Philip A Covington’s Blog

Here is the soldering station that I use (older Weller EC2001): And the tip: A Hakko 936 is the backup: http://www.kiesub.com/hakko936.htm (thanks to Ken N9VV for the link) Boards and design files: I do plan on offering boards from bare to fully assembled for this project. All of the design files will be available for those who wish to make their own boards. This is both a open hardware and software project. It will support both Windows 2k/XP and Linux. Some Test Code for the FX2 using SDCC: http://www.philcovington.com/SDR/files/flash2.html

I was able to download the initial firmware into the FX2 microcontroller on the FPGA_USB board today and run a test program. I then recompiled the program with the open source SDCC and got it to run (the initial code was compiled with the Keil evaluation package from Cypress' site). After testing the FX2 a little further I will solder the FPGA onto the board and start developing the code for it. So far there have been no major problems...

Here is a picture of the FPGA_USB board after soldering most of the components: Yet to be soldered is the FPGA, USB connector, and connection headers. I soldered all of the components by hand. Soldering the 128 pin 0.5mm pitch Cypress FX2 microcontroller was much easier than I thought it would be. I need a little more magnification than the Bausch and Lomb 3.5x eye loupe has. I also have a Luxo magnifying fluorescent light that I use when soldering the other components. I am thinking about getting a 7x Bausch and Lomb loupe that clips onto glasses for soldering the 0.5mm pitch stuff. There is a seller on Ebay that sells stereo microscopes on a boom arm for about $260 that would be nice. Basically I spread a lot of flux on the pads for the FX2 chip, tacked down the pins in the corners to keep the chip in place, and then proceeded to solder the pins using a drag technique with a conical tip on the Weller EC2001 soldering station. I then inspected each pin by lightly pushing sideways wit...

HPSDR FPGA_USB Boards: The HPSDR FPGA_USB boards showed up today. I sent the design files off last week to PCBExpress and UPS delivered them today. They are 4 layer boards with silk screen and solder mask. You can see some pics here: http://www.philcovington.com/SDR/hpsdr_fpga_usb_board.html Next I get to have fun soldering the 0.5mm pitch ICs... Last time I reported that there was a long back order for the XILINX FPGA. Instead of 3-4 weeks as quoted I received my order in about 2 weeks. So I do have all of the components in hand. I have had many emails from people asking me for more details on the FPGA_USB board. I plan to put up much more information on my website soon. Right now I need to concentrate on getting the prototype boards build up and debugged. Real time Linux: I decided to build a Linux From Scratch (LFS6.1) distro to patch with the latest from RTAI which is fusion-0.9. RTAI Fusion uses the ADEOS nanokernel . I got it done just before the boards arrived. It was a gre...

HPSDR_FPGA_USB MainBoard: I now have almost 100% of the parts for the board and have verified my PCB layout with the QFP208 pattern used by the Xilinx XC3S400 FPGA. I will immediately send the board design files out to be made. It is a 4 layer board measuring 5"x6" with top side silk screen and top/bottom solder mask. All components are on the top side. The most difficult SMT components are the FPGA (QFP208, 0.5mm pitch) and the Cypress FX2 chip (QFP128, 0.5mm pitch). Resistors are all 0805 size and caps are 0805 and 1210 sizes. The only part that I do not have is the Xilinx XC3S400 FPGA. It is on backorder for 3-4 weeks (or so they claim). It seems that there are just no Spartan 3 chips available right now. What is the problem Xilinx??? Mono: I have been doing a little work with using mono on Windows and Linux. I was able to compile SharpDSP using SharpDevelop targeting the mono runtime and mcs compiler. I compiled SharpDSP into a library (dll) then copied it over...

FPGA_USB Board and DipTrace: I have been using a program called DipTrace to do the schematics and board layout for the FPGA_USB board. After completing my first PCB layout with DipTrace I am very impressed with this program. Questions to the developers are answered very quickly. It has a very intuitive user interface and small learning curve. I had to create a few patterns for smt components that were not in the supplied libraries - the pattern editor is very easy to use. I highly recommend this software if you are looking for a powerful, yet low cost schematic entry/PCB design program. You can download a 30 day evaluation at http://www.diptrace.com The FPGA_USB board design is now complete. I have ordered the parts for the prototype boards and will soon send the design files to the board house to have the PCBs made. I will post more details about the project soon. Mono: I have been doing a little work with Mono (http://www.mono-project.com) on both Windows and Linux. It is very impres...

SharpDevelop: There is a new build of SharpDevelop available at: http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/ Not a lot of changes - just bugfixes... DipTrace: Check out this new low cost Schematic Editor/PCB Layout program at: http://www.diptrace.com I have tried Eagle, PCBExpress, and others... DipTrace has then all beat in ease of use. You can dowload a fully functional 30 day trial from the website. Or there is a freeware version also. The developers are very responsive to suggestions for features/improvements. I highly recommend this software. SoftRock40: I received the SoftRock40 with PCM2900 CODEC from Tony Parks this weekend. I will start on modifying the SharpDSP enabled console to make a specific release for the SoftRock40. I will also correct the sample offset bug in the PCM2900 CODEC. FPGA/USB Board: I am in the process of laying out the PCB. I am using DipTrace for the Schematic entry and PCB layout. This will become a open source hardware/firmware SDR project. Stay tuned to ...