[Skimmertalk] red pitaya, for real?

[Nathaniel A. Frissell]

Again, I agree with Pete. My personal experience is that lower end 
machines struggle. This includes 2-core machines that are 2 to 3 years 
old with 4 GB RAM.

I recently upgraded to a Dell XPS8900 with a Core i7-6700 processor and 
16 GB of RAM. So far, that machine does very well. My recommendation is 
that if you can afford it, it is good to go with that class of machine. 
It will handle the CW Skimmer Server with room to spare. Although I 
haven't tested it, a good Core i5 with 8 GB of RAM might also perform 
reasonably. But, that is just speculation!

So far, I found every time I buy a "cheaper" computer, it ends up 
costing me more because I very quickly outgrow it and I need to replace 
with something that will actually get the job done.

73,

Nathaniel, W2NAF

On 08/31/2016 12:55 PM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
> Just one guy's opinion, but I don't think we'll really know until 
> someone runs an RP on CQWW weekend.  RTTY Skimserv is a much heavier 
> CPU user- the hottest i7 is none too strong for a big RTTY contest.
>
>
> My next project here is to compare my RP and a QS1R off the same 
> antenna and preamp (through a splitter), both running Skimserv and/or 
> HDSDR.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> Download the new N1MM Logger+ at
> <http://N1MM.hamdocs.com>. Check
> out the Reverse Beacon Network at
> <http://reversebeacon.net>, now
> spotting RTTY activity worldwide.
> For spots, please use your favorite
> "retail" DX cluster.
>
> On 8/31/2016 11:31 AM, kazeringue--- via Skimmertalk wrote:
>> Alright, thanks folks.
>>
>> The Red Pitaya looks pretty interesting just for its capabilities as 
>> a test device, which should improve with software over time. That 
>> would be a lot of help with testing on the band pass filter projects. 
>> I foresee another project..... a bank of W3LPL design rx bandpass 
>> filters as a preselector between the antenna and preamp going into a 
>> Red Pitaya SDR, and use the Red Pitaya to tune them. [50kw 680 AM 
>> broadcast antenna is 1.2 miles from my house]
>>
>> Being able to run RP as a skimmer server would be a big bonus.
>>
>> Idle speculation, the high impedance on the inputs is there for its 
>> use as a scope/test instrument.  Bypassing them per K1TTT jumper fix 
>> might be easier than trying to match them for SDR use. Figuring out a 
>> good match for the amp block following JP5 might be worth the time 
>> tinkering.
>>
>> Interested to hear more from Dai on the S9-C also.  More options is 
>> good.
>>
>> So, one last question.  What sort of CPU is sufficient for a Red 
>> Pitaya based SDR?  What sort of CPU's have been used and what sort of 
>> CPU % usage is the skimmer server drawing?
>>
>> I have been running up to five softrocks on a single Dell core 2 quad 
>> box(2 physical threads, 2 virtual threads) under windows 8.1.  With 
>> all five running on a contest weekend, the CPU is over 50%, usually 
>> closer to 70%.  The tough part of that kludged skimmer station was 
>> finding five different sound devices that could coexist. (Four plus 
>> the onboard sound.)  Since the 15m softrock kludge generates more bad 
>> mirror image spots than the others, I generally just run four 
>> skimmers, 160/80/40/20.
>>
>> 73 de w4kaz
>>
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