[Mep-dev] Weekly Report 8 December 2008 - 4 April 2009

[Michelle]

MEP
Weekly (quarterly!) Report for 8 December 2008 – 4 April 2009

Report is also on the web and in the RSS feed.
 
1)
Paul KB5MU and Michelle W5NYV attended the BeagleBoard track at the Embedded
Systems Conference in San Jose on 30-31 March 2009. 
 
Here’s
a description of the track:
http://esc-sv09.techinsightsevents.com/byoes
 
All
of the sessions are on the web here:
http://beagleboard.org/esc/
 
Find
out more about the BeagleBoard here:
http://beagleboard.org/
 
We
decided to attend  ESC a few days
before the event, and we were there for only the BeagleBoard track, so I
apologize if anyone was there and I didn’t get a chance to meet you.
 
We
each received a rev C BeagleBoard as part of the track. The included SD card
had several OS images, one of which included Android. The final class was an
introduction of Android on BeagleBoard, and I’d like to discuss using Android
for MEP. 
 
2)
The San Bernardino Microwave Society transverters were distributed, and I know
of at least four kits that are available for MEP. Initial testing began with
Kerry Banke and Chris Shoaff troubleshooting a prototype board. Results on
delivered kits are in the works. We anticipate moving to a synthesizer-based
solution in the future, but evaluating transverter options is important for two
reasons – cost, and current availability. 
 
3)
I have not yet reserved an indoor table for Dayton due to (mainly) cost. I’m
not confident that I could staff the table as well as it should be staffed and
still attend Four Days in May and also give a talk at the SDR (software defined
radio) forum (see below).
 
If
you or your group already has an indoor table at Dayton, and you wouldn’t mind
sharing your table (and sharing cost), then let me know. Otherwise, those of us
that are attending Dayton will meet at either TAPR or AMSAT tables and carry on
from there. 
 
I’m
sure we’ll have a great time no matter where we end up. If you are attending
Dayton, let me know!
 
4)
We’ve been given a really nice opportunity to speak at the SDR Forum at Dayton
2009.
 
http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/182716
 
The
presentation will be developed through the mep-dev list. I should have a draft
sometime this weekend, based on input from Frank Brickle. Please consider
contributing to the presentation. At 20 minutes, that’s as long as a TED talk,
and if you aren’t already familiar with those, then listen to a few here:
 
http://www.ted.com/
 
In
other words, 20 minutes is more than sufficient to get our point across. We
just have to refine what we want to say. I’m interested in what you have to say
about SDRs, SDR-based projects, the direction of SDR in general, and any
interesting or illustrative anecdotes. 
 
5)
Currently, the MEP development stations here at the house look like this (inline jpg):
 
 
This
diagram summarizes the current interfaces and components for MEP that are in
the lab. Three members of Atom Smash and four members of the Dog Pack are
connected to KVM switches in order to make the whole thing a little more
manageable. Each Beagleboard (yellow hexagrams) has its own SD card hard drive.
Each Atom (blue hexagram) has its own hard drive. At least three of each type
of processor was obtained in order to test peer-to-peer in-house. 
 
Here
is the most recent photo set, where the above was set up.
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w5nyv/sets/72157616357904452/
 
More
soon, -Michelle
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://uppermeadow.com/pipermail/mep-dev/attachments/20090404/493f8758/attachment.html