Yet one of the problems with the Orion II is limited memory and
processor capability, compounded for the Orion with less of each. Where
the desired PC for a Flex radio has a gigabyte or two of ram with a CPU
running with a 2.5 or 3+ GHz clock speed, with a dedicated processor for
the video (think gaming computer) and a 32 or 64 bit memory interface,
preferably 64 bit. It might be that one option for Orions could be an
analog interface to the external PC with I and Q from the detectors for
the sweep section or after all the filters at 14 kHz audio so the Flex
radio (as well as other codes) could be applied in the station PC. Thus
enabling far greater computer power than the embedded hardware. Its
likely the limits of the embedded hardware that make things interact in
new versions of the firmware and that make correcting and adding so very
difficult. The fast PC could then control the Orion through the
conventional serial interface.
73, Jerry, K0CQ
On 4/16/2010 6:33 PM, Stuart Rohre wrote:
It is much harder to have open source for the the code in the combined
hardware type of radio the Orion and Orion II represent, than say the
"front end" plus a computer and Software Defined code of the Flex radios.
Even the Flex that contains a PC is radio plus computer just all in one
box. And on the flip side, I know some of the folks who build Flex
radios, and the problems they have had to fix with hardware, and
difficulties getting parts such as band toroids is kind of like
listening to Orion software woes. I have a friend who now has a cottage
industry of winding band cores for Flex. They could not get the quality
they needed from offshore manufacturing.
-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH
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