[hpsdr] Thought for the future

[Philip Covington]

On 6/21/06, Jason Hitesman <jason at hitesman.com> wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
>
>
> This is way premature at this point.  But it's an idea I've been kicking
> around in my head for along time and wanted to share with the group to see
> what others thought.  It has to do with user interfaces for SDR's and
> getting over the limitations of the computer.  It's really more of a
> software issue than a hardware issue...but with the possiblity of sasquatch
> it could also tie into a hardware discussion.
>
> Basically the idea is to use MIDI to interface physical controls for the
> radio so users aren't locked into the keyboard and mouse.  The use of jog
> shuttles already seems to be somewhat common.  But I'm thinking we could go
> so much futher by leveraging the existing MIDI interface.  And once again
> I'm drawing inspiration from another one of my interests to try and bring a
> "new" idea to the radio community.  I know when I think of MIDI I used to
> just think of those annoying synthysized songs some people stick on their
> webpages.  I only considered it a way of composing, storing and playing back
> "notes" and nothing more.   Then a few years ago I learned of MIDI interface
> devices used by video editors (which is where the USB jog shuttles
> originated).   And finally a few years ago I learned of a group dedicated to
> homebrewing their own MIDI interfaces.  Suddenly I realized that MIDI is
> more than just a way of storing song information.  It's also a pre-existing
> interface for attaching physical controls to software.
>
> I've since built a few homemade MIDI projects and admired dozens of other
> peoples out of the box ideas.  Most of them are still used for music
> applications but I've seen some that were used as game controllers as well
> as for controlling video editing software and other software that emulates
> physical devices we're used to interacting with through knobs, buttons,
> lights and other controls.
>
> Then one day looking at some other peoples creations I saw one that looked
> more like the front panel of a communications radio than something you'd see
> in a music studio.
>
> The key to all this is another open source project - midibox:
> http://midibox.org/  It's a modular pic based system.  It starts with a
> "Core" module that handles all the I/O and can interface to a number of
> analog and digital in and out modules making an easy way to interface to -
> pots (both twist and slide), encoders, LED's, pushbuttons, and even LCD
> displays (both text and graphical).  In other words everything that's needed
> to build a full control surface for a radio.
>
> With a some changes to PowerSDR so it could send and recieve MIDI events it
> would be possible for each person to custom design and build a physical
> interface to their SDR anyway they wanted.  From just a simple jog shuttle
> made out of a digital encoder, maybe with a few function buttons.  To full
> control over filters, modes, DSP configs, band display - anything you've
> seen on commercial radios...and more that no one has thought of yet.  You
> could even use banks to store configs and rapidly reconfigure the radio on
> the fly.
>
> That would be a relatively easy first step - but you'd still be tied to a
> computer.  With sasquatch onboard if there were a way to work a midi
> inteface into the system (maybe yet another optional card...perhaps Calliope
> from the greek muse of song as a nod to the musical origins of MIDI?  It's a
> little late to incorporate a MIDI interface into Janus or Ozy unfortunatly
> but perhaps in a future reversion it would be an idea to persue.) then all
> the building blocks would be in place to create a full stand alone rig that
> could still be easily reconfigured through software for all kinds of uses.
>
>
> But like I said I'm just thinking out loud here and this is somewhat
> premature in many ways (and late in others since the I/O boards are already
> in alpha) and wondered what others thought of the idea.  I keep meaning to
> have a look at the source for PowerSDR but my C++ is pretty rusty and I keep
> putting it off...and with a few softrocks as the only radios I have to use
> with it at this point I've had little incentive to move forward on my ideas.
>  But with my Atlas boards sitting here it's gotten me already starting to
> think about using this beast at some point :D
>
> ----
> Jason Hitesman
> N8INJ

Hi Jason,

I will check out the midibox.org site tomorrow when I get some time.
It sounds very interesting.  Thanks for posting this.  More
questions/comments tomorrow...

73 de Phil N8VB

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