ATU 100 Antenna Tuner build details, tests, options, and matching capacity
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- ATU-100 N7DDC automatic antenna tuner design and build details, tests, options, and matching capacity explained. Chapters below:
00:00 - Summary
00:53 - Intro
01:28 - Details of the video contents
02:20 - Inside the antenna tuner unit
04:30 - N7DDC circuit
04:50 - Inductances construction details
08:35 - Simple NanoVNA adapter for measuring inductances
09:46 - Kit build slide show
10:54 - Live testing the tuner with the FT-857D
19:06 - Power-On button combos for testing or manual use
23:00 - Purchasing options
24:16 - Remote Tuner option using Bias-Tee
24:58 - Matching coverage by bands (Smith charts)
► If you have any questions or comments please leave them below
► For more articles and information about my other projects please check my website www.va3hdl.com - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Could you show where the optional bypass and auto buttons are connected please?
@@VA3HDL many thanks!
@@VA3HDL This link no longer works.....any better link information? Thanks for great video!!
@@eddy2561 You right. Looks like the site itself is not longer there. Check this other one I found:
reflector.sota.org.uk/t/atu-100-extended-board/25135/3
It will also depend on the board you have to match the one in the picture above.
73
@@VA3HDL If you still have the link to the old one, you might be able to dig it out of the Wayback Machine...
@@oasntet I found a similar picture and saved on my website in case someone else need it... www.va3hdl.com/projects/atu-100-kit
THANK YOU. For being one of the very few videos to show how to wind the coils!
Finally I've found one good video that explains how the auto tuning works here. Thank you!
Same! I did find the PDF manual on the GITHUB site. It is quite nicely written too.
The person who designed this atu has helped so many people. Excellent video, thank you.
Thanks for watching Mark! 73
Great video that will save me a lot of head scratching as I try to learn how to use the unit. Thank you for such a clear and precise run through.
Thank you!
Finally got mine built and working! Watched this video when you first put it out, watching it again to remember how it works. Thanks!
Glad to hear it helped you. Thanks for watching. 73
Another thing I would like to point out, when you get the kit, use a magnifier to inspect the soldering job around the PIC, I got one that had two solder bridges... I found them AFTER assembling the unit. There is on TH-cam a video from an Italian ham who changed the code to allow the ATU-100 to tune with less than 5W, you need a PIKit programmer to do this.
Thanks for bring this up, I forgot to mention on the video. Very important before start, ensure all pre-soldering job has been done correctly.
Really well done video. Thanks for taking the time to explain and demo the capabilities!
Thank you!
Smiling!
Thanks for the video, I bought one a few days ago and is sits in the box on top of my rotor control waiting to be assembled. Going to start on it soon and your video will come in very helpful.
73
Ed
Hi Ed. Thanks for watching. 73, Pablo
Beautiful video sir! Thank You VERY much for taking out your time to explain the best way to setup and build the antenna auto tuner ATU-100. Fred
Thank you! 73
@@VA3HDL My pleasure as you really helped me turn the kit into a working antenna auto tuner! 73
You did a really good job on this video. Thanks! Answered quite a few questions I had about it. You sound like you might have some engineering background too. Very informative.
Excelente Pablo, ya estoy comprando uno!!! 73
Thanks for sharing this info!
Great video!
Very through video. Thanks!
Pablo, grazie e complimenti ottimo tutorial bravo.
A very good video, some EXCELLENT tips in it Pablo and just the right speed for me. Many thanks for your fine work. Paul, G0odp
Thanks Paul. Glad you like it! 73
many thanks for the video bought a kit to build 73
Great. Good luck with your build. 73
I bought two ready built versions, both were faulty. I then built one from a kit, worked great. I only run a max of 100W. CT7AOX.
Now you built one you should be able to go back and fix the other two! Good luck. 73
Great video. Thanks to share with us. Eddi
Thanks for watching!
Great video, very helpful, thank you... sub'ed.
Thank you!
