In those days, most designs used TTL chips, and the current drain worked out to be a few hundred milliamps. Running it off batteries was hardly practical, and I never tried. But there were times when it would have been useful.
The hum wasn't too bad when it was inside the little box, but even so, every time I turned it on, I would hear the hum, and I'd mutter to myself about doing something about that transformer 'one of these days'. But while the keyer was working and usable, I just couldn't be bothered. There were too many other things of more interest to build. A few months ago, however, I went to use the keyer again (You can tell how much CW I do!) only to find the keyer had died. I checked out a number of the chips, fixing my old TTL logic probe in the process (dry joint after 20+ years), only to find that almost all of the seven chips used in the old design had up and died. I was prepared to replace one or two, but the widespread deaths of ICs across the PCB made me forget that idea.
And so it was time to rebuild my keyer.
The really neat thing about the more advanced versions of these keyers, called 'iambic' keyers, is that these allow you to insert a 'dit' in a stream of 'dahs', or vice-versa, or send a string of 'dit-dah' or 'dah-dit' characters. To send an 'a' ('dit-dah') merely requires a single squeeze of the paddles. Sending a 'c' ('dah-dit-dah-dit') take no more effort - A single, slightly longer, squeeze does the trick. The objective of these keyers is to reduce the effort of sending Morse code manually. While computerized keyboard keyers also exist, they are not as portable as these keyers, and certainly nowhere near as popular.
Modern keyers are almost all microprocessor-based, and include memories to hold standard messages. These provide storage for 'CQ' calling messages, and routine sentences which regularly occur during a call such as the operator's name, location and equipment details. Most also add specialized auto-numbering messages for use in contests. Some older TTL or CMOS designs also supported memories, but these designs were so complex, with dozens of chips, that you'd have to have a lot of time, and parts, on your hands to want to build one of those.
The PCB is bolted to the bottom of the box. The large black object on the lower right hand edge of the PCB is the piezo speaker, taken from an old cordless phone
I could have rebuilt the keyer substituting TTL with CMOS devices, using the same basic design, but I was never really happy with the Accu-Keyer. It used a two-transistor dot clock which was switched on and off by the keyer logic, and that led to slightly shortened leading dits on occasions. My original keyer never exhibited that defect, but others did. The more important problem was the dot oscillator itself. It had the reputation of being hard to get going, a fact I recalled on all three units that were built by several of us back then. We ended up scouting around the city to purchase exactly the right type of transistor specified in the original article to get that oscillator going properly. Very annoying.
Others attempting to build the Accu-Keyer in CMOS reported similar problems in that area. And the idea of finding seven chips in my junkbox, the number used in the Accu-Keyer, was hardly likely. I started to sense a shopping trip for new chips. No. I wanted simplicity, and I wanted to build the keyer right now.
I was briefly tempted to design a keyer using a microprocessor. Other pages on this website demonstrate that I'm no stranger to these devices, but I really was after something with a touch of simplicity. Something that was easy to build in an afternoon so I could get back to other tasks. I wanted to fix the problem and move on. I just wasn't keen on spending a couple of days writing software for a keyer I only used from time to time.
It was only after I had built the keyer described here and used it for a few weeks that, of course, I found a Czech website with an 8051-based memory keyer complete with software which I could have copied in a heartbeat. (Look for the latest version of the Elbug ) Oh well. If I'd found that site a bit sooner, I guess you wouldn't be reading this page now!
Naturally, I could have purchased one of those little ready-coded keyer microprocessors which are available on the web. (For example, the K8 and K12 PIC-based chips from K1EL, VK1OD's PIK keyer chip, or the TiCK1 and TiCK4 chips from Kanga) But I wanted a quick fix, and I did not want to have to wait a few weeks while an order went out and the chip was delivered.
So I spent an enjoyable hour or two thumbing through my old files and magazines looking for a simple CMOS design. I found a really simple one in back copies of SPRAT, the UK-based QRP club newsletters. It featured just two CMOS chips, and, yes, I had those in my parts box.
The design choice was made.
It turns out that this keyer design has a bit of a history. The first reference I can find to it is a TTL-based design from '73' magazine in the mid-60s, and it seems it was subsequently converted to CMOS by Pierre, FE1MOG. His design was published in SPRAT, the UK QRP magazine, back around 1971. This same circuit was republished in the recent RSGB book 'Low Power Scrapbook' (page 195), along with all of the mistakes of the original circuit(!) Coincidentally, and about the same time as I came across the information on the web about the German 8051-based keyer, I spotted a nearly identical keyer on the website of Onno, PA2OHH. Onno's version used the /Q output of IC2a (Pin 2) while the original circuit used the Q (pin 1) output of IC2a, as mine does. The only impact of this is to reverse the dit and dah input connections. Everything else functions identically to the original circuit, at least as far as I can tell.
