[hpsdr] Hermes - initial powerup

[Phil Harman]

Eric,

The initial version of the Hermes code (v1.3) is simply intended to test
the hardware. I called it V1.3 rather that v1.0 so it would work with
PowerSDR and KK.

Developing code without actually having any hardware was a bit of a
challenge. As Joe says, there will be new features added to the code prior
to production release.

73 Phil...VK6APH


> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Erik,
>
> The way the communication protocol works is that the PC program specifies
> to Metis/Hermes or Ozy/Magister how many receiver IQ streams should be
> interleaved for inclusion into the ethernet (Metis or Hermes) or USB (Ozy
> or Magister) packets that are sent to the PC.  The PC program specifies
> the number of receivers to implement, via three bits in the Command and
> Control bytes sent by the PC to Metis/Hermes or Ozy/Magister; namely, the
> three bits C4(5), C4(4), and C4(3) when C0 is zero.  That's all there is;
> no firmware lists are used for this nor are such lists needed.
>
>  However, for this protocol to function (with multiple receivers) it is
> necessary that the firmware for Metis/Hermes and Ozy/Magister be coded to
> recognize those three C&C bits and then interleave the IQ streams
> according to the three-bit value (000 = 1 receiver, 001 = two receivers,
> etc).  Metis v1.6 and Ozy/Magister v2.1 firmware do that already but
> Hermes v1.3 firmware does not.  The next version of Hermes firmware will
> have that functionality implemented; then, along with several other
> changes to the Hermes code, Hermes will be able to implement multiple
> receivers in its FPGA, just as a single Mercury board is able to do that
> now.
>
> 73,  Joe K5SO
>
> On Mar 29, 2012, at 7:01 PM, Erik Anderson wrote:
>
>> It does actually, thank you.  It sounds like the only way for receiver
>> software to know that something like this is happening is to have a list
>> of firmwares and its capabilities somewhere (I'm guessing the
>> single-receiver version branch is running its own version numbers or
>> something, think I remember reading that on the list).  Part of me is
>> thinking that it might be nice if there was (yet another) CC0 code
>> listing the number of receivers in the datastream, although this would
>> likely be mooted if the only receivers that supported it were
>> multi-receiver.
>>
>> 73, Erik km2g
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 5:08 PM, Joe Martin K5SO <k5so at valornet.com>
>> wrote:
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>
>> Hi Erik,
>>
>> I didn't notice a response to your questions so I'll give them a go.
>>
>> As I recall, if multiple receivers are requested from Hermes v1.3 by a
>> PC program Hermes will continue to output a data stream that IQ values
>> in the stream that is appropriate for single receiver operation but the
>> PC will be expecting "interleaved" IQ values from multiple receivers.
>> This will usually cause "distorted" noise to be heard in the audio
>> output channels and/or a large central spike in the panadapter display
>> with no discernable signals present in the display, unless of course the
>> PC program does some kind of "firmware version checking" in which case
>> the PC program will usually halt execution of the PC program as the
>> expected firmware version number will not be received by the PC.
>>
>> No interleaved data streams of entirely zeroes will be produced by
>> Hermes v1.3 when a PC program asks for multiple receivers.
>>
>> A multiple-receiver-compatible version of firmware for Hermes will be
>> produced and released to replace Hermes v1.3 as soon as possible, I'm
>> sure.
>>
>> I hope that answers your questions satisfactorily.
>>
>> 73,  Joe K5SO
>>
>>
>> On Mar 29, 2012, at 2:32 PM, Erik Anderson wrote:
>>
>> > ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>> >
>> > Any particular behavior to watch out for if multiple receivers are
>> requested?  do they end up in the datastream as zeroes or does it just
>> assume you requested only one receiver?
>> >
>
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