sBitx Basic Kit Assembly Notes
Ken, N2VIP
Here are some photos/steps I took to assemble my sBitx “kit” (complete minus RPi 4 and Raspberry Official 7″ Display).
A reminder, here’s what’s included:
1) remove the front and top panel, being careful to not damage the wires attached to them. There is no reason to remove the back or bottom. Disconnect the speaker lead from the circuit board and put the top aside.
2) remove the back plate from the front panel, re-attach the back plate to the front panel. Connect the red lead included with the display to the 5v connection on the display board, the black lead to the GND connection. Do not attach the display ribbon cable (yet – it turns out it’s easier to attach the ribbon cable to the display later, trust me.)
3) Prepare the RPi 4 – insert the MicroSD card in the reader and attach the Display ribbon cable to the display connector on the RPi 4, the silver leads face “up” the blue tape is down, against the black ‘wedge’. If you are not familiar with these connectors, there is a wedge that lies against the circuit board – pull it out a tiny amount, don’t force it) the ribbon cable should just slide right in, then slide the ‘wedge’ into the connector.
4) Mount the RPi 4 to the digital board, being sure the 40 pins on the are correctly inserted into the socket (tip – if you can’t see any pins on top of the black connector, and you don’t feel any pins on the bottom of the black connector, you’ve got it right). The screw holes on the RPi 4 won’t match the standoffs on the digital board if the pins are not correct. (Again, the display ribbon cable should be installed before you secure the RPi 4)
5) Lean the front panel against the front of the chassis, twist (!) the display ribbon cable then insert it into the display connector, silver leads facing away from the circuit board, blue tape against display PCB.
Secure the front panel to the radio with the 4 screws you previously removed.
6) Connect the red lead from the display board to the lower power connector on the component side of the digital board, the black lead from the display board to the top pin as shown:
7) Re-attach the speaker connector to the three-pin connector on the digital board (it only attaches one way), then seat the top of the case back on top and secure it with the 4 screws you previously removed.
NOTE: HF Signals assembly instructions instruct you to use the included two pin jumper cable, soldering the wires to the pins on the display board, but the supplied jumpers that came with the display (red/black/yellow/green, female-female, about 7-8″ long) are just fine and should be secure for most users.
There were some leftover parts:
8) So then I applied 12v (13.8v) DC and my unit powered up!
Starting the sBitx application, you see this:
The wifi ‘burp’ is quite obvious, I know turning off wifi will stop that, but now to grab my mic from my uBitx and hook it up to an antenna.
Thanks to everyone at HF Signals, I’m very pleased with this build.
I hope these instructions help others decide if they want to buy a “kit” or “assembled” sBitx.