Thank you so much...I learned a lot...73
Glad to hear Willie! 73
Great Job 73's VE2TSM
Thanks Mario. 73
Great video, thanks a lot! 😊 73
Thank you! 73
thank you for the excellent explanation, I was given one of these put it on my ts130s using cw to tune, but I am unsure if it works properly I will now try it again using your instruction, one thing abou it is the switches on my unit are very mall button types,
de G1GDB
I bought a ready built board of Aliexpress. Didn't work from go. I looked at it and studied the circuit and couldn't work it out. I got out a hand lens, and found the sampling transformer had one wire adrift!
There is no quality control at all on these cheap devices. However, with a little love you can always make them work correctly. :) 73
Se complican la vida cuando se tiene que hacer bobinas al aire, si in destornillador, si una clavija, etc, usar siempre brocas son muchísimas más exactas
Thank you for this. The coil winding detail really helped. Can you please show exactly how you wired the switches to the OLED and the optional buttons. A picture would help. You seamed to solder these to the bottom of the board. Thanks VE3SLJ.
Hi Nem, check the pinned comment. There are links there to the pictures for these details.
Thank you for the well done video. I'm curious at what SWR the autotuner kicks in. I assume it's somewhere between 1.4 and 2, but I haven't seen a number anywhere. I'm also curious what the worst case RF attenuation is (all toroids used,) on 10 meters.
Hi John, your assumption is correct, when in auto mode is enabled it kicks in when SWR goes above 1.5 - I haven't tested the attenuation in 10m band, but is a good idea, I have a nanoVNA and I can try sometime. Thanks for watching and commenting. 73
T1/T2 are wound in opposite directions, wound mine three times, third time lucky!
excelente video pablo ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ mas videos en español ¡¡¡¡¡¡ un gran abrazo ,73'' lu4hms
Gracias Sergio! Abrazo. 73, VA3HDL
Nice video - very helpful - particularly for winding the toroids. I've had mine on the shelf for a year and am going to build it in the next few days. Can you post a link to the enclosure you used? Thank you - Dean, KK4DAS
Hi Dean, here is the link www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005T7T0Y6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
I cut it to make it smaller. 73
Thanks for your excellent, instructional video! I just purchased a similar Chinese, fully-built 100W tuner like the one you show. My question regards the use of these on FT8, which is a high-duty cycle mode. Commercial companies like MFJ and LDG recommend no more than 30% of full CW and SSB power when operating on FT8. This equates to 30W if these tuners are honestly rated for 100W CW/SSB.
I wonder if you have ever tried running one of these on FT8, and at what power level? What do you estimate the maximum power on FT8 to be, before the toroid coils start heating excessively?
Thanks and 73, W1LJ
Hi Diogenio, I never tried to run FT8 with this tuner. I only use this tuner on portable operations for POTA, Field Day, and similar with 100W SSB. I don't do FT8 while portable. On the shack I have an MFJ-939 200W SSB/CW that I used sometimes for FT8 at full 100W. I know there are 1.5 KW versions of the ATU-100 tuner. Exactly same design but with sized components accordingly to support 1.5 KW - Hope that helps. 73 and thanks for watching.
Wonderful video. Could you please describe the details for the small test board for the coils when using the nano VNA? Thank you very much.
Lyle, I had to go back and find the test board to provide you the answer. The center conductor of the coax is connected in series with the two 100 ohms in parallel resistors and the pins. The coax braid is connected directly to the other set of pins. When the inductor is connected to the pins is in series with the 50 ohms (two 100 ohms in parallel.) In reality it should not affect much if is connected in parallel or series with the 50 ohms load, since the inductor DC resistance is very low. But I haven't tested personally to confirm this theory. I hope it helps. 73.
@@VA3HDL Many thanks for this. de VE1BZE.
Muy interesante Pablo. 73,s de EA8HQ.
Gracias Victor! 73
Thanks for this great video. Well done and very helpful. When I press TUNE while powering up, I get the option to set Fider Loss (in steps of 0.1dB). Do you know what Fider Loss is?
