DATV-Express Project – January update report

[KenW6HHC]

The DATV-Express project team gathered by SKYPE to conduct a design review on the new PCB layout that Tom WB6P had just completed. The board looked very good and Tom was asked to just do some minor clean-up…like add a few more thermal-conducting-vias “here and there”, etc. The team has just received the complete fabrication package of gerber files and drill files to build some new prototype boards. The plan is for the team to now order six or so blank PCB boards. Then Art WA8RMC will hand-assemble a “first article PCBA” and check it out electrically….before shipping it over to Charles G4GUO for some software checkout.

"proof of progress” drawing of new board etch

Over the last week or so, Charles G4GUO has been moving the DVB-S encoding from the host P.C into the FPGA. If this works out, this will mean that fairly low powered embedded boards could now be able to use DATV-Express. The new FPGA code is so large now that it takes a few minutes to compile on the free version of Quartus II. The code uses about 30% of the FPGA so it all fits nicely. But, this new DVB-S code has not been tested yet . Charles has also been updating the old FPGA code for the rev2 PCB. This will allow rapid evaluation of the new board when it arrives.

Questions are welcome.

“Full speed ahead”…de Ken W6HHC