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My KiwiSDR has Died [power supply problem]

ZL1KFMZL1KFM
edited March 2021 in Problems Now Fixed

HI All,

I just had the unfortunate experience in finding my KiwiSDR had died today.

I believe that it might of had too much rf get into it while I was tuning my new amp, which went into a dummy load, in the shack. I do have a DXE RG500HD, Receiver Guard on the antenna line.

I have checked and found that I am not getting any power to the unit, the power supply is suppling 5v, but on the rear of the jack it is only reading 2.5v, so something is sinking the voltage.

If I remove the daughter board and plug in a usb plug can get the beagle to boot up. (I plugged a network cable in, but cannot see it from my local web browser).

I am after some suggestions on what to look at first, or what actions I need to follow? If I need to get another KiwiSDR, this might be down the track a bit.

Thanks for any advice/help

Kevin, ZL1KFM.

Comments

  • jksjks

    Hi Kevin. When the BBG is running alone, and Ethernet cable hooked up, do you get green and yellow LEDs lit on the Ethernet RJ45 jack? What are the 4 blue status LEDs on the BBG doing?

    On the Kiwi board by itself, can you measure the resistance of the round jack power center pin to ground? Except for an inline choke and 4 caps the power trace goes straight to two pins on the P9 header which feeds the BBG. So when not connected to the BBG it should measure open, more or less. Schematic: http://kiwisdr.com/docs/KiwiSDR/kiwi.schematic.pdf

    njcZL1KFM
  • njcnjc

    If the resistance on the barrel connector (kiwi board by itself) looks good, try to apply power (5V, 2A or more) and check the voltage rails. You can also check if anything is getting hot.

    See this thread/comment: http://forum.kiwisdr.com/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/11016#Comment_11016

    ZL1KFM
  • ZL1KFMZL1KFM

    Good Morning John,

    I have followed through the information you have requested.

    1. When the BBG is running by itself, the LEDs are pulsing, as they are processing data, and then 1x LED pulses as a heartbeat. The Ethernet LEDs are lit, and traffic is pulsing as one would expect to see. (had video, but not needed now)
    2. On the Kiwi board itself, detached, there is good continuity between the power pins and the 2x pins on P9 (5VE and Gnd). When the 2 boards are connected I have .725Mohm of resistance (725Kohm).
    3. OK, lets go back, I have now just tried a brought, brand new 5V, 2A power supply (#4) and the Kiwi is living. Of the 3 I had tried, two had 5V/2A on the plug, 1 only had 4V, so appears a power supply issue.

    Thanks for your advice. Regards Kevin.

    Powernumptynjc
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