Fider - physical wiring that transmits radio signals from the transmitter to the antenna or from the antenna to the receiver, also known as the transmission line. There is more information about this parameter here: github.com/Dfinitski/N7DDC-ATU-100-mini-and-extended-boards/blob/master/README.md - This parameter is not present on my version of the firmware. I'm still running version 3.0 and the latest version is 3.2 - The fider parameter appeared on the version 3.1 - Hope this helps. 73
@@VA3HDL Thanks, I now understand. 73 PE1ATN
Great video !!! Where are the connections fpor the buttons bypass, auto and tune on the board ?
@@VA3HDL the link is dead for this!
@@paul.alarner6410 I delete the comment with the dead link. Please check the pinned comment by me that has the working link. Thanks.
Great job, just one question, how did you create the matching coverage by band Smith charts?
De Kevin - M0KHZ
Hi Kevin, I didn't created them. It was given to my by the author N7DDC. I believe used a python script to create them. I cannot find the script right now. If I get it I will post the link here. 73
Great video thank you ... I would like to ask you where did you solder the wires for the Bypass- and Auto Buttons on the PCB ? Thank you.
I just noticed this question has been discussed already further down the log. I found 2 pads on the PCB underside marked "B" must be it !
@@heinzbuff4745 I pinned the answer. Thanks for watching! 73
Hello. As far as I understand from your video, the only way to tune is by TX. There is no way to tune for RX. ¿Is that correct? Thank you for taking the time to make this video.!
Hi Horacio, is possible, it is explained here how to do it -> 19:06 - Power-On button combos for testing or manual use - 73
@@VA3HDL Thanks for your answer. I didn't realized that manual mode and test mode are the same. Thanks again.
I am having a difficult time recognizing the place where I need to solder the wires for the Bypass and Auto buttons. Also, the schematic has shunt 100n capacitors connected to the switches. Are these already on the board, or do I need to add them? I was thinking of using the Teflon coated wire that came with the tandem match. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi, these are marked as RB1 and RB2 on the bottom side of the board. Take a look at this page, it is explained there radioaficion.com/news/automatic-antenna-tuner-kit/
The caps for the buttons are not on the board. Check how I mounted them around 03:17 you can see them soldered behind each button.
@@VA3HDL did you add 100nF shunt caps for those buttons? I am thinking they may already be on the board.
@@VA3HDL Hello. Is there any way to access the pad for Auto tune connector from the upper side of the card? I got a prebuilt unit with battery and much soldering is needed to get access to the underside. Jan / SM5SUH
@@janneblomquist3389 If you jump to the N7DCC circuit part on the video you will see RB1 (Auto-tune) goes to pin 22 and RB2 (Bypass) goes to pin 23 on the microcontroller. If you are brave enough you can try to solder a thin cable directly to the microcontroller pads and fix the cable to the board with some hot glue or tape. On the board I received the pads for the microcontroller are big enough to solder something else if needed. Do not forget to add the capacitor between the button pins. Hope this helps. 73.
@@VA3HDL Thank you for a quick answer, Yes, the pic is small but I think I can manage to to hit the pin 22 with a thin ground cable. If I understand it right I turn on the auto mode if I do that and it will keep it enable after that. So first I find out where the Pin 22 is than I just test with a short conecting a ground lead to se if the dot appear. After that I can figure out a place for a contact and a capacitor. 73
really very good vide and tutorial for ATU..Thanks
De VU2ZOC
Glad you liked it!
thanks from VA3TBQ
Hey I don't suppose you can give me any advice on building one of these? Bought a kit off ebay (oops.) and started building it. After about 2 hours, I finally managed to get the tandem transformer built and installed on the board. It wasn't pretty... so got out my DVM and tried to check and make sure nothing was touching that shouldn't, and I'm really confused. All 8 solder points on the board for that transformer has continuity between them. Then I check the input port, and the two pads (center conductor and ground) have continuity with one ohm of resistance. This can't possibly be right???
