@ftg@mastodon.radio
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

ftg

@ftg@mastodon.radio

Radio/Electronics/Telecom Geek.
He/him.
youtube.com/oh2ftg
prkele.prk.tky.fi/~ftg/
twitter.com/2ftg1

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ftg, to random
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

Unhappy spectrum analyzer.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

Input signal is at -20dBm setting on the source.
So some nice 55dB of sensitivity is missing.

So, yay +1 project?

Best case it is solved by just cleaning out the relay connecting the signal chain to the internal calibrator.

That's right, it fails ALL of the internal calibrations.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@philpem
The difference was only -20dB on 500MHz, instead of the -55ddB on 3.5MHz, so that points towards something being open.
The mixer seems to work, just that something in front of it severely attenuates the signal.

ftg, to random
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

Old telecom stuff sure has a special look.

ftg,
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@blinken
Awesome find, thanks!
This might get used in the front panel of some future build.

hacks4pancakes, to random

I feel so soap-boxy lately, maybe because I’m teaching a class, but here’s another kernel of truth I’ll throw at y’all about communities:

If you are trying to get new people,especially diverse people and young people into your hobby, and your first reaction is to show off your really expensive kit and say how much it cost, you are gatekeeping mega mode, even if you’re just trying to share your interest. Nobody wants to hear there is a $1500 (or $5000) barrier to entry to their new hobby. It’s demoralizing, not educational, and they’re just gonna leave.

Happens in bicycles, drones, photography, astronomy, gaming, marksmanship… you name it, there’s a rich older white dude ready to show off his six grand investment in a hobby to a college student with a three digit bank account.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@hacks4pancakes
Yep.
This used to be the thing iwht amateur radio. Typical new HF rig price is +1000eur

tldrellie, to random

The interacting collapse of different ADHD wave-fronts is always so fascinating.

For example, this morning, needing to blow my nose is what got me to light a candle, take my pills, empty the trash, and start doing my biweekly budget.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland @tldrellie
Activation energy.

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

there appears to be a hard rule that any sufficiently large FOSS organisation must be operated by people who make utterly baffling decisions counter to their own stated principles

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
So, what happened this?

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
Ah, lovely.
So either some 3rd party scammers or some over eager folks are doing stupid things with automated tools.

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

balls

https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.03544

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
Yeah, but the material is interesting, so it might yield some other interesting pathways or just get used for things.

Has it even been a week yet?

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

I wonder if anyone has made an LVDS/FPD-Link adapter for CRTs.

I've got a lot of microcontrollers that output video that way because they expect to be connected to an LCD, but it'd be nice to use a CRT instead

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@foone
There are also these two chips from VLSI.

SPI to framebuffer to composite video
https://www.vlsi.fi/en/products/vs23s010.html

Or this one with 8080 and NAND FLASH Type Interface in addition to the SPI one?
https://www.vlsi.fi/en/products/vs23s040.html

North, to random
@North@chaos.social avatar

I have no patience for "advice" with the tone of "I hate to burst your bubble," especially when it's just a jumble of inherited wisdom and folk knowledge that anyone with a whiff of experience in the field has already encountered.

ftg,
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@North
If it is the dude with the sign as their pfp, they are known to be abrasive, but not a complete cunt.

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

birds keep eating my newly planted seeds but the joke's on them, I have more than 40,000 seeds on the way. they'll lose a claw to diabeetus long before they prevent me from my goal of zero-effort "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" gardening.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
Lazy gardening is best gardening.

whitequark, to random
@whitequark@mastodon.social avatar

there are two constants in the universe: taxes and the fact that every FPGA vendor has a part naming scheme that is completely bonkers in as of yet new, unexplored ways

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
I wonder if there are any cheap parts supported by the non-paid software versions in the FTG256 package.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@whitequark @azonenberg
Myself. As I use FTG as my nick in many places, it being the suffix of my amateur radio callsign.
No real other reason for the question about parts in FTG256 package.
+It would be nice to do a slightly more complex FPGA based design to flex my Altium muscles more.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
Hmm. I'll have to take a look.
Do any of them have PCIe, or is that just too much to ask?

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
Unfortunate.
And yeah a large part about noodling about this is learning that the package is called FTG256. 😜
My only backburner projects that would require an FPGA are mostly SDR related, where it would likely just shovel samples from ADC(s) to FT601 or FX3 for processing on a PC.
Or try to have a pile (+8) coherent receive channels for RDF/AESA idiocy.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
Hehehe. I do always look at 5GHz wifi FEM's front the point of "could I put these and some mixers behind a patch array and have JLC fab me a pile?
I did some fucking around with some dumpster find 868MHz UHF RFID antennas before giving the huge things away.
Impinj has a model with +22dB isolation between polarizations.
have you seen the 70cm array Ibelings has made?
That one has traditional Butler matrix.
I do wish Rotman Lens ware easier to design.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
That sounds like a very sane approach to it.

These ware the antennas I was referring to.
https://twitter.com/ibelings/status/1607873253653245952
https://twitter.com/ibelings/status/1607867046733414400 https://twitter.com/ibelings/status/1608154393832222722

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
ON 2m (and lower) phase shifters have their use for steering RX antennas and more importantly, allowing one the steer a null towards interference.
There are also projects like X-phase that are just boxes with a phase shifter and attenuator, for nulling out local interference.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@azonenberg @whitequark
Hehehe. Good test targets!
Funny idea with an additional RDF array/using the same array for RDF.
For an adaptive null to the direction of a mobile station for example.
Where the received signal always gets lower for them after they key up.

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

we really need a new standard for mounting PCIe cards in computer cases without sagging. so many problems with cracked PCBs (particularly around the slot key) and cracked SMD joints of PCIe Gen5 slot connectors from GPUs with heavy coolers, especially if sellers make the mistake of shipping prebuilts with the card installed in place.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
Yeah. I could see it eventually convert to some micro-coax cable that terminates right next to the CPU.

nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Effective February 1, 2024 there will be a charge of $0.005 per IP per hour for all public IPv4 addresses, whether attached to a service or not. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-aws-public-ipv4-address-charge-public-ip-insights/

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@nixCraft
No wonder they paid good money for the chunk of 44Net addresses they talked ARDC into selling.

gsuberland, to Electronics
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

faffed about with some more simulation for transmission line termination on @mos_8502's ZSA bus. Iooks like serial termination on the cards and VTT termination on the backplane is probably workable, but in case someone has a better idea I asked about it on StackExchange.

if you're reading this and you've designed stuff with 50MHz+ single-ended signals that required termination, your thoughts would be much appreciated.

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/675402/drive-strength-and-termination-on-a-50mhz-multi-card-backplane-bus

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
I have some Philips made 27MHz 68K SoC's that I have been meaning to design a backplane + peripheral cards for ages.
Sure ~half the frequency.
But still relevant to my interests.
And likely better ideas than just making it RC2014 16bit wide bus compliant and just use that ecosystem.

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

Bored and a bit too tired to carry on playing Dyson Sphere Program, so ask me anything. Electronics, lighting, lasers, colourimetry, Windows internals, security, whatever.

ftg,
@ftg@mastodon.radio avatar

@gsuberland
Me neither. But it keeps on being tempting for SDR stuff.
Both for just glue logic between ADC and USB/Ethernet/PCIe interface or some first pass DSP.

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