[hpsdr] ray of hope

Mon Nov 26 02:15:07 PST 2018

Hi,
... it's just a bad and unlikely pretense that no schematics are available. Such kind of complex multi-layer board can't be designed without exact schematics. Most Layout-Software even needs the schematics for permanent crosscheck.
There certainly exist other reasons for the restraint, hi.

73, DC6NY

 -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Hpsdr <hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org> Im Auftrag von Isaac Weksler
Gesendet: Montag, 26. November 2018 10:26
An: 'Georg Hieber' <georg at hieber-stgt.de>; 'Marc OLANIE' <marc.olanie at decision.fr>; hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org
Betreff: Re: [hpsdr] ray of hope

***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****

Georg,
I saw David's answer about him lacking time to assemble the boards and supply them. He has plans for working on upgrading the FW/SW part of his project. I, personally, am looking forward to it. He is planning to develope a new 1Gbs protocol compatible with the HPSDR new protocol (P2) (which has been stuck uncompleted, as a matter of fact. See the discussion here: https://apache-labs.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2484 ) and new SW for operating the board.
I also asked him for schematics when I purchased the board, but he said he doesn't have it. He is that sort of a wizkid that has the schematics in his head and produces directly the layout. As to the partially assembled boards, his Github site (https://github.com/Dfinitski/Odyssey-2_2017_TRX/find/master ) contains all the info needed to complete them. Like Sid here already mentioned.

73 Isaac 4Z1AO

-----Original Message-----
From: Georg Hieber [mailto:georg at hieber-stgt.de]
Sent: Monday, 26 November 2018 2:51
To: Isaac Weksler <iweksler at bezeqint.net>; 'Marc OLANIE' <marc.olanie at decision.fr>; hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org
Subject: Re: [hpsdr] ray of hope

First of all, thanks to everybody for the information:
Marc:
I sincerely hope that my inquiry did not come along like I was criticizing anybody. I know how community projects work, and that they at times get stuck because one (or several) of the people involved lack time or are for whatever other reason unable or unwilling to proceed. 
That's all ok - I was just curious about Hermes II's current status.

I basically agree with your opinion that we should keep up with current technologies, and that buying off the shelf products sucks. If you look into my shack / lab, you will find a lot of stuff from companies like HP/Agilent and Rohde & Schwarz, and hardly anything from Icom, Yasu & Co. On the other hand, I see limits for home brewing where certain steps are hardly possible ouside an industrial environment with tightly controlled processes. I don't etch PCB's myself anymore. Soldering BGA's IMHO falls into the same category. I would without hesitating buy a board with that kind of components assembled and do the rest myself.

Between Odyssey and Red Pitaya I would choose Odyssey, for exactly the reason you mention.

Isaac:
I asked David if there are any assembled boards available, and the answer was no, just the partly assembled ones he offers in his web shop. 
As to everything being open source, the schematics are missing. Of course, they could be "reverse engineered" from the layouts, but the preferable way would be if David published them.