Take a look at the circuit. It seems right. 73
@@VA3HDL I had a pretty detailed look at the circuit diagram and it appears you're correct, and while I'm not an electric engineer but a dink with a soldering iron... Guess I'll plow forward and see what happens? I do still fear for my radio, using this thing.. 😳
Thanks for the video about the transformer and chokes. Your detailed instructions were excellent help on winding those. Cross your fingers and hope for the best!
Does the tuner store previously used frequency settings?
Or does it retune, even going back to previous freq?
This simple tuner doesn't have memories for previous settings on any given frequency. When in auto mode will retune automatically when SWR goes above 1.5:1
73
@@VA3HDL thanks for the reply👍👍 73's
Isn't that one excessive turn for each of L1, L2 and L3?
I'm not sure. If you a referring to the picture with all the inductances, then is from VA3FUZ who provided me the picture. 73
Could you make the user manual for the act-100 available for download?
I'm afraid there is no manual for the ATU-100, the author website is github.com/Dfinitski/N7DDC-ATU-100-mini-and-extended-boards -- Good luck!
can you link or tell us the coil winding data for the torroids,my kit doesent have it and i cant find it anywhere,cheers and 7s de m3vuv.
Is in the video minute 5:00 -- 73
Hello friend, I have a question about measuring coils for this Antenna Tuner.
Do these two 100 Ohms resistors need to be connected in parallel to the nanoVNA output or should they be connected in series with the measured coil?
I'm asking because it's not visible in your video and my English is not very good and I didn't understand what you said about how to connect these resistors.🤝 es Happy New Year 2024 de SP5TAA.
Hi, here you a have a very good explanation for measuring coils without the resistors: th-cam.com/video/iJ1qKE5O0bY/w-d-xo.html
Here is another one using a known capacitor value to help in the measurement of the coil: th-cam.com/video/3LOEhvFII6c/w-d-xo.html
And finally here is another video on my channel: th-cam.com/video/Ahweiti8swk/w-d-xo.html - Check the comments in this video, it is explained there. To be clear, the 100 ohms resistors are in parallel between them to make a 50 ohms. Because the coil resistance on itself if negligible (very low) it doesn't matter much if you put the 50 ohms in series or in parallel with the coil. If you have a coil of known value, try both and check with way gives you the closer value. 73, VA3HDL
Hello, thanks for the quick response to my query and the comprehensive answer.
I will definitely use your tips.
All the best to you and your loved ones.👍@@VA3HDL
what are the coil numbers from nearest the swr tandem match core left to right,is the small air core l1 then l2 etc finishing with the last double torroid as l6 as i cant quite work it out,my board has no markings all i have is the inductance values marked on my board,no coil numbers!,what one is the small aircored coil far left and what is the double red torroid core far right,ie L!"£$%^ etc,cheers.
meant to say L1234 etc left to right.,hope you understand,at the moment i have the core with 8 turns L4?,in the first slot in the pcb from the left.
@@paul.alarner6410 That is correct, if you look at the schematic on the video they are positioned in the same order on the majority of the boards I've seen for this tuner. L1 is the smaller one on the far left and L7 is the larger one in the far right.
Hi
Thanks for sharing the great video.
Can you pls guide how to connect the 4 pins on the OLED LCD to the main board. There are 5 pins on the main board.
73s
De VU3OSA
Gaurav
INDIA
Hi Gaurav,
No connection to the screen -> MCLR
VCC = +5V
GND = GND
SDA = DAT
SCL = CLOCK
I hope that helps. 73
@@VA3HDL Thanks Indeed you made it soo simple. I have done the connections and its working now.
Can you advise what is the 1st PIN MCLF is all about. ?
