开云体育

Folks...

Just had to add this as reading the comment (appended below) drove
me outta lurk mode... No, no, no, no. Please, O Lord, no! No USB on
radios. Keep it plain serial. Put a level converter in the radio
(MAX232, etc.) - or make room for it as an "internal optional
accessory" so that a "lumpy" (i.e., anaconda swallowing a pig) cable
isn't needed.

The advantage of a serial interface is that *any* computing engine
(even microcontrollers) has a serial port - plus or minus a level
converter. If a PC does not have a serial port [I find that hard to
believe; maybe the connector just wasn't brought out from the PCB,
but it'd be a chipset feature] one can be added on the PCMCIA, PCI or
even as an adapter on the USB bus (with appropriate driver). Serial
comms are easy to use, and it's easy to write very generic portable
programs for it.

Not everyone wants a true PC connected to their radio. And USB is
harder to deal with programatically (libraries, header files, etc.)
and it's going to be very RF noisy, esp if other devices are sharing
the bus on a hub. Radios just don't need high-bit-rate interfaces -
9600 or 38400bps serial is just fine.

Off my soapbox...

73
Bill, N6AOT
San Mateo, CA

Yes, there are definitely computers without serial ports. See

<> for an
example.

Just because a computer doesn't have a serial port doesn't mean that it
can't talk serial, that's what USB serial adapters are for. As for other
devices that you would use to talk to the radio, well, a lot of them are
gaining USB connections.

USB means that you can hook many radios to the same computer.
USB means significantly higher data transfer rates.
USB means that you can actually send the audio to the computer for
processing.
USB means a smaller connector on the radio.
USB can mean LESS noise since the wiring is much better shielded.
USB allows for Plug and Play detection.

And saying that USB "USB is harder to deal with programmatically
(libraries, header files, etc.)" is baloney, because you have to use the
same to work with serial ports. As long as the operating system
abstracts the physical ports, they are about the same to work with,
except that you can get a lot more functionality out of USB.

As to radios needing high bit rate interfaces, try keeping a display
in-sync when you are spinning the knob on a VFO. Even channel scan rates
on some radios can pressure a 38.4kbps link.

Can radios use USB to their advantage?

A mobile radio with remote head could talk to the trunk with USB,
wouldn't it be nice to choose the remote head that fit your installation
and the trunk unit that fit your requirements?

An HF radio could have an accessory USB port that allowed you to plug in
whatever DSP device that you want. USB 2.0 (or firewire) could even
allow you to plug in an IF DSP!

A TNC that had one connection to the radio. Audio and Data would both be
carried over the USB cable and then Data transferred to the PC from the
radio->PC connection.

Separate Receivers and Transceivers could be synchronized easily.

Put all of this together and you can get some pretty impressive
configurations at a pretty small cost. It's actually very comparable to
the cost of the RS-232 level converter and connector!

But hey, why not just implement a RS-232 level converter with tubes?


Ed Woodrick