Re: Thoughts on a Ham Bus
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I have been a ham for over 40 years and in all that time there is not even a 'standard' for the microphone jack.? Even if the plugs are the same type , the wiring is often different.? Even the 12 V dc connections are often different.? Seems that the pl259 and bnc are about all that has been mostly constant.
ku4pt
On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 12:14 PM, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote: Jack
After attempting to discuss this with a local ham, it became obvious that the idea
of a "Standard Ham Radio Bus" is many things to many people, and maybe not a
manageable concept.? It sort of fits with the old saying that "one should pick battles
that can be won".? Probably not even a committee could decide whether this bus
includes I2C/TWI, RF-signal, RF-power, virtual? links, radio links, 24V/12V/5V/3.3V,
keying, PTT, Linear control, regulated voltages, unregulated voltages, USB, Ethernet,
POE, CAT, terminations, etc.? And some have already suggested that it might be
focused particularly on support of modular BITX specific design blocks.? Maybe the
concept is best kept within the group members who are doing modular builds of BITX
and BITX related designs??
Arv
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On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 8:50 PM Jack Purdum via Groups.Io <jjpurdum= [email protected]> wrote: Arv:
All
tough questions, but worth answering. Think of the possibilities. Personally, I think this should be of the free-to-use license, mainly because I don't want to see extensions to the bus that aren't under someone's control. Otherwise, the standard slowly dissolves into chaos.
Every
time an organization question comes up, I think of a sign I had on my
desk when I was the department chairman:
??? For God so loved the world, he didn't send a committee.
Still, there has to be a small knot
of knowledgeable people who know the EE and software side of this. It
needs to be small because it needs to be nimble, yet with enough
technical depth to make things work. I've seen the agony of trying to
define a standard (i.e., the X3J11 committee to write the first standard
for the C language)...it is a formidable task, and the difficult increases with the size of the committee. There are all kinds of technical details to think about and the Atlas bus would at least be a thoughtful starting point.
I think this could be a rewarding endeavor.
On Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 8:36:53 PM EDT, Arv Evans < arvid.evans@...> wrote:
If hams were to design and standardize a ham-bus-system approach to modular equipment,
should the design be placed in public domain, or under one of the free-to-use licenses???
Should a group be formed specifically for the purpose of bus design, documentation, and
publication?
How would upgrades, modifications, and alternative bus designs be handled?
Seems there are lots of questions, lots of possible opinions, and lots of work to do.
Arv
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