Its just before the VCC PIN (2nd PIN in the row)
@@gaurav279 That pin is used only when you want to reprogram the unit with an updated firmware from the author GitHub site, or to make modifications to the parameters saved on EPROM, for better accuracy of the displayed measurements, power, SWR, etc. You need a "Pick" programmer to do these updates. 73
Good morning my friend could the tuner to tune the driver of a linear with tube .SV8MRX 73
As long as de driver power is not higher than 100 W then should work. I'm curious why you want to go this route. It wouldn't be simpler to build a manual matching unit? I presume once the driver is matched to the amp you do not need to change it, but I never had an amplifier so I cannot tell for sure. 73
mine is built but resets on every keyup,is this normal?. 73
Hi Paul, if you mean by "resets" it re-tunes on every keyup then that is normal for these conditions: SWR > 1.5 and mode is set to "AUTO". If SWR is < 1.5 it should not re-tune. Cheers.
sorry I'm a beginner. can this "ATU_100_ext_board" be used with Doublet Antenna? eg G5RV antennas
Yes, no problem. I've used this past weekend on the contest with my g5rv and it worked better than my MFJ autotuner. 73
@@VA3HDL for g5rv to ATU-010 do need to add balun 1:1? Or just g5rv goes to this ATU-100?Thank you for your information. Sorry for my english
You need a 1:1 current BalUn with a G5RV. The BalUn goes in between your coax and the twin line of the G5RV. The reason is the twin line is Balanced (the Bal part in BalUn) and the coaxial cable is Unbalanced (the Un part in BalUn.) In this case this is exactly the purpose of the balun. The other end of the coaxial goes to your ATU-100 "antenna" port.
Wikipedia quote:
The ends of the symmetric feedline can be soldered directly onto a 50 Ω coax cable to the transceiver, however this is not good practice and should be avoided: It can result in high current flow on the outer surface of the coax braid, causing RF interference and degrading the polarization and gain of the antenna. A 1:1 current balun should be used between coax and ladder line. Including a balun not only prevents RF interference but reduces receive noise and increases performance. A length of at least 20 metres (66 ft) of 50 Ω cable is recommended for operation without a balun. 73
@@VA3HDL thanks, for the detailed information. 73
Hi, given your availability, I would like to have a copy of the text that you see from 19 '07' 'onwards. Many thanks from IK1CFJ, Biagio.
Hello Biagio, this text below?
POWER ON BUTTON COMBOS:
Special modes of operation
The device has several special modes of operation, designed to facilitate the process of assembling, debugging or troubleshooting.
POWER ON + TUNE + BYPASS + AUTO
Fast Test mode is activated.
In this mode, the device provides power to all relays, which allows you to quickly identify faults associated with transistor switches or soldering faults.
POWER ON + BYPASS + AUTO
Simple Test Mode.
In this mode, you can manually, step by step, use the Bypass and Auto buttons to change the value of capacitance or inductance.
A long press on the Tune button allows you to select which elements will be moved at the moment, and a short press changes the point of connection of the capacitor. In this mode, it is possible to measure input power and SWR in line.
@@VA3HDL Thanks, very kind, bye
What type of coax did you use in the tandem match? TNX es 73 de KQ6UP
Honestly cant remember. I looked at the spares I had around in the bench that fit tight inside the binocular core. It is only the center conductor without the shield. 73
@@VA3HDL I had some RG-58, so I just used that.
I can't play with it yet. Waiting for the PIC programmer. I made this one for QRP, so need to change some parameters.
@@kq6up Correct, there are good videos explaining the entire reprogramming process. Also you can load the latest firmware. 73
@@VA3HDL yeah, got that all set after figuring out that I needed to change the default display settings. I panicked for a second.
please read up on the smith chart again, it is NOT what you are saying
Relays are stumbling block
You didn't have the audio in sink with the video and you were talking about being on 100 watts and the meter on the tuner was showing 17 watts because you didn't sink the adio with the video. So your interpretation of the functions was all distorted for us when trying to give up operational advice on how to work the device. Thumbs down.
Thanks for your feedback. I'm not sure where in the video I said I'm testing with 100 watts. While testing I clearly mention around 13:22 that the power I'm using for testing is 20 watts. Is not advisable to use more power to autotune with any automatic tuner, not just this one, due to the sparks that can produce inside the relays, burning the contacts. All radios with built-in tuners decrease their power output while autotuning automatically.
Low audio could not hear it. Bummer
Thanks a lot for the video. I just ordered one kit and your tips will be very useful. 73 de OA4CKN from grid FH17LW
Thanks for watching Francisco! 73
Great video!