only fit shorter UNprotected cells, but the Tenergy's, even with their own protection circuits fit nicely - most others won't.

I only use the holder to discharge, not to charge with. For that I rely on an external Foxnovo charger that charges each cell individually up to 4.21v. And of course I am also using a small inline fuse to the dc leads on the holders as well when discharging.

I also tested with a 2-cell holder. With the internal battery already fully charged, a 2-cell setup draws about 120ma. With the 4-cell setup, only about 55ma. Good to see that current tracks nicely with the higher voltage and there is no seeming penalty with the regulator.

These are just notes, and the whole lithium-battery scene is way more detailed than can be covered here. This is just a high-voltage report, and not a recommendation for anyone to just slap some cells together unless they know how to be safe doing it.

 

[prcguy]

The latest firmware should have fixed the different low end rolloff on the 2.2k filter. I had complained about that and after my last upgrade all three filters in SSB have the same low frequency roll off as verified with an audio spectrum analyzer. What firmware are you using?
prcguy

Snip....

I actually like the 2.2k filter, BUT that rolls off the bottom end unlike the 1.8 and 2.6k filter. Good for dx'ing and crowded conditions, but I like fidelity with the CR1. I've got other dx'ing rigs.

 

[nanZor]

That's interesting - both of mine are running the factory supplied 1993 version which is supposed to be the latest.

Makes me wonder if I should try to upload the latest firmware - even though 1993 is supposed to be the very latest and should match the factory load. I wonder if it would even let me upload it being the same version... hmmm..

Good project - I think I'll try it and give it a go..

 

[nanZor]

Ok, uploaded the 1993 firmware from the dropbox site. No change.

Had to manually download the FTDi driver, run the installer as administrator, fired up the loader and picked the latest 1993 pkg. Pretty easy and so glad it is a one-step process to do the DSP and PIC at the same time. Neat.

However, in ssb the 2.2khz filter with the speaker or headphone output still seems somewhat constricted - nasal. Not as bad as say a very tight 1.9k filter, but still, compared to 1.8 and 2.6 it kind of jumps out at me. To make it easier to detect, I go "around the block" in the menu switching from 2.6 to 1.8, and then 2.2 Not sure how your gear is detecting low freqs, but I believe you. Perhaps my ears are shot, or acoustically my brain is filtering it out somehow with the 2.2. I'm pretty picky and can't explain it - aside from perhaps too many boyhood knocks to the head with horseplay. Still it is effective for comms when conditions are a bit rough on both sides.

BATTERY Note - I suppose I should mention that for those that do build li-ion packs that I stop at 3.6v per cell, even though the protective circuits will kill the cell at 2.5v. Don't go there. 3.6v is also where the internal battery is at when the gas gauge icon loses all it's bars. So for a 2-cell pack that would be around 7.2v total, and my latest 4-cell I go no lower than 14.4v total before recharging.

For now, I'm just using a Fluke multimeter to watch it - would be nice to have a voltage displayed in the CR1a itself as an optional replacement for the icon during discharge...

 

[nanZor]

Risky audio mod

The audio output when listening to ssb to my ears is too bright on the high end, which is a different thing from using the built-in filters.

Normally I run my Yaesu external speaker with either the lowpass filter in the #1 or #2 position.

My Palstar SP30B speaker which I prefer doesn't have any rolloff, and is good up to about 8khz. Great for music, but tiring for ssb with the CR1a.

Got the courage up to try a very simple but risky mod with junkbox parts: Two 470uf, 25v electrolytic caps were wired back-to-back to make a faux non-polarized 235uf cap. (negative to negative, leaving the positives free). Shunted the speaker by placing them across the input jacks. With no RC circuit, just simple shunting, 235uf seems about just right with this speaker.

SUCESS!! Got the nice high-end rolloff I desired without loading the amp down, and the CR1A didn't go into any oscillation I could hear. So far. Maybe it is going ultrasonic - I don't know, but I'll be keeping an eye (er, ear) on it.

If the rig doesn't smoke, I'll be replacing those junk RS electrolytics with something nicer. It seems to serve my needs as a passive filter, although this simple technique is really an ugly hack.

You'll be the first to know if I blow the audio amp, but glad it didn't smoke right off the bat. Not recommended for the meek.

 

[nanZor]

More op notes - this isn't MY thread, but I guess I'm having more fun than many.

Seems like the West Mountain Radio CLRdsp unit has no problems with 300 uf (three hundred!) non-polarized cap hanging off the back of the Palstar speaker either. Crossed fingers and again - no drama.

The caps are just an audio frequency response issue, and not any sort of additional noise reduction - I really like the CR1a's amp, but just needed a minor bit of high end rolloff for my ears.

