[Flexradio] Website
Website is now OK, but where is Forum? 73, Ahti OH2RZ
Re: [Flexradio] BSD occurred while changing frequencies using BSR w/ 1.4.5p7
Tim, The BSOD was caused by vackmd.sys which is the VAC driver. It tried to perform an operation at a restricted IRQ level (looks like in the IRQ Cancel routine). This is a bug in the VAC driver and it should be reported to the author. He should then request the dump file to analyze the exact cause. Since the version of vackmd.sys on your system is not a debug build with symbols, I cannot tell you the exact cause within the VAC driver code. Only the author can do this since he has the source code. 73 de Phil N8VB On 11/30/05, Tim Ellison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Error occurred with version: 1.4.5p7 During the testing of the popping noise during frequency changes using the band stack register (BSR) feature on 20 meter, I experienced a blue screen of death: IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL Hex code: 0x000a (0x0028 0x0002 0x0001 0x80a5702a) I have the mini dump if anyone wants it. -Tim --- Tim Ellison mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Integrated Technical Services http://www.itsco.com/ Apex, NC USA 919.674.0044 Ext. 25 / 919.674.0045 (FAX) 919.215.6375 - cell PGP public key available at all public KeyServers ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com
Re: [Flexradio] BSD occurred while changing frequencies using BSR w/ 1.4.5p7
The error codes and mini dumps have been forwarded to Eugene (author of VAC). I'll keep everyone informed of the progress of getting this resolved. A big thanks to Phil for analyzing the mini dump and pointing me in the right direction. -Tim --- Tim Ellison ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) Integrated Technical Services ( http://www.itsco.com ) -Original Message- From: Philip Covington [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 9:30 AM To: Tim Ellison Cc: flexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] BSD occurred while changing frequencies using BSR w/ 1.4.5p7 Tim, The BSOD was caused by vackmd.sys which is the VAC driver. It tried to perform an operation at a restricted IRQ level (looks like in the IRQ Cancel routine). This is a bug in the VAC driver and it should be reported to the author. He should then request the dump file to analyze the exact cause. Since the version of vackmd.sys on your system is not a debug build with symbols, I cannot tell you the exact cause within the VAC driver code. Only the author can do this since he has the source code. 73 de Phil N8VB On 11/30/05, Tim Ellison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Error occurred with version: 1.4.5p7 During the testing of the popping noise during frequency changes using the band stack register (BSR) feature on 20 meter, I experienced a blue screen of death: IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL Hex code: 0x000a (0x0028 0x0002 0x0001 0x80a5702a) I have the mini dump if anyone wants it. -Tim --- Tim Ellison mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Integrated Technical Services http://www.itsco.com/ Apex, NC USA 919.674.0044 Ext. 25 / 919.674.0045 (FAX) 919.215.6375 - cell PGP public key available at all public KeyServers ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com
Re: [Flexradio] Website
We were unable to recover the forums from our old server when our webhost abruptly switched us to a new server. We would encourage the FlexRadio community to use the reflector as the primary means of communication. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] radio.biz] On Behalf Of Ahti Aintila Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 7:53 AM To: 'FlexRadio Reflector' Subject: [Flexradio] Website Website is now OK, but where is Forum? 73, Ahti OH2RZ ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler
Eric - Yes, in my humble opinion CW is the one weak spot for the SDR that I would sure like to see resolved. A USB connection sounds like a GREAT possibility! John Denson - Original Message - From: ecellison To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; 'FlexRadio Reflector' Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 3:56 AM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler Chris Another thought occurred to me on simple things to do would be to program a keyer on the chip. Just needs two debounced inputs and one output for testing. Eventually the keying stream would be sent back through the USB control fifo conntection. I can still remember the old DTL and TTL keyers I built early on. CW remains one of those shaky areas in the radio, and there is almost nothing we cant do with high speed USB. Eric From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher T. DaySent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 12:35 AMTo: FlexRadio ReflectorSubject: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler Ok, I'm hooked as well. My Xylo arrived today - they're just down the road - but there's no time for me to get the Wolfson chips. I leave for the South Pole on Monday and the Xylo is going with me for playing with in my "copious spare time". Right. Anyway, if I manage not to blow it out with the horrendous static down there, I'll see if I can get some simple VHDL going. If anyone has suggestions of simple things to try out, I'd appreciate it. I'm pretty good with computing languages, but haven't done any of this mushy form of hardware before. Thanks. Chris AE6VK ___FlexRadio mailing listFlexRadio@flex-radio.bizhttp://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Website
The reflector archives can be found at the following link: http://mail.flex-radio.biz/pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/ The archive can be sorted by Thread, Subject, Author, and Date. There is also a downloadable version. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: Richard A. Kronick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 10:33 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: RE: Re: [Flexradio] Website I just tried to get into the reflector to check archives. I could not do it. The forum was neat because it had a place for storage of notes of changes, storage of other problems that people might have had and solved. It simple to do one subject search and come up with all the msgs regarding the subject, regardless of date. Can that be done on the reflector? 73 Dick W4RAK
Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler
Eric - Yes, in my humble opinion CW is the one weak spot for the SDR that I would sure like to see resolved. A USB connection sounds like a GREAT possibility! John Denson I think the fundamental problem is inserting software into the path. What I would like to see (my better can correct me) is something like this: A new CW mode: 1. The key would be attached to the rig as now. 2. It would NOT be fed back to the software. 3. In this mode, the software puts out a true continuous wave at the frequency of interest. 4. Some clever bit of software or a dedicated PIC either feeds the wave values as they come (if the key is currently depressed) or feeds zero/resets T/R if the key is not depressed. I'm not sure how easy this would be to program (one would presumably need a send and receive thread, in this instance, and they'd have to cooperate on when to listen and when to write data, including the futile moments for the transmit side of it). The other alternative, with a hefty enough PIC on the other side, would be to write a number, representing the frequency offset, and have the PIC provide the CW stream when the switch is on, perhaps including, the element shaping. This would seem entirely plausible as it could presumably all be precomputed at some relevant level for Morse Code sine waves. If any of this really works, it would eliminate all the headaches that come from having Windows as an intermediary to a real time system. I can tell you that no matter how good a job we've done, there's always glitches and while they are much, much better, they still seem to exist. The latest preview 7 is actually a bit behind the previous levels of the keyer, in fact, as there seems to be the occassional stuck on bits where the wave continues after the key is actually off (not connected). At some point, we need a real hardware solution to this one, I think. Or, at least a Windows-free pathway. Larry WO0Z
Re: [Flexradio] Website
We were unable to recover the forums from our old server when our webhost abruptly switched us to a new server. We would encourage the FlexRadio community to use the reflector as the primary means of communication. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems Does that mean the forum is forever dead, or is this only for a couple of days? Larry WO0Z
Re: [Flexradio] Website
The original forums are gone. They could not be recovered. We will likely reinstall forums for the sake of our non-english speaking customers (German and Italian). English language support will be redirected to the reflector. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: 'Ahti Aintila'; 'FlexRadio Reflector' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Website We were unable to recover the forums from our old server when our webhost abruptly switched us to a new server. We would encourage the FlexRadio community to use the reflector as the primary means of communication. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems Does that mean the forum is forever dead, or is this only for a couple of days? Larry WO0Z
Re: [Flexradio] v1.4.5 P6 P7 out of band indication for 17m phone band
Joe, I just quickly checked mine (Preview ) and it seems to work correctly. Bob K5KDN -Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Joe - AB1DOSent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:31 PMTo: FlexRadio@flex-radio.bizSubject: [Flexradio] v1.4.5 P6 P7 out of band indication for 17m phone band Hi, It may have already been reported, but I noticed that in v1.4.5 previews 6 7 the VFO info displays out of band for the phone portion of 17m (18.110 - 18.168 MHz), although transmission is possible. The 17m band button remains highlighted and jumps to GEN beyond 18.168. I imported my databases from the previous versions. 73 de Joe - AB1DO Configuration:Dell Dimension 3000 /w 3GHz P4 + 1GB RAM + XPHomeSP2SDR-1000 + RFE + 100W PA + USB AdapterDelta-44 + Break-out kit
Re: [Flexradio] v1.4.5 P6 P7 out of band indication for 17m phone band
This is likely due to the database fix that we implemented to keep the band errors from creeping back in. Now if conflicting records are found in the database, it eliminates them. This will result in holes in your database for that version. The next time that you import a database, it should fill in the holes with the default database. If you dont want to wait, you could move your database file, let a database be created, and then import the original database. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joe - AB1DO Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:31 PM To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] v1.4.5 P6 P7 out of band indication for 17m phone band Hi, It may have already been reported, but I noticed that in v1.4.5 previews 6 7 the VFO info displays out of band for the phone portion of 17m (18.110 - 18.168 MHz), although transmission is possible. The 17m band button remains highlighted and jumps to GEN beyond 18.168. I imported my databases from the previous versions. 73 de Joe - AB1DO Configuration: Dell Dimension 3000 /w 3GHz P4 + 1GB RAM + XPHomeSP2 SDR-1000 + RFE + 100W PA + USB Adapter Delta-44 + Break-out kit
Re: [Flexradio] Website
Hmmm. The disappearance of the website creates a small dilemma for me. The question is, do I continue the blogging of my 80m DxCC experiences or not in this mailing list? On the old forum, it's easy, because if you don't care for what I'm writing about, it's easy to ignore. If you care (and the reference count suggests some do), you go there on your own. Easy. Here, the mail comes whether you like it or not. You're subscribed, so on it comes. Moreover, while they aren't big, I do drop in the odd picture now and then. It's a bit more offputting to many (not everyone has high speed dialup) if I start putting up e-mail postings here that include pictures. There'd probably be a maximum of 100K each and probably not every posting, but still. . .a big annoyance on dialup to download 100K that you simply then delete. Ok, maybe 40 or 50K usually, but still. . . So, before I simply plow on and impose what might be a burden on some, I'd like some private e-mail on this, pro and con. Larry WO0Z
[Flexradio] shuttle pro
My Shuttle Pro came today and what agreat unit this is..it really helps and saves a lot of time..Thanks FlexRadio gang..now if it just had dual receive..I have had the radio for about a week now and it is such a nice radio..73s Bob
Re: [Flexradio] Website
Larry, How about getting a free blog over at blogspot.com Here is mine: http://pcovington.blogspot.com/ That way you don't upset anyone who would rather not receive it on the list and people can choose whether to tune in or not. Phil N8VB On 12/1/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hmmm. The disappearance of the website creates a small dilemma for me. The question is, do I continue the blogging of my 80m DxCC experiences or not in this mailing list? On the old forum, it's easy, because if you don't care for what I'm writing about, it's easy to ignore. If you care (and the reference count suggests some do), you go there on your own. Easy. Here, the mail comes whether you like it or not. You're subscribed, so on it comes. Moreover, while they aren't big, I do drop in the odd picture now and then. It's a bit more offputting to many (not everyone has high speed dialup) if I start putting up e-mail postings here that include pictures. There'd probably be a maximum of 100K each and probably not every posting, but still. . .a big annoyance on dialup to download 100K that you simply then delete. Ok, maybe 40 or 50K usually, but still. . . So, before I simply plow on and impose what might be a burden on some, I'd like some private e-mail on this, pro and con. Larry WO0Z ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com
Re: [Flexradio] Website
Phil This probably would be a good solution for zylo-phreaks as well. Eric -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Philip Covington Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 5:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Website Larry, How about getting a free blog over at blogspot.com Here is mine: http://pcovington.blogspot.com/ That way you don't upset anyone who would rather not receive it on the list and people can choose whether to tune in or not. Phil N8VB On 12/1/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hmmm. The disappearance of the website creates a small dilemma for me. The question is, do I continue the blogging of my 80m DxCC experiences or not in this mailing list? On the old forum, it's easy, because if you don't care for what I'm writing about, it's easy to ignore. If you care (and the reference count suggests some do), you go there on your own. Easy. Here, the mail comes whether you like it or not. You're subscribed, so on it comes. Moreover, while they aren't big, I do drop in the odd picture now and then. It's a bit more offputting to many (not everyone has high speed dialup) if I start putting up e-mail postings here that include pictures. There'd probably be a maximum of 100K each and probably not every posting, but still. . .a big annoyance on dialup to download 100K that you simply then delete. Ok, maybe 40 or 50K usually, but still. . . So, before I simply plow on and impose what might be a burden on some, I'd like some private e-mail on this, pro and con. Larry WO0Z ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Website
Phil Lee et al. I am also sad to see the website go and do enjoy reading Larry's exploits etc. I am especially sad at the loss of content which probably could have been served up in another way. It is not only a chronologic historic record of the radios revolution, but also still had a good deal of useful content. Ah Well! Eric2 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lee A Crocker Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 6:03 PM To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] Website Larry Why don't you set up a regular blog at one of the blogsites like blogger, and include the url in a signature file. I am interested in your 80M exploits, and the blog would be a more natural method of recording them as opposed to a series of reflected emails. Blogger is trivial to set up and its free. 73 Lee W9OY ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler
Larry et.al. Well, I think we have about 8 Xylo-Phreaks at the moment who have jumped into the swim. That may be enough to get beyond the 'playing' stage for some further planning. It is a fairly inexpensive fun gadget to play with in any event, and if you have any electronics and logic hardware experience it is a 'hardware magic slate', as well as CPU and memory, which is VERY FAST and POWERFUL in the first place. If you are such a person, I'd highly recommend the $120 dollar investment just to play. Drag out your old TTL-DTL schematics and past them into a core. I think Phil has just about proven that he can interface the Wolfson via I2S to the High Speed USB device on the Xylo. SO? Where do we go from there? Phil alluded to it in his original message re the Xylo and what he was trying to do, (and if we all can manage to do it): If we assume that the objective is to replace the PIO board. The parallel port (and hole(s) it leaves) are replaced with: Line-In Line-Out Key-In Speaker-Out USB I/O Ethernet I/O (perhaps one or two other high level inputs) The hardware on the FPGA does all the heavy lifting! PowerSDR has FAR less hardware to poll and not miss any events. USB at 480 kbs/sec and even Ethernet at greater speeds give it I/Q and control FAST. So fast in fact, that the designers of modules will probably have to check for race situations. If that is a case CW and sidetone monitor will be a snap, with it's own PID. IMHO Now we need a CVS and a Blog. Are any of you Flexers annoyed by the open discussion on the Reflector? Get Gates! http://www.fpga4fun.com/ Actually they have a pretty fair 100 msps Dual Trace digital oscilloscope too! http://www.fpga4fun.com/digitalscope.html Eric2 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 3:05 PM To: John Denson Cc: ecellison; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'FlexRadio Reflector' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler Eric - Yes, in my humble opinion CW is the one weak spot for the SDR that I would sure like to see resolved. A USB connection sounds like a GREAT possibility! John Denson I think the fundamental problem is inserting software into the path. What I would like to see (my better can correct me) is something like this: A new CW mode: 1. The key would be attached to the rig as now. 2. It would NOT be fed back to the software. 3. In this mode, the software puts out a true continuous wave at the frequency of interest. 4. Some clever bit of software or a dedicated PIC either feeds the wave values as they come (if the key is currently depressed) or feeds zero/resets T/R if the key is not depressed. I'm not sure how easy this would be to program (one would presumably need a send and receive thread, in this instance, and they'd have to cooperate on when to listen and when to write data, including the futile moments for the transmit side of it). The other alternative, with a hefty enough PIC on the other side, would be to write a number, representing the frequency offset, and have the PIC provide the CW stream when the switch is on, perhaps including, the element shaping. This would seem entirely plausible as it could presumably all be precomputed at some relevant level for Morse Code sine waves. If any of this really works, it would eliminate all the headaches that come from having Windows as an intermediary to a real time system. I can tell you that no matter how good a job we've done, there's always glitches and while they are much, much better, they still seem to exist. The latest preview 7 is actually a bit behind the previous levels of the keyer, in fact, as there seems to be the occassional stuck on bits where the wave continues after the key is actually off (not connected). At some point, we need a real hardware solution to this one, I think. Or, at least a Windows-free pathway. Larry WO0Z
Re: [Flexradio] Website
Thanks to all for the suggestions, public and private. I guess I know where my stuff belongs and it's not here. I'm going to give www.qsl.net a try. It is free and ham specific. It shows definite signs of overload, though, but I can't complain about the price. When I get the go ahead and figure it all out, I'll send word in here. Fair warning: Since there is a potentially new audience there, I'll have to start over a bit. We'll see if I can remember what I wrote a couple days ago! Larry WO0Z
[Flexradio] Xylo Update
Fellow Xyloeans, Last night I managed to get audio from the Wolfson A/D, via the FPGA and FX2 over the USB2 at 480Mbps to the PC and out over PortAudio to the speakers. For some reason PortAudio would hang after a few seconds but it was late at night and not the time to start debugging. Having spent some time looking at VHDL I decided to start learning Verilog instead which proved to have a much shorter learning curve. I am just delighted with the Xylo board and how easy it is to program with the free Quartus II software. Next step is to fix the PortAudio bug and get it integrated into the SDR1000 software. 73's Phil...VK6APH
Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update
Hi Phil, Good deal, sounds great! I am curious what sampling rate you were running the Wolfson chip at and whether your were doing both channels or just one for now? Also, what did you decide on for synchronization of the audio frames between left and right channels? 73 de Phil N8VB On 12/1/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fellow Xyloeans, Last night I managed to get audio from the Wolfson A/D, via the FPGA and FX2 over the USB2 at 480Mbps to the PC and out over PortAudio to the speakers. For some reason PortAudio would hang after a few seconds but it was late at night and not the time to start debugging. Having spent some time looking at VHDL I decided to start learning Verilog instead which proved to have a much shorter learning curve. I am just delighted with the Xylo board and how easy it is to program with the free Quartus II software. Next step is to fix the PortAudio bug and get it integrated into the SDR1000 software. 73's Phil...VK6APH ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com
Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update
Would someone please send me a link to a technical reference for the xylo board? Thanks, Richard W5SXD Philip Covington [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (12/01/2005 20:38) Hi Phil, Good deal, sounds great! I am curious what sampling rate you were running the Wolfson chip at and whether your were doing both channels or just one for now? Also, what did you decide on for synchronization of the audio frames between left and right channels? 73 de Phil N8VB On 12/1/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fellow Xyloeans, Last night I managed to get audio from the Wolfson A/D, via the FPGA and FX2 over the USB2 at 480Mbps to the PC and out over PortAudio to the speakers. For some reason PortAudio would hang after a few seconds but it was late at night and not the time to start debugging. Having spent some time looking at VHDL I decided to start learning Verilog instead which proved to have a much shorter learning curve. I am just delighted with the Xylo board and how easy it is to program with the free Quartus II software. Next step is to fix the PortAudio bug and get it integrated into the SDR1000 software. 73's Phil...VK6APH ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Website
I take it the web provider didn't do backups? Are you sure you want to stick with them? A copy of the backup would give the future historian something to dig through. Chris AE6VK -Original Message- From: Duane - N9DG [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 7:25 PM To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Website Indeed it is very unfortunate to have lost all the great information in the forums. Much of the information there would have been a gold mine for the author who will be writing a book about the early beginnings of Flex-Radio and how the SDR-1000 became the genesis of a major redefinition of how ham radio equipment is designed and used. You know the book that will be written some 30 years after Flex-Radio supplants the so called big three as being the most popular radio brand that hams buy :). Duane1 - I think :) N9DG
Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler
If I get a vote, I want to cast it, several times, if possible, for Subversion over CVS. It is aa much improved update of the same idea. Download from http://subversion.tigris.org/. For Windows users, Also download http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/, a very easy-to-use GUI for Subversion that integrates directly into the Explorer. Chris AE6VK -Original Message- From: ecellison [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 4:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'John Denson' Cc: 'FlexRadio Reflector'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler Larry et.al. Well, I think we have about 8 Xylo-Phreaks at the moment who have jumped into the swim. That may be enough to get beyond the 'playing' stage for some further planning. It is a fairly inexpensive fun gadget to play with in any event, and if you have any electronics and logic hardware experience it is a 'hardware magic slate', as well as CPU and memory, which is VERY FAST and POWERFUL in the first place. If you are such a person, I'd highly recommend the $120 dollar investment just to play. Drag out your old TTL-DTL schematics and past them into a core. I think Phil has just about proven that he can interface the Wolfson via I2S to the High Speed USB device on the Xylo. SO? Where do we go from there? Phil alluded to it in his original message re the Xylo and what he was trying to do, (and if we all can manage to do it): If we assume that the objective is to replace the PIO board. The parallel port (and hole(s) it leaves) are replaced with: Line-In Line-Out Key-In Speaker-Out USB I/O Ethernet I/O (perhaps one or two other high level inputs) The hardware on the FPGA does all the heavy lifting! PowerSDR has FAR less hardware to poll and not miss any events. USB at 480 kbs/sec and even Ethernet at greater speeds give it I/Q and control FAST. So fast in fact, that the designers of modules will probably have to check for race situations. If that is a case CW and sidetone monitor will be a snap, with it's own PID. IMHO Now we need a CVS and a Blog. Are any of you Flexers annoyed by the open discussion on the Reflector? Get Gates! http://www.fpga4fun.com/ Actually they have a pretty fair 100 msps Dual Trace digital oscilloscope too! http://www.fpga4fun.com/digitalscope.html Eric2 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 3:05 PM To: John Denson Cc: ecellison; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'FlexRadio Reflector' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Another Xylo fiddler Eric - Yes, in my humble opinion CW is the one weak spot for the SDR that I would sure like to see resolved. A USB connection sounds like a GREAT possibility! John Denson I think the fundamental problem is inserting software into the path. What I would like to see (my better can correct me) is something like this: A new CW mode: 1. The key would be attached to the rig as now. 2. It would NOT be fed back to the software. 3. In this mode, the software puts out a true continuous wave at the frequency of interest. 4. Some clever bit of software or a dedicated PIC either feeds the wave values as they come (if the key is currently depressed) or feeds zero/resets T/R if the key is not depressed. I'm not sure how easy this would be to program (one would presumably need a send and receive thread, in this instance, and they'd have to cooperate on when to listen and when to write data, including the futile moments for the transmit side of it). The other alternative, with a hefty enough PIC on the other side, would be to write a number, representing the frequency offset, and have the PIC provide the CW stream when the switch is on, perhaps including, the element shaping. This would seem entirely plausible as it could presumably all be precomputed at some relevant level for Morse Code sine waves. If any of this really works, it would eliminate all the headaches that come from having Windows as an intermediary to a real time system. I can tell you that no matter how good a job we've done, there's always glitches and while they are much, much better, they still seem to exist. The latest preview 7 is actually a bit behind the previous levels of the keyer, in fact, as there seems to be the occassional stuck on bits where the wave continues after the key is actually off (not connected). At some point, we need a real hardware solution to this one, I think. Or, at least a Windows-free pathway. Larry WO0Z ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update
Hi Phil, I used 48kbps and 16 bit samples to keep things simple for the first test. I also just used the left audio channel and the blocking version of the PortAudio code - again a simple first test. I was looking at using one of the 2^n A/D states as a flag to indicate the next data word is say left. Having looked at the output of the Wolfson chip even with the input shorted you rarely see 0x as data. With a bit of band noise we will be well above the zero threshold. So I am going to start with 0xLeft_dataRight_data0xLeft_dataRight_data etc Since data delivery using Bulk mode under USB2 is guaranteed I think that should be sufficient and the loss in dynamic range acceptable in practice. Bill suggested that we may not need to send the 0x sync character as often as shown above given the reliability of the USB2 connection and I will try reducing its frequency once the above is working. I was also thinking of not bothering with testing under PortAudio but going straight to a PWM D/A converter in the FPGA for the Rx audio. That way I achieve my goal of removing the sound card and all the Windows drivers - reading and writing to the Wolfson and D/A's will take but a few lines of code then. Rather than a second A/D converter chip for the mic I was also going to look at using a PWM ramp feeding one input of a comparator and the mic signal the other. It may have no advantage over a single chip A/D, given the low cost of these nowadays, but a fun exercise anyway. I only wish that I had time years ago to lean to use FPGAs, they sure open a whole world of possibilities! 73s Phil VK6APH Quoting Philip Covington [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi Phil, Good deal, sounds great! I am curious what sampling rate you were running the Wolfson chip at and whether your were doing both channels or just one for now? Also, what did you decide on for synchronization of the audio frames between left and right channels? 73 de Phil N8VB On 12/1/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fellow Xyloeans, Last night I managed to get audio from the Wolfson A/D, via the FPGA and FX2 over the USB2 at 480Mbps to the PC and out over PortAudio to the speakers. For some reason PortAudio would hang after a few seconds but it was late at night and not the time to start debugging. Having spent some time looking at VHDL I decided to start learning Verilog instead which proved to have a much shorter learning curve. I am just delighted with the Xylo board and how easy it is to program with the free Quartus II software. Next step is to fix the PortAudio bug and get it integrated into the SDR1000 software. 73's Phil...VK6APH ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com
Re: [Flexradio] [softrock40] Re: Xylo Update
Rather than a second A/D converter chip for the mic I was also going to look at using a PWM ramp feeding one input of a comparator and the mic signal the other. It may have no advantage over a single chip A/D, given the low cost of these nowadays, but a fun exercise anyway. Have you examined the material at this link? http://www.microtelecom.it/digimit/techart.htm 73, Lyle KK7P
Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update
Phil, Are you saying that you will modify any zero sample by one count to guarantee uniqueness of the sync? Also, it would seem that you would not want to reduce bandwidth by 1/3 to sync every stereo sample. I sync only once every 500 channels in a larger system in the same manner with no confusion. Richard W5SXD [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (12/01/2005 22:48) Hi Phil, I used 48kbps and 16 bit samples to keep things simple for the first test. I also just used the left audio channel and the blocking version of the PortAudio code - again a simple first test. I was looking at using one of the 2^n A/D states as a flag to indicate the next data word is say left. Having looked at the output of the Wolfson chip even with the input shorted you rarely see 0x as data. With a bit of band noise we will be well above the zero threshold. So I am going to start with 0xLeft_dataRight_data0xLeft_dataRight_data etc Since data delivery using Bulk mode under USB2 is guaranteed I think that should be sufficient and the loss in dynamic range acceptable in practice. Bill suggested that we may not need to send the 0x sync character as often as shown above given the reliability of the USB2 connection and I will try reducing its frequency once the above is working. I was also thinking of not bothering with testing under PortAudio but going straight to a PWM D/A converter in the FPGA for the Rx audio. That way I achieve my goal of removing the sound card and all the Windows drivers - reading and writing to the Wolfson and D/A's will take but a few lines of code then. Rather than a second A/D converter chip for the mic I was also going to look at using a PWM ramp feeding one input of a comparator and the mic signal the other. It may have no advantage over a single chip A/D, given the low cost of these nowadays, but a fun exercise anyway. I only wish that I had time years ago to lean to use FPGAs, they sure open a whole world of possibilities! 73s Phil VK6APH Quoting Philip Covington [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi Phil, Good deal, sounds great! I am curious what sampling rate you were running the Wolfson chip at and whether your were doing both channels or just one for now? Also, what did you decide on for synchronization of the audio frames between left and right channels? 73 de Phil N8VB On 12/1/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fellow Xyloeans, Last night I managed to get audio from the Wolfson A/D, via the FPGA and FX2 over the USB2 at 480Mbps to the PC and out over PortAudio to the speakers. For some reason PortAudio would hang after a few seconds but it was late at night and not the time to start debugging. Having spent some time looking at VHDL I decided to start learning Verilog instead which proved to have a much shorter learning curve. I am just delighted with the Xylo board and how easy it is to program with the free Quartus II software. Next step is to fix the PortAudio bug and get it integrated into the SDR1000 software. 73's Phil...VK6APH ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz -- Philip A Covington http://www.philcovington.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
