Minitiouner

[F1TE]

Hello
I read with interest the article by G8GTZ in the latest BATC bulletin on the relaunch of the manufacturing of NIM SERIT FTS-4334 as well as your project to restructure Minitiouner to reduce costs.
In 2016, I made the same observation and as part of our DATV activity at the REF, I developed a card using CMS technology.
We distributed around 600 Minitiouners, 900 Minitiouner-pro and I gave my manufacturing file free of charge to our colleagues at DARC who themselves had them manufactured and distributed.
If this interests the BATC, I can give you, always free of charge, my manufacturing file for the Minitiouner-Single version (PCB, gerber files, part-list etc.) so you will find the description on my personal site.
https://www.f1te.org/index.php/datv/minitiouner-s
The development is safe and maybe it will save you time.
As part of the REF's DATV activity, we distributed this version of the Minitiouner, developed in collaboration with Jean-Pierre F6DZP. I remain at your disposal.
Happy New Year.
73, Lucien F1TE
f1te@f1te.org

[G8YTZ]

- One thought, if it is intended to incorporate the USB interface onto the main PCB, perhaps it is worth having two for both transport streams.

- What would also help repeater installations (reduce cost) is a mode where one Minitiouner could connect to two Ryde receivers, ie each tuner TS output could be individually controlled by its own Ryde.

- Another thought, would ethernet be a better way forward and drop USB altogether, that could be great for remote receivers.

Justin.

[PE1BR]

Another thought, would ethernet be a better way forward and drop USB altogether, that could be great for remote receivers.

That would be great and maybe there is even room for an (optional) Power over Ethernet module.

[G8YTZ]

Good idea, PoE would make a lot of sense too

[Basil]

Agreed, Power over Ethernet would make for a simpler and tidier installation.

[g0mjw]

Good idea, PoE would make a lot of sense too

It might, but it would make it much harder to use with most modern laptops that don't even have Ethernet, let alone PoE. Better would be USB and that's why I suggest the PI Pico. https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico ... asheet.pdf

By using a plug in module we would not need to get SMD parts placed, builders would have to built the whole thing, which is what most people probably want. They are cheap, readily available and easy to use as no SMD soldering would be needed, at least not with small parts. For home construction, this by far the easiest route and almost exactly the same as the existing tuner.

Pico boards are available with WiFi and can act as a USB host. Only USB-1 but if 12Mb/s is not enough there is always the option of an Ethernet Hat, with PoE even. There are also 3rd party boards with USB-C https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimo ... 5427080275 - it isn't clear if that USB-C board could power the tuner, but the standard is 3A at 5V which might be sufficient and would be a handy portable solution. The RP2040 is quite a powerful chip, it can easily handle both transport streams at DATV bandwidths and has the IO to provide other functions like RS232, SPI, I2C, ADCs and digital IO that might be useful in a repeater.

The disadvantage is no backwards compatibility with Minitioune, Longmynd etc. It turns a hardware problem into a software problem. Someone needs to write new software and that's the area where we have the greatest challenges.

Mike

[F1TE]

To respond to G8YTZ, this double TS is already done on the Minitiouner-PRO

Minitiouner_Pro.pdf

(1.35 MiB) Downloaded 788 times

[g4eml]

I was thinking about this the other day and came to the same conclusion as Mike. The RP Pico or one of the other RP2040 based modules looks like it could work as a cheap and easily available interface device. I had a look with a 'scope on my minitiouner the other day and the TS data looked like it could be easily handled by the RP2040 PIO state machines.

Whilst the simplest solution would not be compatible with the existing software it might be possible with a bit more work to emulate the FTDI chip.
Using the available modules would keep construction simple, but even if it was decided to go to SMT the RP2040 chips are easy to use, cheap and only need a couple of support components.

Colin G4EML

[G4EWJ]

The PicoHub approach using a WIZnet W5100S-EVB-PICO module, described in CQ-TV 276, can provide a USB or Ethernet connected 2 or 4 channel receiver.

The Portsdown / Ryde / OpenTuner software would need to be changed to treat it like a WinterHill, over USB or Ethernet. An I2C pass through mode could be provided, for direct control of the NIMs.

There's probably no reason why a 'do everything' pcb could not be designed, to give FT2232H, Pico USB and POE Ethernet connectivity.

Emulating an FT2232H with a Pico for MiniTioune connectivity would be an interesting project. I don't know enough about USB to know if that would be possible.

Brian
.

G4EWJ-PicoHub.jpg (130.35 KiB) Viewed 85508 times

[G8YTZ]

"There's probably no reason why a 'do everything' pcb could not be designed, to give FT2232H, Pico USB and POE Ethernet connectivity"

Absolutely, great idea!