Hi all, Just finished playing with counter from the SD2.99 radio. Slightly sooner than anticipated as it seems to have just had a crackle of static and fizzled out :( My bench is supposedly static safe - but soldering iron wasnt grounded and I didnt have my wrist strap on while track tracing - draw your own conclusions. Must stop wearing these nylon underpants and stroking the cat!!! Ok, right up until the beasty stopped working this is what has been deduced:- The datasheet for the display driver can be downloaded from http://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/670/UTC6610.php you will need to give a few details to get a members login - (name and email addr etc) if you want to download the actual pdf. I can mail it to anyone who needs it. a brief summary of the device is : Datasheet text preview: UTC 6610 FREQUENCY AND CLOCK DISPLAY DRIVER The UTC 6610 is a frequency and clock display driver used for displaying FM/AM radio frequency or a 12 hour alarm clock. By using CMOS technology, it consumes very low power in clock display mode. CMOS FEATURES * FM input with pre-scalar for radio frequency up to 150 MHz * AM input for radio frequency up to 30 MHz * 3 common, 13 segment, 1/3 bias LCD display drivers which supports 4 digits LCD display * On chip oscillator for external 32.768kHz crystal * 10.7 MHz / 70 kHz I.F. frequency offset for FM signal and 455kHz I.F. frequency offset for AM signal * Internal real time clock in 12 hour display mode * Selectable clock or frequency display * 1.8V to 3.3V supply voltage . The post from Rick Peterson, 2E0JSI re the ribbon cable is pretty much correct except he missed one of the pins out in the middle - there are 9 pads in total (8 in the ribbon + the 9th which is the supply to the backlight LED) the order is from top->bottom: 1 = Range select - toggle between 0v and 3v on here to switch between MHz and KHz range MODE RANGE DISPLAY RANGE (ON LCD) STEP RESOULTION FM H 11.00 MHz to 99.99 MHz 10kHz 1kHz L 11.00 MHz to 149.9 MHz 100kHz 10kHz AM H 500 kHz to 9999 kHz 1kHz 100kHz L 0.5 MHz to 29.99 MHz 10kHz 1kHz Note:1 When counter frequency overflow, MSB will not be displayed. 2 = Input select - changing logic state on this pin does two jobs - it selects the input to the counter chip (the red and black wires going from the radio board to the counter board numbered (9) and (10) - the black wire (9) is for the FM input, - and the red wire is for AM input). It also choses which IF offset to use. ie 455KHz or 10.7MHz 3 = GND 4 = VDD (+3v) 5 = (This is the pin that Rick missed) - its the Alarm out pin which is a 1KHz pulsed tone which is sent back into the radio AF AMP stages to make a noise when its getting up time! 6 = AM button out to radio (not needed) 7 = FM button out to radio (not needed) 8 = output from the on/off switch back to radio (not needed). the solder pad in position 9 is a wire lead out to the offboard switch which turns on the backlight LED. Some other observations... the signal input the counter chip is expecting is <= 300mv peak to peak for the AM section in the range 500KHz - 30MHz. The FM input is in the range 11-150MHz (I wasnt able to check how far out of range you can push it). Current consumption is 3.6mA when counting and 110uA when in clock mode. Its possible to use one of the unused AM or FM buttons on the PCB as a range select button. As mentioned it is also possible to use a 70KHz IF offset, but this needs some careful soldering to achieve. (details for this are in the datasheet) counter pcb is a nice handy 55mm x 45mm needing a depth clearance of less than 10mm. the LCD display is 30x20mm (all approx). Not much else to report at this stage... Im a little annoyed Ive killed the display - still all in the interest of science. Will have to see if I can buy a few more now. Hans, if any of that seems useful, please feel free to add it to the collection :) ttfn - Chris W - G7NBP.