Continuous transmit

[robwinship]

I'm working with the developer of pocketpacket to see if it's software based but here's my issue. I've used your board (thanks!) to make up the cable. I've tested it for continuity and all good. When I plug it into my iPhone 4, it appears to transmit for long periods. Any troubleshooting I should do on my soldering / assembly?

[johnboiles]

#2 and #3 are essentially the same issue. I've had a hard time pinning this
bug down as it's inconsistent. Sometimes I'll get this issue with my
iPhone4, and sometimes I don't. Here's some things I've found that seem
to make it better (though, again they don't always fix the issue):

• Use shielded audio cables. Make sure to attach the shield to ground (-)
• Don't charge the device while using PocketPacket

PocketPacket is unlikely to be at fault. The core of the problem is that
the BaoFeng uses two separate grounds for audio while the TRRS connector
just has one. It's not possible to connect the grounds on the BaoFeng or
you always trigger PTT. Experimentally what worked the best was to leave
the MIC ground disconnected. Makes for a simple board, but it's also more
susceptible to interference. You could solve this using opto-isolation, but
it'd make for a more complex (and likely larger) board.

If you figure out a workaround, or find a pattern as to when this issue
happens. Please share!

On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 5:15 AM, robwinship [email protected]
wrote:

I'm working with the developer of pocketpacket to see if it's software
based but here's my issue. I've used your board (thanks!) to make up the
cable. I've tested it for continuity and all good. When I plug it into my
iPhone 4, it appears to transmit for long periods. Any troubleshooting I
should do on my soldering / assembly?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5.

[robwinship]

I have figured out that I don't have a problem with my iPad Mini. It appears to work great.

Trouble is, I don't have a bluetooth
Gps to pair with it.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 28, 2014, at 18:56, "John Boiles" [email protected] wrote:

#2 and #3 are essentially the same issue. I've had a hard time pinning this
bug down as it's inconsistent. Sometimes I'll get this issue with my
iPhone4, and sometimes I don't. Here's some things I've found that seem
to make it better (though, again they don't always fix the issue):

• Use shielded audio cables. Make sure to attach the shield to ground (-)
• Don't charge the device while using PocketPacket

PocketPacket is unlikely to be at fault. The core of the problem is that
the BaoFeng uses two separate grounds for audio while the TRRS connector
just has one. It's not possible to connect the grounds on the BaoFeng or
you always trigger PTT. Experimentally what worked the best was to leave
the MIC ground disconnected. Makes for a simple board, but it's also more
susceptible to interference. You could solve this using opto-isolation, but
it'd make for a more complex (and likely larger) board.

If you figure out a workaround, or find a pattern as to when this issue
happens. Please share!

On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 5:15 AM, robwinship [email protected]
wrote:

I'm working with the developer of pocketpacket to see if it's software
based but here's my issue. I've used your board (thanks!) to make up the
cable. I've tested it for continuity and all good. When I plug it into my
iPhone 4, it appears to transmit for long periods. Any troubleshooting I
should do on my soldering / assembly?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[johnboiles]

Glad to hear it works well with the iPad Mini!

The inconsistency is strange though. If you have access to an oscilloscope,
I'd start by seeing if you can see any noise or other unexpected signals on
the baofeng mic in pin.

On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 6:12 PM, robwinship [email protected]
wrote:

I have figured out that I don't have a problem with my iPad Mini. It
appears to work great.

Trouble is, I don't have a bluetooth
Gps to pair with it.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 28, 2014, at 18:56, "John Boiles" [email protected]
wrote:

#2 and #3 are essentially the same issue. I've had a hard time pinning
this
bug down as it's inconsistent. Sometimes I'll get this issue with my
iPhone4, and sometimes I don't. Here's some things I've found that
seem
to make it better (though, again they don't always fix the issue):

• Use shielded audio cables. Make sure to attach the shield to ground
  (-)
• Don't charge the device while using PocketPacket

PocketPacket is unlikely to be at fault. The core of the problem is that
the BaoFeng uses two separate grounds for audio while the TRRS connector
just has one. It's not possible to connect the grounds on the BaoFeng or
you always trigger PTT. Experimentally what worked the best was to leave
the MIC ground disconnected. Makes for a simple board, but it's also
more
susceptible to interference. You could solve this using opto-isolation,
but
it'd make for a more complex (and likely larger) board.

If you figure out a workaround, or find a pattern as to when this issue
happens. Please share!

