On Jun 5, 2007, at 9:33 AM, Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
From: Brian Lloyd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 08:36:11 -0700
I would love to have a universal interface that would plug into the
ethernet and let me sample and control things in my shack. I
want to
control my antenna switch. If I am doing weak-signal microwave
stuff
I need to coordinate the sequencing of my IF radio, my transverter,
my preamp and power amp switching, etc. Lots going on. I might want
to let the DSP in the radio perform the low-level modulation and
demodulation while letting my computer perform more of the high-
level
protocol functions.
We're getting pretty close to that with USB now,
The problem is, USB is a bad choice in this situation. It is a short-
range master-slave system. It is intended to have a single master
controller control a few attached devices. That works for peripherals
on your PC but it is not general purpose for our shack. We really
want something that is peer-to-peer and has no limitations. There may
be times when I want several devices on the network controlling
several other devices. I might have two computers, three radios, two
antenna controllers, a couple of amplifiers, etc. The system should
not place arbitrary limits on what I might dream up.
and I suspect Ethernet equivalents aren't that far away.
That would be good.
Of course, some people are
going to want Bluetooth instead (which might happen first).
The key is to be able to run higher-layer protocols over it.
Bluetooth can do that better than USB can but WiFi is an even better
choice. Still, I would much rather have wire, especially in a shack.
Less radiation to deal with. With 100Mbps ethernet each cable can run
100Mbps. The more connections I make, the more capacity I have (using
switched ethernet). With WiFi and Bluetooth all my devices have to
share the same capacity and they are subject to RFI, something not
all that unusual in a shack. And if the ham is trying to "work the
bird" or do EME on 2.3GHz, they are NOT going to want WiFi and
Bluetooth cruft floating around causing interference.
But given
the state of flux of the world, I think Elecraft has made a good, if
conservative, decision.
Given the cost of serial and the cost of Ethernet I would tend to
disagree. Other than perhaps some backward compatibility there is no
real advantage to serial RS-232 over Ethernet and a lot of
disadvantages.
It might even be practical to add an Ethernet
to serial interface internally.
No, that would be a bad decision as it would not make anything any
better. Ethernet provides multiplexing already. Serial does not.
Ethernet provides 1000 Mbps. Serial does not. I could go on and on.
Ethernet-to-serial is just a band-aid. Better to put the ethernet
controller right on the processor's bus where it belongs then you
have all the features of Ethernet. And you can still emulate a serial
interface if you really want to.
I've done a trivial mod to add
internal USB to a Z90, and it certainly looks possible to add internal
Ethernet to that unit. But that takes software and perhaps some
administration.
Yes, and this is not a bad thing. (More below.)
I note that my printer is connected by Ethernet, but required a
driver for that.
That is because most printer manufacturers try to move the processing
into the computer rather than putting the printer processing in the
printer where it belongs. This is a poor engineering decision based
on reducing costs. You will find that good printers use a standard
protocol on the wire and do all the processing local to the printer.
And yes, it takes software. When doing something it takes effort to
do the the right way the first time and doing it the right way is
probably not the easy way. OTOH, once you have done it the right way
it pays big dividends in the long run as you can build great things
on a common base.
If you want a perfect example, look at the Internet. When we were
designing the protocols for the Internet we tried to make things as
simple, general, and expandable as possible so that we could make new
things in the future as we thought of them. Look at all the cool
things that have come from that sort of thinking. It should be
applied to our other communications systems as well.
In the meantime, look at what N8LP has done.
73, doug
73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [email protected]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
