The 6M-160M HPSDR Transceiver Project Begins

[K1JJ]

Joe said it WAS the Altera version 10.1 causing the bad path. He updated the batch file and resent it to me. I'll give it a go.  I want to stay with all this latest software, so don't send any older stuff. We'll figger it out.

T



Joe said:

"Yes indeed, that's exactly what's happening.  Sounds good, you're making great progress!  

Attached is a modified "Program-Mercury-EPCS16-v6.3.bat" file that includes an option for Quartus II Programmer v10.1.  Replace the "Program-Mercury-EPCS16-v6.3.bat" file in your "USB_Blaster_Mercury v6.3" folder with this one and run it instead.  Hopefully that'll fix you up. "

**UPDATE:  Tried the new .bat file and same result. Checking further.

[WA1GFZ]

http://www.altera.com/download/drivers/usb-blaster/dri-usb-blaster-xp.html

I think this is what you need. You just need comminication software not the ability to program FPGAs

[WA1GFZ]

Tom could you mail it to me if it works so I can update my driver?
I don't think many guys are using diversity yet so maybe there need sto be better instructions to get Joe's stuff going.

Remember Joe is writing FPGA code, you just need to load it not edit it.
I remember the last link I sent you and setting it up. It doesn't need to be a 177M driver. 
Heck when Metis arrives I'll be doing the same thing.

[K1JJ]

Yay! Got it working!

The problem was the "quartus" folder  should be named "qprogrammer"

Maybe Atares changed it in the recent 10.1 ver.  I changed the .bat file and it updated the Mercury FPGA normally.  It appears that I may be the first person going thru these new software set ups, cuz the diversity is new and I wanted to use the latest client, etc.

I tried PowerSDR and Merc works FB as a receiver now. I see the noise floor is high, at about  -80db, but understand that will be corrected when I set the levels. It's just bare bones now, but at least working. I'll see if Penny's firmware is recent when I fire it up next.

So, guess the next step is to get the diversity PowerSDR working. Hope it's as easy as adding a few critical files to the exisiting folders - or might be more complex. I'd like to do it now that I'm hot on this stuff.

What files do you need, the .bat file to work with Alteras  Quartus II ver 10.1?  Everything else is in the links posted above.   I will let ya know about the PowerSDR for diversity when Joe gets back to me. That is our next step.

T

[WA1GFZ]

Tom,
You should get a noise floor of about 140 dBM with the preamplifier on. You select it from the left side near the AGC. Calibration is easy.
Joe has been doing firmware releases  and power SDR releases about every three weeks since he got diversity working. It has only been working since about Thanksgiving
The hardest part is done for you. Loading firmware in penny will be easy.
BTW did you read about the guys who want two penny boards to drive two finals and have option to shift phase on TX??
Thanks for the info. I'll store it until I upgrade. Hope you make the QRP net Sunday running HPSDR.

[K1JJ]

Yep, Joe is a good guy.  He spent a few hours (over two days) working with me via emails. Just finished up with him and gots his K5SO diversity PowerSDR software running. It is beautiful!!!   Nice coloring, has the radar screen for diversity nulling, the panfall look great and my noise floor is at -140 out of the box before calibration.. :-)

The software setup is real easy. He explained it in the doc below. For some reason I had a problem understanding the stuff on the website, but his writings are a breeze, including the firmware downloads.

I got his permission to repost his comments. It will help every newbie like me to get out of the woods. I plan to post a link to this thread on HPSDR later on when it's complete. He thought that's a good idea to help new people get going.

BTW, why would someone want to change transmit phase, for antenna phasing from the shack? I suppose that wud be a good complement to the RX phase nulling. A pair of antennas spaced a wavelength wud be interesting.

Here's Joe's steps to get his K5SO PowerSDR diversity software running. It also includes files for both Merc and Penny firmware updates. Just get Quartus II going and you're all set for quick download in the future.

T


Joe’s comments:
-------------------

---Hi Tom,


Congratulations!  Now you're really getting your feet wet!  Way to go!


Yes, after you calibrate the levels using the calibrate routine, with a known signal level of course, in the Setup menu your baseline will be suitably low.  


Now, the PowerSDR diversity program is based on a variant of W5WCs version of PowerSDR.  It has a much nice looking front panel but you pay for that in a little bit more complexity in setup.  