On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 5:15 AM, robwinship [email protected]
wrote:

I'm working with the developer of pocketpacket to see if it's software
based but here's my issue. I've used your board (thanks!) to make up
the
cable. I've tested it for continuity and all good. When I plug it into
my
iPhone 4, it appears to transmit for long periods. Any troubleshooting
I
should do on my soldering / assembly?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5 (comment)
.

[robwinship]

It's possibly got to be a vox setting? On the iPad, it's a clear sent packet. It sounds crisp. On the iPhone, the packet is sent but there's a constant transmission. I tried another trrs connector. Same affect. I'll have to cut another kenwood connector and try it on the uv5r.

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 28, 2014, at 22:59, John Boiles [email protected] wrote:

Glad to hear it works well with the iPad Mini!

The inconsistency is strange though. If you have access to an oscilloscope,
I'd start by seeing if you can see any noise or other unexpected signals on
the baofeng mic in pin.

On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 6:12 PM, robwinship [email protected]
wrote:

I have figured out that I don't have a problem with my iPad Mini. It
appears to work great.

Trouble is, I don't have a bluetooth
Gps to pair with it.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 28, 2014, at 18:56, "John Boiles" [email protected]
wrote:

#2 and #3 are essentially the same issue. I've had a hard time pinning
this
bug down as it's inconsistent. Sometimes I'll get this issue with my
iPhone4, and sometimes I don't. Here's some things I've found that
seem
to make it better (though, again they don't always fix the issue):

• Use shielded audio cables. Make sure to attach the shield to ground
  (-)
• Don't charge the device while using PocketPacket

PocketPacket is unlikely to be at fault. The core of the problem is that
the BaoFeng uses two separate grounds for audio while the TRRS connector
just has one. It's not possible to connect the grounds on the BaoFeng or
you always trigger PTT. Experimentally what worked the best was to leave
the MIC ground disconnected. Makes for a simple board, but it's also
more
susceptible to interference. You could solve this using opto-isolation,
but
it'd make for a more complex (and likely larger) board.

If you figure out a workaround, or find a pattern as to when this issue
happens. Please share!

On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 5:15 AM, robwinship [email protected]
wrote:

I'm working with the developer of pocketpacket to see if it's software
based but here's my issue. I've used your board (thanks!) to make up
the
cable. I've tested it for continuity and all good. When I plug it into
my
iPhone 4, it appears to transmit for long periods. Any troubleshooting
I
should do on my soldering / assembly?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5 (comment)
.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[robwinship]

I think I got it!

If you are continuously transmitting (and using an iPhone), try this:
Under settings>general>accessibility scroll down to Mono Audio. Set it to ON.
I wonder because we are using only one audio channel, the jack was giving some sort of noise with a stereo setting.
I set the VOX on the Baofeng UV5R to 6.
In Pocketpacket, I've set the transmission interval to 20 minutes.
VOX trigger is set to 100msec.
Volume on the iPhone (in my case iPhone 4), is mid level.

It appears to functioning great now.

[johnboiles]

Thanks for the tip @robwinship! I'll give it a try next time i run into this bug.

If this solves the problem for anyone else, please post here and let us know!

[bmidgley]

I see this problem. Switching to mono allowed vox to shut off in a couple of experiments, but not consistently. Typically, vox kicks in just by raising the ipad (3) or iphone (6) volume level even one click above mute with pocketpacket in its quiet period between transmissions. I tried a variety of vox settings without any improvement. I tried on a uv5r+ and uv82 with similar results.

[worsthorse]

having the same issue. iphone 4s, baofeng uv82hp with the baofeng aprs cable, so it's not just your cable issue... vox on 6, iphone headphone volume at 1 click. HT receives a packet, then goes into transmit mode. will add ferrites to cable to see if that helps. unfortunately, don't have an oscope to see what's causing the vox to trigger.

[johnboiles]

Oh interesting I didn't know there was an official cable. Could you post a link?

[worsthorse]

There is. I have your PCBs, too, but haven't assembled them; the SMD components are something I haven't tried yet. A link for the cable: http://www.miklor.com/COM/Review_APRS.php.

[lasselehtinen]

I have the same issue even with the official cable. I am running an iPhone 8 with Baofeng UV-5R+. I tried all the suggestions mentioned here, like setting the audio output to mono but the issue still remains. Has anyone managed to solve this?