All of which goes to show that there is very little in this life that is truly new and original.
By the way, this is the first schematic I've drawn using Basic Schematic, a freeware program from Japan. This is just my first try with this software. I normally use CorelDraw. I plan to use it for a few more circuits before I decide if I really like it. I have to revise the variable resistor symbol to the more normal 'box' figure used for resistors, and the box used to show DC connections to the chips is a bit big and ugly. Automatic placement of text around the component leaves a little to be desired, but hey, it's free, right?
It turned out that the original design I had located was shy of a few critical details. Some, of course, were obvious. The original circuit diagram in SPRAT (and in the latest RSGB published book) had omitted a few critical items, like ground connections on several pins on each of the ICs. Those were fixed in a jiffy while building the unit.
Then I realised that the original design had another minor problem - The keyer inputs (for the 'dit' and the 'dah' paddles) connected to the supply voltage in the keyer to send each symbol rather than the normal arrangement which connects the paddles to ground. This left a potential risk of a short circuit if I was a bit careless with my metal-shrouded keyer paddles. (I use cheap and cheerful 'Galbraith' paddle, by the way, bought many years ago from a local NZART branch. Sadly, they are no longer available)
Solving that one was easy. I added two transistors to invert each input line, and these can be seen on the circuit diagram below.
Life, of course, continued to pose little problems. Next up: The keyer had no sidetone oscillator. Most transceivers have built-in sidetone oscillators which produce a tone simultaneously with the keyer output signal. But I like to practice my sending a bit from time to time without turning on the transceiver and letting the world hear my lousy sending. So I needed to add a sidetone oscillator to the keyer.
Well, really, that was no bother either. Another couple of transistors in my favourite audio oscillator arrangement worked a treat. It drives a piezo speaker and draws only 1.5mA at full volume. You can find these little speakers inside many toys or inside musical greeting cards. I seem to recover two or three of these each year from broken items heading for the rubbish bin, and they are just great for this sort of project.
I used a scrap of printed circuit board - It wasn't even cut square - and built it all in an afternoon. I built it 'Mahattan-style', which is to say, the chips were soldered upside down on the circuit board, and other components soldered in around them, using the legs of the ICs like tagstrips of old. It actually looks a bit rough, and untidy, but it's surprisingly robust. Saves making a PCB too.
I used a pair of AA sized batteries to run it since the CMOS devices hardly draw any current. If I send continuously at top speed, the keyer draws 30mA. I know that's not ultra-low current, but it's about 10% of the current drawn by the old TTL design, so I think it's a low current keyer. Besides, sending at normal speed (for me), at around 12 to 15 WPM (words per minute), the current drain averages about 10mA with the sidetone turned on.
I glued the battery holder to the side of the box with hot glue.
To tidy it all up, I loomed the wiring using nylon cable ties. I had some blue ones in my parts bin which added to the colour just a bit.
Wiring goes to the original connectors. There are a few holes left unused in the box which was originally made from thin aluminium recycled from old commercial VHF transceiver front panels. One unused hole that can be seen is the original mains cable entry. I left the rubber grommet on that hole just in case I ever want to build an AC power supply into the keyer. I suspect it will stay unfilled this way for at least another 30 years.
There is also a phono socket to plug in a regular morse key. I didn't wire this back in because I tend to use either my standard key or my keyer and plug the device of choice directly into the transceiver. Maybe I'll wire that connector in one day. It will just wire directly across the output socket, and a diode will be added to key on the sidetone oscillator. At present, it's used for the connection to the transceiver
The switches on the front panel (from right to left) allow you to turn the power on, turn the sidetone on or off, while the last switch is wired directly across the output jack. This allows me to continuously key a transmitter for a few seconds. This is useful for tuning my older transmitters and manual antenna tuners.
The knob on the top left hand side of the front panel sets the sending speed of the keyer. It ranges from about 5 WPM to more than 50 WPM, as far as I can tell. It is much much faster than I can manage. If that range is too wide for you, fiddle around with the 470k fixed resistor, the 3M linear (not LOG!) variable resistor and the 47nF timing capacitor. If I was making it again, I'd use a 100nF capacitor, a 1M or 2M variable resistor, and a 470k fixed resistor.
The knob on the right used to control the volume of the sidetone oscillator in the original unit. The piezo speaker worked out just fine without adjustment, so it's just sitting there looking pretty. And does nothing.
I run this keyer from 3V, but it will work perfectly well from just above 2V to 12V. The piezo will get a bit loud at the higher voltages, so you may want to adjust the audio level. Try adding a 1k to 10k series resistor.
