[Noisebridge-discuss] Anyone willing to part with their USRP?

Christie Dudley longobord at gmail.com
Sun Dec 12 16:12:42 UTC 2010


Another problem with "rolling your own" RF devices is that the lengths,
sizes and shapes of the traces matter.  It's so very easy to introduce
noise/crosstalk in your signal from a misplaced trace.

Josh, I have a USRP on loan from Ettus at the EFF that I'm getting ready to
send back, with apologies since the stuff we were researching had the
program cancelled and it's seriously overkill to do more with it.  I'm not
sure how/if that would help you, since it can only leave their office to go
back to Ettus, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

I also have one of those girltech IMME devices Dr Jesus was mentioning,
hacked so there's access to the radio.  Unfortunately, the only current way
to get stuff out is through the JTAG interface, so...

Another SDR that's caught my eye is the Elecraft K3.  It's as closed source
as hams will stand and AFIK, probably doesn't have the interface you're
looking for, but it's super polished (MUCH nicer than the USRP) and the cost
is of the same order that the USRP is, especially after you consider all the
front-end boards you need, etc.  I just heard about it a week ago and I'm
wanting to learn more about it.

Christie
_______
"It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so
important."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart."
William Butler Yeats



On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 4:06 PM, Christoph Maier <
cm.hardware.software.elsewhere at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 2:57 PM, Jake <jake at spaz.org> wrote:
> > Well, i looked into my assumption that the USRP was truly "open-source"
> > and this is what i found:
> > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/discuss-gnuradio/
> >
> > "The schematics are available, the PCB files and gerbers are not."
> >
> > so, we would have to eagle-up a board from scratch, but hey!  it's worth
> > it!  The thing is, it would probably take multiple layers, and for
> various
> > reasons, we would not make the boards ourselves.
> >
> > As for the actual soldering, no it is not that hard to solder TSSOP (is
> > there anything finer than that?) even if you're not Mike Kahn.  I have
> > literally soldered shit like that with my 100-watt W100P and solder
> braid.
> > It's fun and easy, and we have all the tools at noisebridge (the hot-air
> > soldering machine can take a 166-pin MILF package off a board without
> > hurting it)
> >
> > So, in other words, if you and me and 3 other people want a USRP, we
> > should start by making a parts list and sitting down on Eagle for a
> > minute.  There will always be more comers after we find success.
>
> Going to be WAY more than a minute ...
> Does it have to be Eagle?
>
> Christoph <- messes with Altium Designer, high speed FPGA design ...
> not my choice, really.
>
> > You think the SMD badge kit is hot and makes you money?  Wait until you
> > have a USRP kit.
> >
> > What is a USRP good for?  the possibilities are limitless.
> >
> > -jake
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