All:
We have finished the new set of Gerber files and will be sending those off today. Those new boards will be sent to our Beta testers for evaluation. We also know that there will be 13 pins brought out, of which 2 are analog pins. One pin is for Vbat, to supply power for the RTC if you use that feature. If you use the CW messaging feature, that requires 3 NO push button switches, which reduces the available pins to 9 with all features implemented. While we still have some software to add to the project, I still think you should have around 800K of flash and 200K of SRAM to use. While some people say they have over-clocked the controller, at 180MHz, we don't see the need. I don't see those parameters changing much. The 5" and 7" TFT displays are resistive touch and use the RA-8875 controller and the 4 wire SPI interface sold by BuyDisplay.com (ER-TFTM050-3 and ER-TFTM070-5). Most of the raw display management is on the graphics board. The connectors on JackAl are the 10 pin IDC type (e.g., eBay 282084089830). The board is based on the PJRC Teensy 3.8 and use the audio board from the same company. The final board size is 100x90mm. The common board parts are 1206 SMD's. All SMD parts (e.g., transistor, the Si5351, and other chips) are in place on the board. The connectors are not part of the board because we felt you may want to hang some "special stuff" on the rig.
Al and I still feel we are probably 2 months away from distribution.
Jack, W8TEE
