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+--- Thread: Possibility of contributing to a second-tier experimenta hardware / software effort? (/showthread.php?tid=3275)
Possibility of contributing to a second-tier experimenta hardware / software effort? - louloulou - 2020-08-16
First off, I want to express how impressed I am with this effort. The work here is amazing, and I cannot accurately express how impressed I am. As an Electrical Engineer of 30+ years, I see the greatness of this projects contributors , spanning many disciplines of RF, Digital, PCB, Embedded, Mathematics, and web-development. What an amazing team effort. What an amazing team! I want to be on it.
To that point, I really, really, really, really want to contribute. I am on the list to become a station, but the list is long, and I am number 6352 on the list. I assume it will be a very, very long time before I see my kit. So, I humbly ask, would it be OK, and would anyone be interested in a 2nd-tier EXPERIMENTAL effort (asking for / with the full blessings of the original developers) ? Perhaps with lower cost, simpler hardware? Not as "good" but ubiquitous and fun for the "rest of us" ?
My field of expertise is in RF/ FPGA /Embedded design. I would --love-- to build a "simpler" station, perhaps with a much shorter range (as there seems to be no end of people who wish to have a station, so range does not seem to be that important) and with perhaps much tighter timing accuracy?
Spit balling here, us an FPGA / GPS 1PPS to time tag "events" from a voltage-mode threshold detector (i.e. less sensitive, but more timing accurate than an ADC) to report back to an experimental server? Keep the hardware CHEAP and SIMPLE, perhaps make it a Pi-Zero hat? As for the FPGA / PCB design, I can handle that, and I can even build a medium volume of prototypes, (which I will fund / sell at $0 profit / cost) as I have pick and place machinery at my disposal (I am blessed to own a small scientific manufacturing company)
What I am proposing here is and effort "for the rest of us" -- I am in NO WAY trying to offend the original contributors of this magnificent system. In fact, I really want, and need, their help and their blessing. If the project data becomes useful, maybe they could even integrate the data collection into their "production" system,
Again, I come to this effort hat-in-hand, with the best intentions.
Thank you,
---Lou