[hpsdr] New Hermes Board

[Steve Haynal]

Hi List,

I saw discussion regarding using a Zedboard or SOM for the FPGA side of a
Hermes redesign. This is a good idea and one we discussed for the
Hermes-Lite 2 redesign almost a year ago. Since our goal was low cost, the
best option we found was the Z-Turn from Myirtech:

http://www.myirtech.com/list.asp?id=502

There are two sizes: 28K for $99 and 85K for $119.

I looked closely at the schematics for the Z-turn board and am impressed
that they attempt to properly route LVDS pairs. The connectors used on the
Z-Turn are also more commonly available and less expensive (compared to
microzed) but should still handle speeds required.

I have done designs at my day job with with Microzed. They also work well
but are higher price. The new Ultrazed based on a new ultrascale+ part has
a more advanced ARM core embedded and may be of interest.

Ultimately we went with the Cyclone IV on our own Hermes-Lite 2 board as
the total unit cost was lower, but that may not be as important for a
Hermes redesign.

If openhpsdr is considering a design which separates the FPGA from the RF,
then people should take a close look at the R2T2 SDR:

http://r2t2.de/index.php?title=Hauptseite

They are already doing this. They have quite a few radios online:

http://napan.com/qtradio/qtradio.pl

73,

Steve
KF7O
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