[hpsdr] Enclosure/Form Factor, was Re: Call for Project Leaders

[Eric Ellison]

Ben - Sorry - Gotta get used to the nature of the Gmail!

Ben

I'll have to give a VERY brief 'thumbnail' sketch of about 2 to 3 months of
rather intense brainstorming and discussion. I think they are all in the
achieves.

Early on in the first month or so of the project, those assembled felt that
a buss structure of some sort was the way to go. Making the boards modular
and easier and less espensive to 'upgrade' or modify also using 'building
block' functions for efficiency.

Any number of 'off the shelf' buss type structures were discussed, including
ATX, MiniATX, Euro etc. Riser cards are quite inexpensive, and we would not
have to manufactured build or inventory any hardware.

After many discussions with no actual consensus, Phil Covington, went away
for a week or so did his magic, and had a completely laid out ATLAS board
when he returned! It wonderfully featured all the concepts we had been
discussing. It used the EuroCard din connectors for strength, durability,
and availablility. We had also decided that an inexpensive ATX power supply
could be used to supply almost any voltage we needed. After taking
suggestions for modifications, and testing 3 prototypes. Atlas was cast in
stone.

When the first OZY and Janus layouts were proposed, I had been away for a
couple of weeks. And when I looked, I more or less exclaimed to the list
that the connector was on the wrong side! It was strict 1U EuroCard form.
Allowing only one edge for the myriad of connections and connectors we had
been discussing. My concept had been that we would be putting it in a PC
enclosure. After a week or 2 of intense discussions, it was decided to go
away from the EuroCard form factor and essentially go to ATX form factors
allowing the use of PC enclosures, power supplies, case mounted indicators
etc. It would potentially allow for 3 edges of the card to be used for
connections. 1 to the 'outside world' at the rear of the enclosure, and 2
more on the inside world. The specs for the cards are published in Horst's
excellent documentation in the Atlas manual.

Off and On here, there have been discussions of enclosures, and power supply
mods etc. The board design allows for a lot of flexibility for choosing an
off the shelf solution. We also discussed custom cases, I think including
the enclosure used by Flex for the SDR-1000. Since we are just now getting
to the question of "What do I put it in?", it is probably time to do the
research again as we are waiting for our cards. 

This list as you will see, has always been an informal place where folks can
and have really been thinking outside the box! As a result we are all
contributing in our own way and skill area, (or just learning for that
matter) to create REALLY innovative state of the art 'products' using open
source tools as much as possible. No formal peer review, no particular
rules, just open suggestion bread boarding and testing. Challenge response -
Googling, researching, then DO IT! All mixed in with some 'benevolent
dictators' to make decisions when they need to be made. We already know we
have he best electronics designers, and experts here and making comments.

I hope all who were around during the discussions not pick nits in my brief
very abbreviated dialog here. The actual discussions are a matter of record
for all who would like to review.

Sounds like you are working with and designing just what we are thinking a
REALLY flexible, cost effective custom solution.

We have a number of options for Polls, like Dale's website "interest" area
just used.

It just takes a project leader to get it started and probably a
Mythological, Cartoonish, name appropriate to the device function.

Go for it!
Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Hall [mailto:kd5byb at bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 8:00 PM
To: Eric Ellison
Cc: hpsdr at hpsdr.org
Subject: Enclosure/Form Factor, was Re: [hpsdr] Call for Project Leaders

Hi Eric and gang,

Thanks for the reply.  I listened to the presentation earlier this 
afternoon and have been thinking about an enclosure since I wrote my 
message below.

I'd really like it if you could fill me in on the form factor 
discussions.  I'm very intrigued by the choices made - its a form factor 
I immediately recognized from the modular data acquisition systems we 
use at work by VXI Technologies.  (I work for the Army testing 
turboshaft jet engines and aircraft components.)  You buy a chassis with 
a backplane, power supply, and thermal management, and you plug in cards 
as needed for the data you wish to collect and the controls you wish to 
have.  It's an immensely flexible form factor.

I am going to put a a preliminary proposal together for an enclosure 
over the next few weeks.  I've got some work I need to do before I'm 
ready to propose it to the group:

1)  Understand the current form factor.  IE:  How big are the current 
cards?  Power supply?  (I never knew there were such tiny little power 
supplies on cards.  Neat-o!)

2)  Poll the community for future form factor growth paths.  Not just 
size, but heat, etc...

3)  See if there is an off-the-shelf solution.  I doubt it.

4)  See if we can modify something.  IE:  Can we take a standard Ten-Tec 
case, and with a few mods, use it?

5)  If 3 and 4 fail, start from scratch.

Once I get the above at least somewhat complete, I'll put it out for 
review.  Being such a newbie here, I'm *sure* it's going to be riddled 
with errors.

thanks and 73,
ben, KD5BYB

Eric Ellison wrote:
> Ben
> 
> This is a great idea! All you have to do is declare yourself a project
> leader, describe the project, Come up with a name, get Don to give you a
Tab
> on the website. Nothing to it! (smile)
> 
> Lyle eloquently described the phenomena which has become HPSDR at Dayton
> last year. Take a listen:
> 
> http://hpsdr.org/
> 
> The audio is posted about 1/2 way down the page.
> 
> I was very involved in the enclosure and form factor discussions last year
> about this time, and can 'fill you in'. 
> 
> This is a project I would like to become involved in.
> 
> Gotta go to work now. I think there would be a lot of interest in this.
And
> we can do some "market research" and polling. Since I don't have any
> particular skill in EE this is more along my lines. I'm Just excited to be
a
> contributor at whatever level fits.
> 
> Thanks
> Eric - AA4SW


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