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

Mon Mar 30 14:56:11 PDT 2009

Hi Steve, All,

???

>From the WIKI:

"The Sasquatch board is a proposed DSP back-end intended for use by
constructors who would like to operate the HPSDR STAND-ALONE rather than
attached to a PC...." 

I think Bill's post was not meant for Sasquatch?

I think he meant (smaller-) "peripheral-like" hardware like a preselector or
other accessory peripheral equipment controlled from a PC by PowerSDR and
the likes.
And (I think) doing a USB host on Sasquatch isn't too big a problem?
Or (search for) a dedicated control interface converter from/to USB to I2C
and/or SPI or other?

Further on the subject of integration:

Looking for something simple for remote control of an Antenna Tuning Unit
(in essence a variable roller inductor and variable capacitor) I found an
example for I think just the kind of applications Bill's post was related
to: 

"Phidgets", USB interfaced peripheral I/O hardware:    www.phidgets.com

Does anybody know these or has experience with them?

There is a lot of development software support to go with the hardware and
simple application software.
Shouldn't be too hard to write more dedicated software.
Of course matters become more difficult if it has to be fully integrated in
the GUI of PowerSDR or other SDR software.

I'm not sure if the software falls completely in the category of "non
proprietary" and "free", "no copyright" etc. but for LINUX it has a GNU
Lesser General Public License.

I was thinking of using one of their USB stepper motor controller interface
boards, together with a few salvaged stepper motors from old 5 1/4" floppy
drives.

So for me in cases like these I vote for "in the PC"...... ;-)

Any thoughts?

Henry.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: hpsdr-bounces at lists.hpsdr.org 
> [mailto:hpsdr-bounces at lists.hpsdr.org] On Behalf Of Steven Wilson
> Sent: maandag 30 maart 2009 19:26
> To: Bill Tracey; hpsdr at hpsdr.org
> Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Pre-Selector alternative for Mercury - 
> How to controll viaHPSDR/PowerSDR
> 
> 
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> 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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