21-03-2018, 07:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 21-03-2018, 07:52 PM by ppppenguin.)
Assuming Frank is willing to release full details of the Hedghog then it becomes an open source design which could, in principle, be made by anyone who wishes to do so. Small volume PCB manufacture is now inexpensive. SM assembly is feasible, if tricky, for the amateur.
One limitation is the rather old Altera Cylcone 2 FPGA. I wonder how long that little board will be around. There would be no theoretical difficulty in transferring the design to another FPGA but the physical construction would change. I think this is the FPGA board but I'm not 100% certain:
https://www.openimpulse.com/blog/product...ent-board/
In fairness I should add that the Aurora uses an end of life Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA. They're still available but all Spartan 3 series parts are rapidly heading for "last time buy". I'm well aware of this as I use them in a professional design. Small quantities of the more popular parts should be around on the grey market for a while but at what cost. If Darryl wants to continue making Auroras he will probably have to migrate to a newer FPGA.
Another limitation of the Hedghog is the test card. It's a preset design, generated by algorithm rather than stored data. It therefore cannot generate test card C or other arbitrary patterns.
A limitation on both the Aurora and Hedghog is the continued availability of the modualator chips. ISTR Darryl saying they were nearly obsolete.
One limitation is the rather old Altera Cylcone 2 FPGA. I wonder how long that little board will be around. There would be no theoretical difficulty in transferring the design to another FPGA but the physical construction would change. I think this is the FPGA board but I'm not 100% certain:
https://www.openimpulse.com/blog/product...ent-board/
In fairness I should add that the Aurora uses an end of life Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA. They're still available but all Spartan 3 series parts are rapidly heading for "last time buy". I'm well aware of this as I use them in a professional design. Small quantities of the more popular parts should be around on the grey market for a while but at what cost. If Darryl wants to continue making Auroras he will probably have to migrate to a newer FPGA.
Another limitation of the Hedghog is the test card. It's a preset design, generated by algorithm rather than stored data. It therefore cannot generate test card C or other arbitrary patterns.
A limitation on both the Aurora and Hedghog is the continued availability of the modualator chips. ISTR Darryl saying they were nearly obsolete.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv