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Re: [Xylo-SDR] Some design thoughts requested



----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 5:17 AM
Subject: [Xylo-SDR] Some design thoughts requested

Folks

 

Even since the PIC 4550 days I have been thinking on how we might conduct experiments as well as have a reasonable environment for ?adding? on to the project. The obvious answer is a buss of some sort. I have looked at everything from Simm riser boards to ISA buss stuff. PCI risers might be the way to go since they are inexpensive ($15) for 3 slot extenders. Also in an end product they fit into the L-brackets of a computer case, or 2U mounts. They have ?assigned? power buss? we can use, fairly inexpensive prototyping boards. ($50 - $60), are four layer and designed to minimize intra trace noise. The buss wouldn?t be used for PCI, however it would allow power, (on designated standards based lines), intra board connections, and FPGA, I2C,signals etc.

 

PCI seems to be a little ?large? for what we are proposing, and the product boards would cost more to produce, however, with an established buss we could put a radio on one card, FPGA on another Audio on another etc.

 

$15 Board amongst others:

 

 

http://www.plinkusa.net/riser.htm

 

 

 

 

Am I off the wall here?

 

That's the sort of thing I was thinking of doing. I used to work for Racal and they used to build their military radios from separate screened plug-in modules on a backplane.

 

I favour DIN41612 connectors for this sort of thing. They are expensive, but very reliable, and have pins on 0.1" centres. They can even accomodate co-axial connectors. They are more commonly used in Europe than the USA, but you can get them over there without any problems.

 

73, Leon

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