Basically, the two programs use different ways to store the myriad of settings in PowerSDR.  The KD5TFD version uses a file called PowerSDR.mbd for that and its located in the same folder where the PowerSDR.exe file is located, whereas the W5WC version (and diversity program) use a file called database.xml which is not located in that folder at all.  


In fact, to get the proper display for the W5WC version (and the diversity version) we will need to put some folders onto your system.  If you haven't run W5WCs version before you will need to download a pretty large file from my website (www.k5so.com/HPSDR_downloads):  


PowerSDR v1.19.3.1.diversity15 (K5SO 19DEC2010) distribution files (60 MB)


since you will be installing this from scratch.  It contains, among other things, the FlexRadio Systems folder, which is what we need right now to get your system set up with the "skins" overlays for the front panel display.  It's a bit of a pain in the rear but its worth it (you'll see!) and you only have to do this once.  


So download the zip file referenced above, unzip it, and do the following:


Put the "FlexRadio Systems"  folder into the "C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data" folder.  


Note that "Application Data" folder is a hidden folder on your system so to see it you will have to go into "Control Panel" then select "Folder Options"  the go to "View" and select "Show hidden files and folders".  


After putting the "FlexRadio Systems" folder into the "Application Data" folder you can simply go to the PowerSDR v1.19.3.1.diversity15 folder in your unzipped folder, click on the green/black PowerSDR.exe icon in the PowerSDR v1.19.3.1.diversity15\bin\Release" folder to run the diversity program.  Of course, you may create a shortcut for the program and put it on your desktop or "pin" it to show up your "Start" display, or where ever you prefer to make it easy for you to access so that you don't have to keep navigating to the unzipped folder to run the diversity program.  


Let me know if you have troubles and need more hints.


Joe K5SO

[K1JJ]

Well, I’ll call it a clean sweep today.  Got Mercury updated, Diversity software installed and next Penny firmware later tonight. That should be easy with Quartus working with the .bat file. There is a different .bat file for Penny that I need to modify for 10.1, as you know.

So now it’s fun stuff like connecting up station cables and optimizing the transceiver with software bells and whistles.

Gee, I wish I had that second Mercury RX now. The radar screen is waving at me.

Install the diversity ASAP and check it out.

T

More comments from Joe below…

-------



Joe on computer capability:

By the way, I might mention that when you run some of this high performance hardware/software on single core machines they sometimes have a hard time keeping up, especially if you're trying to run multiple application programs simultaneously.  So don't be too surprised if your single core machine is quite busy in terms of percentage of CPU needed to run PowerSDR.  You may even need to run at the lowest sampling rate, 48000, to keep from having audio dropouts, or maybe not!  We'll find out!

Good work, OM.  Let me know if you run into any more trouble.  I'll be happy to try to help.  Good luck with it!  I'll be very pleased to hear how your FB antenna farm plays with the diversity code. 

73,  Joe K5SO



More from Joe on firmware updates:


When you download the distribution zip file that I referenced in my previous email you will see that it contains a folder called:

nRxBlasterBinaries

In that folder you will see, among other files, a batch file called "Program-Penelope-EPCS4.bat".  That is the one you run to update Penelope, exactly as you did for Mercury.  It's easy now that you have the Quartus II Programmer in place. 

However, before you run the batch file you must put a "Last JTAG" jumper on the Penelope board and put the board in slot 6, next to the power connector, and have Ozy in slot 5 next to it.  No other board with a "Last JTAG" jumper can be on the bus at any given time.  You may simply remove the Mercury board from the Atlas bus while you do this update for Penelope, of course. 


Joe K5SO

[K1JJ]

Another tip from Joe for the archives. This pertains to making an error in hardware that confuses the software - best to power on/off/on (reset) the hardware.

T

====


Oh, by the way, relative to the messages below:  When (if) you try to run Program-Mercury-EPCS16-v6.3.bat twice in a row it will fail just like that.  To run the .bat file a second time you need to power down and up the Atlas board to reset things, then run the .bat file again. 


Sometimes this will happen, for example, if you try to run Program-Mercury-EPCS16-v6.3.bat when the USB cable is not plugged in to Ozy.  In such a case you simply need to power down the Atlas bus and power it up again (after a couple of seconds) and try again. 

