[TowerTalk] receivers for HF phased array

[Jim Lux]

At 07:04 AM 12/10/2005, Freeman Pascal wrote:
>The lack of parallel ports can be addressed with USB to parallel port 
>adaptors.  A single four or eight port USB hub can reduce your port usage 
>off the PC to one USB port.  Of course this doesn't address the rest of 
>the issues.

The SDR1000 doesn't look like a "printer".. the software needs control over 
the individual port lines (including the printer status).  Most 
USB/parallel devices are actually USB/Printer interfaces and expose a 
"printer-like" interface via their windows drivers, as opposed to a "legacy 
set of parallel i/o ports at base address 0x378"

Then, there's the whole issue of hubs, and connecting multiple USB widgets 
(bandwidth, negotiation, etc.)... which USB/Parallel widget is #1, then #2, 
then #3, since they're all identical and have no switches, etc.

Actually, you could probably build a 1 parallel printer port to multiple 
SDR parallel interface adapter.  There are couple I/O bits I wouldn't need 
to use for the SDR, and you could use them to control a "strobe steering" 
widget.  Might even be as simple as a '138 and a bunch of connectors.

You're then faced with the not-inconsiderable hassle of integrating this 
into the SDR software, either the C# PowerSDR or the Linux version.  The 
prospect of forking the existing software and maintaining my own fork is 
not pleasant.

OTOH, if you know of a suitable USB parallel interface solution, I'd love 
to know about it (for lots of reasons).  There's new stuff like this coming 
out every day, as legacy ports become more rare.



>-Freeman, N5FPP