73, Georg DK4SE

Am 25.11.2018 um 07:44 schrieb Isaac Weksler:
> I don't have much to add to Marc's comprehensive reply. I own an Odyssey-2 transceiver for about a year. My experience with it is quite positive. A superb piece of hardware for a very reasonable price. In my opinion - this is the real Hermes follower in Open HPSDR spirit come alive (without much talk and pomp).  David Fainitski has designed and produced  a state of the art single board SDR transceiver. It is compatible with Angelia. David actually ported Angelia's firmware. The last version of the firmware provides 8 3.5v digital IO lines. I built a small ULN2803 based board to convert them to OC lines to control my Hercules amp and it works great.
> The 1 watt output from Odyssey proved to be too high for Hercules so I had to put a 6 DB attenuator.
> Connectivity wise David provides 2 versions of FW: New protocol (1Gbs) and Old protocol (100Mbs). The FPGA actually allows 2 slots for both versions to reside in it, it can be switched by the buttons of Yaesu mic that goes into a j45 connector on the front panel of the board. I used both Thetis and PowerSDR for operating Odyssey and got excellent results with both. Unfortunately Thetis - even v2.6.0 - is still buggy, so currently I'm using PowerSDR PS MRX v3.4.9.
> The transceiver has an OLED display operated by a microcontroller. Currently it displays the FW version and the IP address of the board.
> An additional FPGA slot contains bootloader. Current version of the bootloader allows the FW to be programmed by a small Python app via Ethernet.
>
> Everything is completely open source (https://groups.io/g/ody-sdr/topic/odyssey_2_now_is_fully_opened/22673568?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,22673568 ) and is available from Github. All questions, problems and help requests are answered by David usually within 24 hours. David's Odyssey -2 forum is where you can find out how to purchase a fully assembled and tested transceiver https://groups.io/g/ody-sdr/topics .
>
> As can be seen from the technical data published the is competitive (if not superior) to Apache Lab's boards and is less than half in price. RedPitaya is more than 50% more expensive and is inferior in many respects. Anyway, it's not a ready-to-use SDR transceiver. And both Apache and Pitaya hardware is hermetically closed.
>
> Welcome are any questions on this topic. I'll do my best to provide answers.
>
> 73 Isaac 4Z1AO
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hpsdr [mailto:hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org] On Behalf Of 
> Marc OLANIE
> Sent: Sunday, 25 November 2018 10:11
> To: Georg Hieber <georg at hieber-stgt.de>; hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org
> Subject: Re: [hpsdr] ray of hope
>
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Hi Georg et all
>
> As far as I know, the odyssey bare board is an "option". Fully 
> assembled and tested board could be ordered to David via the dedicated 
> mailing list. As he is a real "radio artisan", delays are a little bit 
> long.. but that's the price to pay for affordable, fully open SDRs
>
> ... and we are hams, in other words we have to evolve to deal with up 
> to date electronic and packaging... thus including bga handling.
> Buying "on the shelf" items is killing ham radio (but I admit, bga's 
> are not easy to solder)
>
> The red pitaya is the opposite of the Hermes project. It's a fully closed hardware, commercial board. By chance, many Russian hams did an incredible reverse engineering work to allow the use of the RP as a fully functional SDR. That means using illegal ways to reach a non-profit goal. That's not a "fair" and comfortable approach. By chance, Pavel Denim made a port of the HPSDR firmware -this is NOT a stemlab initiative, just have a look on their different apps and you will understand the quality level and skill of their devlpmt abilities.
>   
> The development of the Hermes V2 project seems to be in sleep mode, 
> let's hope is will awake sooner or later. It's a "voluntary" community 
> project, I will never criticize the efforts of people who sacrifice 
> their spare time for the community. What should we do to help and 
> encourage them to keep on working ? We should ask this question 
> ourselves (and they could probably give us some ideas :- ) )
>
> Let's also hope that the "high end" evolution base on VK6PH Minerva project -which is, as far as I know, an incredibly sexy and still open source/ open hardware opus- will allow the development of "third party" pcb's that will escape the stranglehold of any commercial structure. See whatamean ? Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more.
>
> My 2 cts
> Marc f6itu
>
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : Hpsdr <hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org> De la part de Georg 
> Hieber Envoyé : dimanche 25 novembre 2018 04:58 À :
> hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org Objet : Re: [hpsdr] ray of hope
>
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Helmut,
> a "story" usually is of public knowledge. The "Hermes II story" seems to be one of the best kept secrets on the planet. If you know any details (or where to find further information), any hint would be highly appreciated.
>
> I first read something about a successor to the Hermes board being developed a bit less than a year ago, but ever since - silence. I secretly hoped to find something out in Friedrichshafen, to no avail.
>
> The "red Pitaya" board hopefully appears in their shop before Christmas.
> The Odyssey 2 Board mentioned by 4Z1AO seems only to be available as bare boards with the cheap stuff assembled - the tricky BGA's are missing.
>
> 73, Georg, DK4SE
>
> Am 23.11.2018 um 11:33 schrieb Helmut Oeller:
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>
>> To all, who are sad about the Hermes II story:
>> https://www.redpitaya.com/n86/new-stemlab-sdr
>>
>> 73, DC6NY
>>    
>>
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