Joe K5SO

[WA1GFZ]

Very cool. I guess I will  be asking the same stupid questions when metis arrives. Glad you are up and running. When you get to the RX set up page, I run quantize and dither modes turned on. I get audio dropouts at 192k. I think I could use more ram since I have 4 cores running at under 10% horse power. I'm told I get an audio drop out once in a while at 96K on TX.
Your hardware seems to be about the same age as mine so don't be surprised Penny output is low. Many boards were built with the output transformer backwards.
Don't try to put line level audio into Penny. I think there will be way too much gain. The internal EQ and compressor seem to work fine. I looked at the schematic and didn't see any way to change the gain since mic audio goes into the Penny DSP and is controlled by firmware. Maybe you could take a look at the TX set up to see if the gain can be modified i didn't think to look there last Sunday.

[K1JJ]

I was going to axe you about the gain issue. I want to come in with 1V line from the audio gear. Maybe I'll post a question on the HPSDR forum about it.

Hey, it's working!!  The screen is OMG! OMG! I don't even have the speakers on yet but the spec analyzer and panfall are unreal. Even the diversity radar screen works, but needs a second RX.  The noise floor is very low. I need to calibrate everything tmw. This is WAY WAY more refined than the Softrock, I must admit.

It was all worth the work just to see this pretty screen tonight.  Penny's firmware is now programmed, so all set with software updates. Just fine tuning now.  I sent you a .bat for both Merc and Penny to update. I modified the Penny .bat myself, so beware...

I'm so afraid of popping something that I walk around it like it's 5KV in there....

Upload Joe's diversity software.  How can anyone have so much fun and learn so much for $550? It must be illegal.

T

[K1JJ]

And here's what's producing those pretty pictures. The station cabling is not hooked up yet, just the computer interface.

T

This pile of silicon no-soul junque is a working ALL-MODE, high proformance SDR 160-6M transceiver, baby!...

[K1JJ]

More helpful comments from Joe/K5SO concerning auto- software updates, firmware, etc:


HOW TO AUTO_UPDATE K5SO’s Diversity PowerSDR software:


Yes, certainly.  However, as I noted in my previous email, my code does not reside on the SVN so updating via the Tortoise client is not possible.   

To update to the latest version of my diversity code simply go to http://www.k5so.com/HPSDR_downloads.html

and click on the link

•   TO UPGRADE FROM AN EARLIER DIVERSITY PROGRAM VERSION:
•   PowerSDR v1.19.3.1.diversity15 (K5SO 19DEC2010) (37MB) (executable, source, debug, and Visual Studio 2008 solution)

I update this link to a new version when I have a new one to offer that either fixes bugs in the present one or offers new or enhanced capabilities.   At the moment I'm working on a three-Mercury board implementation of the code for directional phasing of three antennas but at the moment it is still in the early stages of development and has some problems and unfinished sections so I don't have a download on the website for it yet. 



Penny firmware comments:

I believe that v1.2 is the current version for Penelope.  It hasn't changed for quite a long time, at least not that I know about, hihi.  Of course, the latest versions of all the "official" HPSDR software resides on the SVN repository. 

The reason that my diversity code isn't on the SVN is that it is officially only "test" code presently and not formally part of the formal HPSDR software suite; to be politically correct. 

[WA1GFZ]

Well, plug in some computer speakers so you can listen to the audio.
Then read the manuals on mercury and Penny and play with the set ups.
Cool display.
So you think HPSDR is cool. Today a friend who is a GE apps engineer  was telling me about some boards they have that sample at 250 MHz for use in SDR receivers. We can't afford them though.
Now imagine this hardware in a K4 or K5 transceiver
I'm running Penny 1.2 , agree with Joe.

[K1JJ]

I listened on the headphones last night. Without the panscope on it sounds FB and smooth. (CPU at 14%) But when the scope is on the audio is dropping out every second for an instant. (CPU at 40-56%) Like a rapid fire oscillation. Looks like the computer is too slow for the job. (Four years old, 1G ram, 1 core, 2.5G speed, Dell dimension 3000)


I tried changing the sampling to min at 48K and all the buffer settings, but still there.  Tried many other settings, but NG. Looks like I need a four-core computer or something like that. This is a one core and Joe warned me about it. O'well. Chuck went out and bought a new 4-core for his Flex knowing the problem. Well documented.

We'll take a look at fine tuning and testing later today.

Anyone have suggestions for a FAST computer that is under $700?


