[hpsdr] Pre-Selector alternative for Mercury - How to controll viaHPSDR/PowerSDR

[Steven Wilson]

Hi Bill,

I would argue for the Hardware control of the system because the PC
choice affects the Sasquatch design requirements otherwise. 

Let's assume you bring in a second USB cable into the PC to control this
single aspect of the radio operation.  This means Sasquatch has to have
a corresponding USB port OR we need  to design a second control path to
hardware anyway.

Just my two cents worth...

Steve KA6S

Bill Tracey wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Interesting architectural question - where is the better control
> integration point for the hardware piece parts in our SDR - out in the
> radio hardware or back at the PC.  For something like this I'd argue
> for the PC in that I suspect it is easier for most folks to modify PC
> based code than firmware and doing it at the PC makes the hardware
> applicable to more radios than our radio.  I've always wondered a bit
> on why the SDR 1000 did the open collector outputs and the Flex 5k has
> flex-wire when you could just control ancillary devices by connecting
> back to the PC and let the radio software handle it.
>
> I don't discount Alberto's observation if it is done in the hardware
> it works for the different software packages .  More raising the
> (somewhat philosophical) question of where the right place for  this
> type of integration is?   In my mind I think the design is more
> flexible if the devices that  can be PC controlled are,  For example,
> one could have done Alex with a USB controller and instead of having a
> dedicated connector coming off Mercury you'd run USB back to the PC to
> control filter and antenna selection.  Would likely raise the cost of
> Alex a little but would make it applicable to projects other than HPSDR.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill (kd5tfd)
>
> At 08:56 AM 3/29/2009, Alberto I2PHD wrote:
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>
>>
>> Phil Harman wrote:
>>>
>>> Well there are a number of options as to how the Heros board could
>>> be used:
>>>
>>> 1. Add support to PowerSDR for it's USB port
>>>
>> IMHO, this option is not the optimal one, as it will tie the use of
>> the preamplifier to the use of PowerSDR.
>> Should one day a new program supporting HPSDR come out, you won't be
>> anymore able to use the Heros board.
>>>
>>> 3. Replace the USB board with one fitted with an SPI or I2C open
>>> drain/collector driver chip(s) and send the required signals from
>>> Ozy or
>>> Mercury. This is basically how the relays on Alex are switched.
>>>
>> Again IMHO this is preferable, provided that the commands needed for
>> that, embedded in the outbound USB
>> stream to Ozy, are clearly documented.
>>
>> Just my opinion
>>
>> 73  Alberto  I2PHD
>
>
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