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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I definitely think there needs to be
some thought on what, if any changes should be made. Obviously, in
order to get the price in the range where it is, this is a very
minimalist design. There's no I/O on the board other than the
antenna connectors. The I/O is either on the FPGA board (LAN
connector to talk HPSDR protocol) or non-existant, i.e. you have
to use your PC I/O.<br>
<br>
I'm thinking about the various differences in terms of where this
fits in compared to the SDR stick boards, etc. The main thing this
brings to the table is transmit capability at low cost. If you
just want receive you'd be better off with a SDR stick HF1 board.
However if you want transmit capability you need to buy the HF2
and the TX2 which gives you Hermes equivalent performance at a
price that is a significant part (but still cheaper) of the cost
of a full Hermes board.<br>
<br>
If I am reading the specs correctly, the output is 10 mW. I'm
wondering what functionality could be added to the board without
significantly raising the price. In my opinion, some sort of gain
stage that could get the output up into the range of 100-500 mW
would make sense if it could be done relatively cheaply.<br>
<br>
I think there definitely needs to be some further development on
this idea before a significant number of people jump in. Also, I
think we need a more complete enumeration of what you get and what
you don't get in terms of performance and features, in order to
properly set expectations. This is a Hermes "Lite", so there are
significant tradeoffs, but that shouldn't surprise anyone given
the price.<br>
<br>
What do others think?<br>
<br>
John<br>
AC0ZG<br>
<br>
<br>
On 4/13/2014 5:01 PM, John Marvin wrote:<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Steve,<br>
<br>
This is really cool! I suspect this is going to take off,
especially if TAPR is willing to produce finished boards (after
a little more shakedown and polishing by early adopters). Even
if not, I've been wanting to take my surface mount skills to the
next level, but wasn't willing to try something as expensive and
as complicated as a Hermes board from scratch.<br>
<br>
So, who wants to be in the first wave of early adopters? Can we
get together a group purchase of PCB's and components? Perhaps
there should only be a small number of people in the first wave,
who are willing to build immediately and help refine things for
the next group. I'm willing to help or coordinate things, but I
would need help with understanding and completing the process of
preparing the gerber files for submitting to a PCB vendor. I
would also need someone else to do any modifications that might
be required (since I am not familiar with the tools involved),
based on Steve's replies to the questions below?<br>
<br>
Some quick questions and a request:<br>
<br>
1) The picture you provided showed some small jumper wires, one
on the FPGA board and one on the Hermes Lite board. What were
these required for? If required, I'm assuming the Hermes Lite
board can be modified to remove the need for the jumper wire,
correct? Are there any more jumpers that are not visible?<br>
Any other changes you would suggest for a version 2 board?<br>
<br>
2) Any chance you could provide higher resolution photos of both
the front and back of the Hermes Lite board without the FPGA
board attached?<br>
<br>
Thanks!<br>
<br>
John<br>
AC0ZG<br>
<br>
On 4/13/2014 4:05 PM, Steve Haynal wrote:<br>
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<pre wrap="">***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
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<div dir="ltr">Hello List,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I have been working on a lower cost variant of the Hermes
which I am calling Hermes-Lite. All the details are at </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite">https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The design is entirely open source and open hardware. The
cost of all materials (including the BeMicro SDK board) is
around $150. The FPGA firmware is a port of the Hermes RTL
and is compatible enough to work with existing Hermes
software. The ADC/DAC is the AD9866 12-bit integrated device
intended for cable modems which I have repurposed as a 0-36
MHz transceiver. RX/TX tests of my prototype show good
performance. The github site has instructions for listening
to the receiver online. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I had hoped to have a more polished project before
releasing, but I am starting a new job tomorrow and will
have limited time for this project. Any help on this project
or derivatives is welcome.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thank you to all the people at openhpsdr who developed
the Hermes and provided valuable IP to reuse in this
project. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>73,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Steve</div>
<div>KF7O</div>
</div>
<br>
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