T

[W1AEX]

I wouldn't give up too quickly on your current system Tom. I use WinXP with a single core P4 running at 3.0ghz with 1G of ram and it handles PSDR chores while multi-tasking with Photoshop, Adobe Audition, email, Firefox, my chat program, and all kinds of other assorted miscellaneous stuff. The CPU utilization runs between 18% - 22% with the panadapter enabled. When I'm rendering video or converting audio with other programs it will jump to 85% - 100% but no audio dropouts occur. From the thread, I'm guessing that the HPSDR hardware uses the USB interface rather than firewire. If you have other items plugged into the USB interface it might be worth unplugging them to see if your bandwidth through the interface improves. I know this has caused issues with the Flex 1500 which also connects through the USB interface, especially if older USB 1.0 legacy devices were plugged in. Cameras and printers sharing the USB interface have been a problem for some. There also may be non-critical services running on your system that are resource hogs. It might be worth a few minutes watching the task manager to see what resources are being allocated by programs running in the background.

Hope you get it running smoothly. Everyone whirl-wide is waiting to hear it!

[WA1GFZ]

Metis should be a lot better for moving data over ethrnet. I went into my task manager and set PSDR to high priority. I still get drop outs now and then. Seems to to be better if you leave the rig and computer on for a while. also increasing the amount of ram also helps. HPSDR guys think firewire is going to go away and settled on Ethrnet  with a PHY chip that can go 1000 MB.
They plan to limit it to 100MB for now because the LPU can't supply enough 5 volt current to Atlas. Tom you should look out for a bigger 5 volt module.
I am able to run at 96K sample rate.48k is plenty unless you want to monitor large hunks of the spectrum.
Rob, I should be on the QRP net with my HPSDR rig again Sunday running about 20 watts.

[W1AEX]

Rob, I should be on the QRP net with my HPSDR rig again Sunday running about 20 watts.

Sounds good Frank. I'll re-schedule my nap and see if I can sign in tomorrow with my 807 power equivalent!

[K1JJ]

Tnx for the suggestions Rob and Frank.

I looed closely at the task mgr and see only the SDR taking up CPU.  (Except for the "idle process")

The CPU% is still about 20% with no scope and smooth - and about 55% with scope and very choppy.

I don't have any USB stuff plugged in except for the mouse and keyboard on this computer.  I tried many toggles on the sdr software and see no differnce in the drop outs with the scope on.  Interesting that yours is smooth at 90% there Rob.

I also set the SDR to high priority and even real time, but made no difference at all compared to its original setting.

Also ran a program that cleaned up the system registry, but no affect.

Gonna do the SDR calibration now.  If youse guys come up wid some more ideas to try, let me know.



T

[WA1GFZ]

My mouse and keyboard ard direct connect. Maybe that is the bottlekneck. Looks like you need metis

[K1JJ]

My Mercury noise floor without ant is S7! About -95dbm on the panscope after calibration. The FT-1000D drops to S0 with no ant.

 A 50uv signal into the Merc gives S9 as expected.  Something is wrong here.  Been digging around with no luck so far.  Weak signals are buried way down in the noise compared to the FT-1000D.

** Update:  Bad BNC connector. I hate those homo-jacks!  Now the noise floor is at -135dbm and I can see on the pan - and hear a 0.1 uv signal clearly.  Life is getting better.

T

[Steve - K4HX]

Get rid of that POS SDR thing. Real men don't use such things.

[WA1GFZ]

Gee I walk away from the computer for 1/2 an hour and come back to a string of emails starting with Tom Vu loading the whole thing in a box and throwing it at  me to happy as a clam.
Tom go back to the HPSDR site and read about getting started. There is a link to a program that will tell you if the computer is up to the job.
http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/index.php?title=Quick_Startup_Guide
Look at "System real time...."
I'm running around 8 to 12%. The HPSDR guys have been dreaming of a better interface for a while I think Metis will fix this. But LPU isn't up to the task you need more 5 volt current.

[K1JJ]

My attorney, Huzman, sez to get rid of this POS. What can I do?

It's working about as good as the FT-1000D now. I had the preamp on for awhile and couldn't hear dick. I started seeing ADC overload flashes on the screen..  I turned it off and now it's much cleaner. That preamp sux on a noisy night. Just like any RF preamp on 75M for that matter.  (Unless I have something wrong there)

Yes, the 5V supply is getting hot. No doubt.

After this detour maybe I can make some progess.  This thing is as tough as getting Rico Suave, the PDM e-rig  working right. At least Rico was all hardware.

T

[W1AEX]

Get rid of that POS SDR thing. Real men don't use such things.

That is sooooo not true Steve.

[Steve - K4HX]

Awesome!