Hardware Setup
- Flex-5000A driving a Prometheus amplifier.
- The FlexWire adapter is band switching the amplifier.
- Amplifier output is running into a dummy load.
I have made modifications to DDUtil to allow the ALC to be read and displayed in a text box. Also, I have added a new function that works with the Auto Drive feature that compares the current ALC reading with a previously stored ALC setting. The purpose of this is to have a basis of reference to compare against.
The Auto Drive function works like this:
DDutil has a button on the Amps tab that saves the Drive level and the current ALC level from the amp into permenent memory. This button is pressed after setting the drive to produce the desired amplifier output power and the amplifier is keyed. DDutil also reads the ALC voltage from the amplifier and stores it as well. This must be done for each band. When the Auto Drive feature is enabled DDUtil will retrieve the settings from memory and apply them when PSDR changes bands thus giving the correct drive & ALC reference setting for each band.
Back to the new feature. If the current ALC is > the stored ALC then DDUtil turns a new indicator Red to show the ALC is higher than it should be otherwise the indicator is Green. This is only a means to test the ALC read function at this point.
Results
- So far the band switching has worked reliably without fail. But, this is the easy part as the band switching is always done when the amplifier is not keyed.
- The ALC Read function is also working reliably, so far. Amplifier power has been run upto 1500 watts and all is stable.
On the air tests are next. The adapter will be exposed to more RF when an actual antenna is connected to the amplifier rather than a schelded dummy load.
Stay tuned,
Steve
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