I strongly suggest we get the software be settled before the hardware is touched. I agree there are a lot of cables but try and dupe the quality of a Delta 44 for $150 as a built-in. NOW, if we can make a spot for the Delta card or USB sound device and plugs in the radio box then were talking and that I would jump at that because those are the parts more likely to need changing and they're cheap to replace. The Unearthly wisdom of the Flex Radio dreamers is that they built only what they needed to. For the rest they looked to off the shelf finished high quality add-ons. This method made a top quality radio system at a very very low price. And unlike the store bought appliance radios, the real hardware quality changes are probably going to be in the non-Flex add-ons. Better computers, USB connections etc. But let's keep dreaming for now, leave the hardware alone and perfect the software. Maybe there will be hardware soon that can be bought at a music store that can be bought and plugged in.
Jim Lux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At 05:53 AM 9/25/2006, Larry Loen wrote: >Jim Lux wrote: > >>At 07:48 PM 9/24/2006, Larry Loen wrote: >> >>>David Ackrill wrote: >>> >>> >Guy Olinger, K2AV wrote: >>> > >>>I've thought long and hard about this note. >> >> >>I would support this.. put a Mini-ITX mobo in the package with the >>radio and give it an ethernet interface and I'd be a really happy camper. > > >As long as the Mini-ITX is separate from what I'm asking for, >analogous to what is done with the Dell package, I have no problems with this. > >But, I want the radio _itself_ to be portable or at least reasonably >"transportable." That means a 12v unit and also a unit as a whole >that can be put into the bottom of a carry on bag for an >airliner. Something physically not much bigger (maybe not bigger at >all) than the current unit. I just want it very _slightly_ smarter >in roughly the same package. I want it to be just a little more >like a conventional radio and not outsmart ourselves with added >complexity. Conceptually, take out the 2m transverter and insert >the A/D D/A CPU-based package in its place. That's all, at least physically. >Start adding in a full Mini-ITX PC as a single, indivisible unit and >the whole suggestion becomes more problematical. Flex (whatever it >does) is not going to have a gigantic product line. I vote for a >KISS USB peripheral approach because it would acutally serve a >_wider_ menu of needs. As I read Jim's idea, there's still a second >computer involved anyway, so the Mini ITX, as a "platform" has more >minuses than plusses, I think. I mentioned Mini-ITX because, at least in the Via versions, they're cheap, small, run off 12V, and have all the standard interfaces. Even with a USB, A/D, etc. you're going to need some sort of processing on the board, so why not use something inexpensive, low power. The trick would be resisting the temptation to load up that poor little 533 MHz (or 1 GHz processor) >I don't think having the Flex unit itself having ethernet is >critical at all. Nor particularly desirable. I like Ethernet because it's high rate and totally standardized. Say the SDR1000+mobo just spews the samples out on a UDP socket. You could hook any number of clients onto the stream, etc. You don't have a distance limit (unlike 1394 or USB), and almost every PC these days has a Ethernet interface with good bandwidth to the processor. If ethernet is somehow the only way to do my version of this, I'll go for it. But please, no "all in one" kind of unit. Keep the hardware as simple, small, 12v, and as dumb as possible. Ideally in the very same box or one only slightly larger. All I really want to do is _mildly_ upgrade the SDR 1000 to contain enough horsepower to do the D/A and A/D so we can get rid of all those wires and all those easily disturbed plugs. Not a whit more. If it weren't for the delicate wires, I'd say what we have is already perfect. But, the wires just have to go. >>Maybe this is something that some decent soul will produce as a >>product. I'd do it tomorrow if the PowerSDR software were >>adequately partitionable (and if I could figure out how to netboot >>XP..although, a dedicated HD in the package isn't a huge >>problem). Heck, if there was someone else who would figure out how >>to make a bootable image of Linux on the embedded mobo stored on a >>CF that PowerSDR under XP talked to over the net, that would be fine. > >In my version of it, I don't care if the firmware is some simple >embedded "thing in itself" or has a full-blown Linux >underneath. But, if things go wrong, it has to be able to be >powered off and on just like today's unit, with not much delay >before being "ready" after power on. If there's a Linux in there, it >had better be bootable from some sort of re-writable ROM and very spartan. That's a given.. As above.. the key is resisting the urge to load the kitchen sink on that mobo. > The command set need not even be as sophisticated as Kenwood CAT > anyway. "Set latch 1 to 55" and "receive current D/A packet of > data" would be enough of a command set, with adequate publication > of same (or, easily inferred from the schematic). The rest of the > complexity would be outboard and could reasonably be expected to be > the current PowerSDR console, the new one, or something else. One could do this level with a whole variety of processors, from PICs (maybe) to Rabbits on up. But, by the time you do the board, etc. you're at the $100 cost of a bottom of the line Mini-ITX, which is driven down by huge consumer volumes. Any "SDR custom" solution is going to have small volumes, so the relatively large NRE will need to be spread over relatively few units. >No "feature creep" please. I don't want much more than we have >already. Less is definitely more, here. precisely. Simple, straightforward interfaces with IP sockets... Jim _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/attachments/20060925/aee4c532/attachment.html _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
