[hpsdr] HERMES schedule question...

[Ray Page]

Thank you for your response Dan. I agree with your words of caution
regarding hand soldering PQFPs, TQPFs, etc. However, it's something I have
to do fairly often, so that does not concern me. I prefer to buy an A&T
board from a convenience (and possibly cost) perspective, but I also like
being on the front lines of a design rather than waiting for someone else to
do the work for me. I'm even considering starting with the release HERMES
design and then making my own mods to the schematic and layout.

I'm planning to make lemonade out of the fact that the FPGA source is in
Verilog instead of VHDL. This is the perfect opportunity to get fluent with
Verilog since it wouldn't be right to charge customers to learn a new
language. Carson has my back on the Windows/Linux side of the equation.

I'm fairly well equipped to do some serious digital and analog debug because
I have a 136 channel x 2M LA with 450MHz state speed, a 1GHz Lecroy scope,
and the other usual suspects in my lab. My specialty these days is
video-related FPGA/ system design stuff. You can gather some more info about
me and Carson here: www.attodyne.com. I hope no one considers this SPAM
because I do not sell "things"----only my services, which I will offer for
free to the HAM community.

In a nutshell, I'd like to know as soon as the most recent alpha board see's
daylight, so I can make the decision to either go with it, or roll my own.

Thanks again Dan!

-Ray




On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 10:40 PM, Dan Babcock <n4xwe at yahoo.com> wrote:

> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
>
> Yes, you are correct Jeremy.  AFAIK, there have been no discussions about
> TAPR offering Hermes as a kit.  However, depending upon how the hardware IP
> is licensed, someone might eventually decide to offer one.
>
> With all of the TAPR offered Assembled & Tested boards, more PCB boards
> were purchased than were used to build the A&T boards.  The remaining bare
> PCB boards are offered for sale until the supply is exhausted.  Until the
> interest level for Hermes is known, it is difficult to say just how many of
> each (A&T or bare PCB) board will be available.
>
> And another point about A&T boards...  As you mentioned, so far, the
> selling price of a TAPR offered A&T board has been less than the cost of
> purchasing the bare PCB and all of the component parts (in small build
> quantities) that are required to build a board.  It is hard to provide
> empirical evidence since no one has offered both a kit and the A&T boards
> for the same project, but the consensus of opinion is it is also more cost
> effective (especially taking into account DONATED man hours) to provide an
> A&T board than a kit.
>
> Personally, I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of the "pleasure" of building
> a board on their own.  Also, I remember some rumblings from HPSDR
> participants outside of the US that because of transportation costs, import
> duties and VAT it was cheaper for them to build than buy.  But having said
> that, I feel from my experiences as a member of the manufacturing team for
> the Magister, Ozy, Penelope and Mercury boards that buying an A&T board is
> without exception the best option.
>
> 73,
>
> Dan N4XWE
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Jeremy McDermond <mcdermj at xenotropic.com>
> *To:* Dan Babcock <n4xwe at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* Ray Page <page.ray at gmail.com>; hpsdr at openhpsdr.org
> *Sent:* Wed, June 16, 2010 7:04:14 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [hpsdr] HERMES schedule question...
>
> On Jun 16, 2010, at 6:59 PM, Dan Babcock wrote:
>
> > Due to the installation of a number of fine pitch IC's, including a 240
> Pin PQFP package Altera FPGA <
> http://www.altera.com/literature/hb/cyc3/cyc3_ciii52001.pdf>, the Hermes
> board is in my estimation a (very) advanced construction project.  Without
> the fine pitch IC's, I would say Hermes can be best classified as an
> intermediate level construction project that uses a combination of SMT and
> through hole parts.  Bearing in mind the packages for the SMT parts were
> chosen for circuit functionality and not ease of assembly, building the
> board is doable but is certainly not for the faint of heart.
>
> It should also be noted that, unless I'm mistaken, Hermes will not be
> offered in a kit form.  You will have your choice of a bare PCB or a fully
> assembled and tested unit.  That means that you'll have to search out all
> the parts yourself.  If you want to do the construction on it as
> entertainment, that's cool, but when I've looked on other kits (such as
> Mercury and Penelope), it's hard to save much cash as opposed to the A&T
> versions.
>
> > 73,
> >
> > Dan N4XWE
>
> --
> Jeremy McDermond (NH6Z)
> Xenotropic Systems
> mcdermj at xenotropic.com
>
>
>
>
>
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