SDR Cube NEWS The latest news about the SDR Cube Transceiver

July 13, 2011:

We have a new software release now available for the SDR Cube that adds two new features, two improvements, and fixes two bugs.  We’ve tested the release pretty well and users can confidently download the new software and program it into their Cubes using the normal built-in Bootload capability.  Just visit our home page and go to the Latest Software section to find the links for v1.06 and follow the instructions.

We have been relatively quiet over the last month or so, as the day jobs and family activities have been taking priority since the Dayton Hamvention.  However this new software release marks our coming back to the “on position” for the Cube and we’ll once again see lots of project activity, additional features, hardware accessories, and more.

So brush the dust off your Cube, load up the latest software, and let us know how it’s working out for you!

June 5, 2011:

Back open for sales, shipping & support ... I was on biz travel for a couple of weeks, but back in the saddle again here at Midnight Design.  Getting to all backordered items and support emails that have been backlogged.  Thanks for your patience while I was incomunicado.

April 4, 2011:

March 20, 2011:

February 14, 2011:

February 10, 2011:

February 2, 2011:

January 23, 2011:

January 15, 2011:

All Cube Kits orders have been shipped!  Plus, the initial builders found a handful of parts across the 8 sub-kits comprising most orders, and we are about half-way done shipping the "Service Packs" to supply those missing parts to all customers. 

 

Work at the Contract Manufacturer is in process, although a little slower than they forecasted, and it looks like we'll get the assembled & tested versions of the boards toward the end of this month.  Then, just a quick module assembly and checkout needs to be done before we can start shipping the "assembled & tested SDR Cubes" to all those who ordered the Cube this way.

December 23, 2010:

Shipping of SDR Cube Kits started today!  Here's a glimpse of how the Kits are being packaged for shipping. It will take numerous days to finalize each package, and for schlepping them over to the PO each day ... but it won't be too long before you see your little white box sitting on your doorstep!

December 12, 2010:

What an awesome sight it is here at “SDR Cube Headquarters” -- the floor is lined with hundreds of open boxes containing the ordered modules, enclosures, packing lists, and address labels already affixed.  We’re now just waiting for the DSP pcb’s from the fab house.  Expecting them in this week, and after a quick test build-up of the board we can start shipping!

More good news is that Ten-Tec recently let me know that the blank Accessory Enclosures we ordered are on schedule to ship to me this week.  As these will be a separate shipment for those who ordered the option, we can turn these enclosures around almost immediately and ship them when we get them.  (These shipping boxes are also prepared here on the floor.)

BTW, I’ve just interfaced a Softrock Ensemble RX-II ( http://www.wb5rvz.com/sdr/ensemble_rx_ii/) to the SDR Cube via the “External Softrock” connector on the rear panel and it’s working as well as expected.  I brought out two Band Select lines in order to switch the LPF banks on the Ensemble.  Not as good as when using the RXAMP for the RF input path, of course (i.e., no amp, no attenuator pad), but usable nonetheless.  Will post some pics when I get  moment.

Just received word from the MOBO list that those kits are shipping, so we’ll soon see the SDR Cube working with the all-band Softrock RXTX 6.3 and SR6.3ng MOtherBOards that those guys have been working on for some time.  This too will be controlled by the Cube using the External Softrock connector on the rear panel.  Once again, SDR without a PC!

There was a nice mention of the SDR Cube in the recent issue of Funk Amateur Magazine (http://www.funkamateur.de/) – see page 1331 if you subscribe.  Many thanks to the QRP-QTC column editor Peter Zenker DL2FI and managing editor Knut Theurich, DG0ZB.   It looks like a great magazine – huge!  Just wish I could read German.  I’ve asked Peter and Knut if we might post a copy of the Cube’s mention here for Cube owners.

More “In The Press” news ... We have a large article coming up for the winter edition of QRP Quarterly magazine, and a detailed article was just accepted for Circuit Cellar INK Magazine.  We also have an article submitted to QST and QEX magazines – hope to hear soon about those being accepted too.  Each article is unique and is written to a different audience, so you all here on the list might well enjoy them all.

