Holy Smoke! I thought there might be a level of interest in standardizing the computer system. Seems I was right. ;-)
I thought about replying to this piecemeal, addressing each message separately but think that trying to summarize will probably make it easier to read and assimilate. Philosophy: Let me start at a philosophical bottom point. First, I did not propose to do this because I plan to make money at it. Frankly, doing PC integration is a good way to do a lot of work without making any money. If that were my motivation I would be doing something else. The purpose here is to make life easier for a lot of people who might otherwise look at some box besides Flex because making the Flex work is too frustrating. (I know a lot about integrating computer systems and *I* got frustrated!) So what do I get out of it? I get to help Flex keep going. I have committed to their product and I want to see it flourish so that they will continue to support the product I have purchased. They are also the most likely candidate on the horizon right now to move SDR forward in the direction I would like to see it go. Hardware: This is the thing where a lot of people get bogged down in minutiae. We can argue AMD vs. Intel Duo Core vs. Intel Atom vs. whatever until we are blue-in-the-face. There is something advantageous and disadvantageous to all of the processor families. From my point of view it boils down to the following: 1. it must run the common instruction set so that it will effectively run Windows[XP|Vista|7] and Linux; 2. it should have sufficient processing power to run the mix of applications that 99% of the Flex 5000 users want to run (with a little left over); 3. it should have reasonable power consumption. Think about it: this is really a commodity device. Do you really care what is in it? I know that my primary interest is that it just work so I don't have to fiddle with it. I want to play with the radio, not the computer. The computer should enable this. As a data point, I am running a 1.7GHz Celeron-based system. Everyone will tell you that this is *much* too small. But it works just fine. It updates the screen, runs both receivers, runs the digital mode program, and doesn't suffer from any dropouts. I am not ruling out any of the hardware platforms. In fact, consider that the lifetime of any base system is 6 months. Yes, that is all the longer that any of the motherboard manufacturers expect to make any motherboard product. At the end of 6 months they have to replace any motherboard product in order to remain competitive. This means that whatever system I would come up with today is NOT going to be the system I would come up with 6 months from now. The key thing is, todays system will continue to work with the Flex 5000 (or 3000 or 1500 but they require less performance from the computer system) for the foreseeable future. The point is that the system will still work even if it is not state-of-the-art in nine months. (And I am looking at Atom-based systems first but if I can do a Core2 system for about the same money, I might go that route.) Operating System: Right now if you want to run a Flex radio, you need to run Windows. That means that any system I put together right now has to run Windows. The software needed to support all the applications contemplated is Windows XP Home. There is no advantage to running XP Pro, Vista, or V7 because none of these operating systems offer any extra features that the applications can use. So running XP Pro, Vista, or V7 just means you are getting an OS that has more more code that consumes memory, consumes processing power, can be exploited to hack your machine, and therefore must be identified and turned off. In the future I am hoping that we can move toward a simpler OS that will be more efficient in its use of system resources (memory and processor) so that we get more from our existing hardware, thus extending the effective lifetime of the hardware and thus our investment. Applications: I proposed a list of applications. It was: * PowerSDR * VAC * com0com * ddutil * Ham Radio Deluxe/DM780 * fldigi I proposed this as it will do what 99% of the hams buying a Flex want to do. It gives you rig control, control of external devices; e.g. amplifiers, rotators, tuners, etc.; digital modes, logging, etc. Now we can argue about the best digital mode program or the best logging program but I am guessing that, if the hardware works well for the above list of applications, it will work well if you choose to substitute a different rig control program, a different digital mode program, or a different logging program. In the mean time, I want to come up with one single software configuration that will just work right out of the box. For a ham who is new to Flex radios and digital mode operating, HRD or fldigi will do what he/she wants to do. Later when they become experienced they can move to something more esoteric if they so choose. The experienced ham is probably going to want to build his/her own system anyway and won't be interested in having me put one together for them. Remote operation: Frankly, I never considered this. I would love to hear how many people would like to be able to do this. Right now it appears that any attempt to do it is going to be a very big kludge fraught with danger. Doing remote access means opening the computer up to potential hacking. Given the state of Windows it is not something I would be comfortable doing. I think I would side-step this issue right now. Installing Skype and VNC to be able to do remote control is going to put a much larger load on the system. Also, the next generation is likely to make remote-control very easy. Therefore, I do not plan to spend any time on this. If this feature is important to you then you probably want/need to build your own system. Hopefully this clears up the questions. If you think you might want me to put a system together for you, please send me an email stating your interest and a ballpark for what you think you would be willing to pay for such a system. I will use that information to determine what I can put together for what price. If there is enough interest I will go ahead. If not, no worries. I have lots of things to do. :-) FWIW I am planning to spend some time at the Flex booth at Pacificon this Saturday. If you are going I would love to meet you. 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
