An update on my status getting the MacBook Pro to run the Flex5000
driver: tonight I was successful. Here are some points along the way:
1. I wiped the partition and loaded the system, Windows XP Home
Addition, SP2, from scratch again.
2. I tried to apply SP3 right after the XP was installed. It failed
once again with the "you need 4MB more disk storage," error. I am now
convinced that this is a problem with the SP3 installer.
3. I then installed the Boot Camp drivers from the MacBook Pro OS
installation disk rather than from the generic Mac OS Leopard install
disk. This should not be an issue but I decided to try it anyway.
4. I applied the IEEE-1394 hotfix for SP2 from Microsoft (SB885222).
The instructions for editing the registry were just a little off
because on the MacBook Pro the FireWire controller is not under PCI
but rather is in its own parallel branch. Still, the changes seemed
pretty obvious.
5. I downloaded and installed the latest F5K firewire driver from the
Flex website.
6. I downloaded and installed the latest version of PowerSDR.
It works.
I disabled the WiFi controller, the 1394 network device, and
Bluetooth. After doing that the DPC latency was running around 1500us
so I am running under Safe Mode 1. CPU utilization peaked at about 40%
and averages around 25%. This is about double that of the Mac Mini.
So, clearly a MacBook Pro will work just fine as a portable machine
for use with Flex radios. For a fixed site I would opt for a Mac Mini.
Hmm, maybe a 3000 is in my future. The 3000, my MacBook Pro, a small
switching supply, and my SGC-231 tuner will easily fit in my computer
back-pack.
Do we have any power consumption figures for the 3000? Maybe the 1500
will be the way to go for portable QRP operation (if it has a 10W PA
-- hint, hint).
--
73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com
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