Dimensions of new case

[zwoerdkop]

Hi All,

Do you happen to know the size of the new plastic box the RSP comes in? Thank you for your help!


Cheers
Axel
PA1XL

[sdrplay]

Hi Axel,

The new casing is L=97mm, W=80mm, D=30mm

Best regards,

SDRplay

[zwoerdkop]

Thanks for the info!

73's
Axel

[kardano]

Why... Why.... Why SDRPlay isn't sold in a metal case....?

[jon]

The problem is that the biggest source of interference is the USB cable and the USB comms...putting in a screened box can often cause the USB interference to get “trapped” inside and generate more problems than it actually isolates. Jon

[JMG]

That is absolutely correct.
I put the receiver to an EMC test range. At both the test frequencies of 1MHz and 150MHz a shielded case did not improve the interference susceptibility at all.
The antenna cable on the one side and the USB cable on the other side are part of a dipole. The induced voltage will spread over the receiver board and find its way to the input of the receiver. It is very difficult to control this effect.

John

[kardano]

thank you very much Jon for the answer, I was sure there was a valid reason !! best regards

[IW2NYX]

I conducted some rough RF "leakage-in" test closing the SDRplay input with a 50ohm tap, in this condition on my bench i receive residual FM brodacast and 900Mhz GSM signals, the latter with quite strong amplitude.

Of course things change a lot moving the device.

Shielding externally the SDRplay plastic case with an aluminium foil and putting it in contact with both RF input and USB grond, FM and GSM signals fully disappear.

The reason why i tried this is becasue my FM trap attenuation in conjuction with SDRplay is much less than what it should be, so i suspected the presence of RF leakage through plastic case.

The quick & dirty test seems toconfirm that.

GSM RX with 50ohm TAP, plastic case


GSM RX with 50ohm TAP, plastic case plus metal foil shielding

[ecarvalho]

I find this post very helpful, thank you. I will try IW2NYX's solution as quoted below:

Shielding externally the SDRplay plastic case with an aluminum foil and putting it in contact with both RF input and USB ground

Note: I don't yet have a 50ohms dummy load so I'll wait until it arrives in the mail to execute tests and post before and after results.
My issue is that my Home Owners Association does not allow for any kind of external antennas (sounds familiar?) so I believe I am picking up a lot of my own house interference's such as microwave, multiple computers, large TV sets, neighbor electronics and etc... .
Will report here as soon as I can.