Back to battery fun - since the spec for the WMR dsp unit is only 16v, In the end I'm only running from 3 of the Tenergy cells in an external holder ....

 

[nanZor]

CR1a with Apex 700DTA active antenna notes

I tested an Apex active antenna, and it works fine with the CR1a. More detailed notes can be found near the end of the thread here:

http://forums.radioreference.com/re...-apex-700-dta-active-antenna.html#post2397985

To cut to the chase, it works about as well as my 18 foot non-resonant vertical, and one may also want to wrap a few turns of the included thin coax inside a snap-on ferrite choke just prior to the input to the CR1 to solve a low-level issue.

 

[WB2KTG]

It's Here!

Folks, the GUI enabling the computer controlled SDR aspects of the CR-1a has arrived! Don will be uploading all pertinent information into the DropBox site tonight and forwarding detailed information tomorrow. I just viewed a 15 minute informative video showing the operation of the GUI and what the various options are. I believe that will be downloadable as well. Schedule some play time, 'cause now's the time to PLAY!

Bob
WB2KTG

 

[radioactive60]

Great news can't wait to see the GUI.I've been on the fence about this radio and SDR capability was holding me back as I was looking for a radio that functions on its own as well as computer controlled.

 

[WB2KTG]

CR-1a NEW Newsletter July 2015

Newsletter is attached.

Bob

 

[WB2KTG]

CR-1a NEW User's Manual July 2015

User's Manual is attached. I had to reduce the file size slightly, I hope the quality is OK

Bob

 

[WB2KTG]

CR-1a Loader, GUI, pkg file and .dll files attached

Please note:


After you unzip the attachment, files CR1A Loader.JPEG and CR1A_GUI.JPEG need to have their file names changed to CR1A Loader.exe and CR1A_GUI.exe

 

[WB2KTG]

Please Try THIS CommRadio DropBox Link!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/83n0vzxtobgk85f/AAAAw0c6Y1RWugSUh9fV3AuBa?dl=0

 

[W8SWL]

Loader comes on as Updater, but doesn't recognize my radio. Shows I am not connected?

My radio is ON and connected via USB.

Is there a driver I need for my laptop to recognize the CR1a. I am using Windows 7.

Don W8SWL

 

[NRD-505]

Is there any ETA for the new firmware for CR-1 owners?

 

[WB2KTG]

NRD-505: I don't recall hearing of any new firmware promised for the CR-1. The promised update was for computer directed SDR functionality for the CR-1a. That new firmware was just released. Did I miss something?

Bob

 

[goggles]

Loader comes on as Updater, but doesn't recognize my radio. Shows I am not connected?

My radio is ON and connected via USB.

Is there a driver I need for my laptop to recognize the CR1a. I am using Windows 7.

Don W8SWL

It sounds like you need a virtual comport, what you need is usb driver FT231X, I will post the link to the file at the bottom of post, select your OS 32 or 64 bit, here is the kicker, these drivers have been updated lately,
you will see the dpinst-amd64 application and the dpinst-x86 application, if you are using Windows 7 64 bit or older and running on a INTEL cpu, click on the dpinst-and64 to install the drivers, the dpinst-x86 are 32 bit drivers and will not install, you will get a warning, this is a mistake by the company, if you do not want to do a exe install and just want to do the "search for driver procedure" the cr1a spectrum app will work, but it will show disconnected, also in device manager it will show up as a problem, so both, AMD and INTEL computers, use the exe installer dpinst-and64.

If you are getting any lag on the spectrum software, go to your device manager and then to Ports (COM&LPT), make sure you are on the right comport number, left click the icon, goto port settings, then click on advanced, you will see the latency timer , I turned it down to 1 and it works fine, also max out the Receive and Transmit Bytes, I set mine to 4096 as that's as far as it goes, if you have any screw ups, just click the Defaults button and your back to where you began, I have also turned up the Bits per second from 9600 to 230400, the jury is still out on if this setting has made any difference.
The Commradio spectrum app is running on a older intel dual core 1.66 with 4 gigs of ram, it runs good and Im going to up the ram to 16 gig, I am also doing many more tweaks here so I will share my successes and flops, Im just tired of giving computer makers anymore money
Here is the link to FTDI Bridging Tech for the drivers: Virtual COM Port Drivers

 

[NRD-505]

Perhaps I am dense or misreading things.

The letter explains about the DSP being the same, only how the USB part is different.

The CR1 has DSP1993

Yet the letter shows the CR1a download as being DSP2000. So, to keep the DSP together would there be a DSP2000 for the CR1?