[hpsdr] New FPGA code released

[Phil Harman]

All,

There is new FPGA code available for a number of openHPSDR based boards.  The new releases are: 

Ozy_Janus_v2.7
Metis_v2.9
Hermes_v2.8
Angelia_v3.5
Orion_v2.4

The Ozy_Janus code will automatically be included in the next release of PowerSDR which will occur shortly.

The Metis and Hermes code can be obtained from here:

http://openhpsdr.org/download.php

Joe, K5SO, will announce the availability of Angelia and Orion code shortly.

This new code moves all CW RF, Sidetone and Keyer logic into the FPGA in order to eliminate any delays from a CW key press to Sidetone generation. It also immediately applies the selected level of receiver input attenuation, when transmitting, to eliminate momentary ADC Overload warnings.

Since CW RF generation is implemented in the FPGA  then, apart for user selectable delays on key closure and release, RF generation is instantaneous.

In the accompanying new release of PowerSDR there are two user adjustable delays associated with the new CW code.  These are located on the Setup Form under  General > Options  CW Delay and are:

Key-Up – This setting delays the removal of PTT following the end of a CW character.

Key-Down – This setting delays the generation of RF following the closure of the CW key.  

Both these settings are intended to enable the user to prevent ‘hot switching’ of  PA and Linear Amplifier etc. relays.

Note that the Key-Down delay is added to the length of a CW character in order to prevent shortening of the the first character sent.  This value will need to be reduced from the default 20mS when very high CW speeds are used i.e. above 50 WPM.

If you are using subsequent amplifiers etc. that switch very fast e.g. PIN diodes, then you can safely reduce these settings to a  few mS.  The default values should be suitable for most systems unless you have a very slow relay in the chain.

All the features of the Iambic CW Keyer previously included in PowerSDR have been incorporated plus ‘Semi Bug’ were dashes are sent manually and dots automatically.  All the features of the CWX  keyboard-to-CW code in PowerSDR are  still available.

Removal of all CW generation from PowerSDR has been a very large project involving numerous modifications to PowerSDR and all previously developed FPGA code.  However, not only do these changes remove all latency on transmit they also greatly simplify the inclusion of CW for those writing PC code for openHPSDR based boards.

My thanks go to Doug, W5WC,  Joe, K5SO and Warren, NR0V,  for all the effort they have put in to produce such a high quality result.   I would also like to thank the members of the Beta test team for their assistance and in particular Vasiliy, Norbet and Tom, DF2LF, for the outstanding quality of their feedback whilst chasing some very taxing bugs.

Please note that you MUST use the new version of PowerSDR, which will be released shortly, with the new FPGA code since the new features are not supported by previous releases. 

73 Phil...VK6PH 





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