On 05/29/2013 08:47 AM, Bob McGwier wrote: THERE WILL BE other clients done with the published API.
I've been musing, for several years now, about building some kind of "client" software with a GUI oriented toward contesting and DXing. My hodgepodge of a Flex-3000 with various pieces of software interconnected by legacy technology (Firewire, CAT) has worked reasonably well and it's been fun using it, but I know that much better systems are feasible, even today. I still remember how to code, so I thought it might be fun to play around with some ideas in a client that would be quite different from SmartSDR or PowerSDR. Of course such a client needs to use some API to get to the radio data and the actual hardware. Are there any details of the Flex Ethernet API as it exists today? I don't care about the Windows-level .NET interface. Even just some basic information would be useful -- e.g., what functionality is available via the Ethernet API, even if the specific formats and protocol exchanges aren't nailed down yet. The root of my interest is simply -- should I wait for Flex to make an API available, or should I focus on one of the other activities that is further along and has APIs that I can work with today? I'm thinking of alternatives like HPSDR/Hermes/Apache and related activities, for which an Ethernet API is already available. I'd like to do this with my Flex-3000, which I've been using for years and like a lot. But I don't see a way to do it, except maybe by creating another variant of PowerSDR which doesn't seem like fun. So, wait for a Flex-xxxx with a suitable published API, or go buy a Hermes or other such gear and use that to play with some software ideas? One possibility also seems to be using my existing F3K, but cobbling up some stripped-down version of PowerSDR that implements all the DSP as today, but presents the same pending Flex API over my current PC's Ethernet port. That way I could use my F3K instead of buying some HPSDR-compatible hardware for development. The Flex-6xxx line is a tad too expensive to use for playing around with software. Of course, if Flex made such a "PowerSDR/Ethernet" translator available, there might be a lot more potential developers to write interesting clients. I doubt many client developers will be able to purchase a Flex-6xxx for use in software development, but a -1500 or -3000 is a lot easier to justify. Thoughts? 73, /Jack _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software innovation and other technical SDR topics.
