The Hermes Lite 2 shown on this page was from the Beta 10 build and was received in March 2023. The companion board mating headers on the Hermes Lite 2 board were already installed, no soldering was required.
There are five steps involved in the hardware installation.
1. (If required) Disassemble your Hermes Lite 2 and remove Ferrite Bead FB28 on the bottom of the main Hermes Lite 2 circuit board.
2. Plug the Companion Board onto the main Hermes board.
3. There are two methods of controlling DC power to the HL2+. You must decide which one you will use and complete the installation accordingly. There is a separate page with details on the 2 methods. A link can be found below.
4. If desired, connect an (optional) HL2+ internal speaker with 2-pin Dupont connector harness to Companion Board J5 after making proper mounting accommodations in the HL2 top extrusion half and mounting the speaker. The J5 output is 8 ohms and 400 mW.
5. Reassemble your Hermes Lite 2 + transceiver.
6. Update the Gateware (FPGA Firmware) in the Hermes Lite 2. See the Gateware Update link on the homepage.
The V3.3 kit includes new HL2+ end plates for the HL2 40mm case, a mounting bracket for the PCB, along with the V3.3 AK4951 Companion Board.
Hardware Installation
If required, disassemble your Hermes Lite 2. There is a ferrite bead (FB28) that *** MUST BE REMOVED *** from the bottom side of the main Hermes Lite 2 circuit board.
If you take a small soldering iron and feed enough solder to it to form a small ball at the tip, just enough to touch each side of FB28 at the same time, the bead will easily lift off of the board with just a touch. Next, begin reassembling the Hermes Lite 2.
Here
is a picture of the Hermes Lite 2 ready for the installation of the
Companion Board. The heat sink shim is not shown here. Be sure that you
reinstall it when reassembling the HL2+
Note that there are 2 headers near the front edge of the board. The front one has 20 pins
(DB1) and the other 6 pins (DB12). These are the pins that will mate with the female
headers on the Companion Board.
Carefully line up the pins on the two headers on the Companion Board with the HL2 board headers and apply light pressure to completely seat it.
The link above is to instructions for installing the power switch. A source for the power switch is provided on the HL2+ Accessories page. There are two methods for connecting the power switch. After reviewing both methods, continue to the instructions for your chosen method.
Here is the HL2+ after installation of the V3.3 Companion Board and new front end plate. Note the 2-pin connector (J5) on the rear of the Companion Board. This connector provides 400 mW of audio for an small internal speaker or a connection to an external amplifier for a larger speaker.
Details for the 4-pin CB connector P2 to DB9-M harness are shown below. It provides serial data for bandswitching and PTT to control the Hardrock-50 power amplifier.
An "L" mounting bracket is supplied to support the AK4951 Companion Board, especially when microphone or headphone jacks are inserted. A M3 clearance hole needs to be drilled in the cabinet side 19.5mm from the front edge of the case extrusion half and 17.25mm from the bottom, measured on the outside of the case. The hardware used to secure the bracket and companion board are 2) M3-0.5 x 5mm screws, and one or two sets of M3 flat and lock washers (depending on what screws are used, read on). For the Companion Board side of the bracket, a pan head screw and the washers are used. For the case side, I like to use a flat head M3 x 0.5 screw (so no washers) but a pan head (with washers) is fine too if you do not mind the protrusion of the screw head from side of the case.