December 2, 2010:

We need to push back the kit shipping date 2.5 weeks due to a pcb fabrication quality issue discovered in the DSP board.

We’ve spent many sleepless nights in the lab over the last week-or-so (in Maryland and in Espoo) trying to solve some “inner-layer trace disconnect” problems, but there are just too many jumpers required and we feel the performance of this main processing board will suffer.

We’re working with the pcb fab shop to resolve this from happening again and they’ve agreed to re-run the job in a priority manner for us.

We are really sorry to push back the ship date for the kit product, but feel that it is critical to have the DSP circuits (including the all-important codec) be as clean and as correct as possible.  And we feel a 17 day price tag for this should be acceptable ... we hope that you do too.  

With a kit shipping target now of Dec 20,  it still has a chance of reaching most domestic destinations before Christmas. The ship date for assembled and tested product should not be affected by this, and that shipping target is still mid-January.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.  We are just as eager as you all to be diving into the project on a mass scale ... Should only be a little longer.

December 1, 2010:

Some have noticed in our “Board and Cable Interconnect” diagram (http://www.sdr-cube.com/doc/Cable%20Interconnect%20Diagram.pdf) that we show a little board called X-LPF mounted right on the back of the BNC connector.  This is the “eXtra Low Pass Filter” that the Softrock RXTX 6.3 manual recommends using to further remove harmonics when operating on 80m and 30m.  

Softrock owners have classically needed to provide this extra LPF in some way for themselves in the past ... but we include it when when SR-Base softrock option is purchased with the SDR Cube.  

The X-LPF board dimensions are 1/2” x 1” and it mounts on the back of the BNC connector.  The short RF output cable from the SR-Base board connects over to the nearby X-LPF board and plugs into one of several pinheader connectors, as determined by the band on which one intends to operate: 80m or 30m.  Then a shunt (jumper) is placed across another pinheader to route the RF to/from the BNC connector.  But if the Softrock is going to be used on some other band that doesn’t need an extra LPF, the RF cable from the SR-Base gets plugged into another pinheader on the X-LPF board at the RF is routed directly to the BNC, effectively bypassing either of the two extra LPF filters needed for Softrock operation on 80m and 30m

The X-LPF schematic and photos of it mounted in the SDR Cube have been posted on the main web page ... http://www.sdr-cube.com/.  Look about half-way down the page, in the “Softrock Components” section.

So again, the X-LPF kit is being provided with all SR-Base purchases.  You do not need to order another item if you already have an assembled CUBE-SR product or an SR-Base option ordered.

BTW ... The need for an extra LPF is yet another example of the Softrock design limitations, not a limitation of the SDR Cube design.  We’ve previously mentioned some challenges of using an inexpensive-yet-compromised design of the Softrock “RF front end”, and this is another such challenge.  We are currently building up other RF decks to see how well the SDR Cube performs with a less-compromised design ... RF decks such as the Genesis Radio 2030, WB6DHW’s UHFSDR, the FlexRadio SDR-1000, and some others.  Albeit more expensive than the Softrocks, these more encompassing designs have the potential to let the SDR Cube shine with regards to RF performance characteristics.
 

November 27, 2010:

Hi all, hope everyone here in the States had a great Thanksgiving Day!

The SDR-Cube “Software Development Kit” document has been loaded onto the website in the Documentation section.  Developers will find this useful for installing the Cube source code into MPLAB   and then modifying/building/loading your software with whatever changes were made.  Further, there is a section describing the “Field Loading” process for anyone to update the SDR Cube with a new version when the time comes.  (This section will be replicated in the User’s Manual and Assembly Manual too.)

We are starting to see daylight in the kitting process for the Cube and all the options!   We continue to be absolutely up to our eyeballs here with thousands of parts from vendors, but we are methodically sorting through them all, bagging and tagging, and documenting the kit assembly process as we go.  

The delivery of a couple parts has proven to be problematic – I expected something like this would surface – but it won’t cause much of a delay.  Silicon Labs is notorious for long delivery times for the Si570 clock chips we use in the Softrock base board, and (curiously) some of the screws we use have taken the slow boat from the supplier.  (We are using some 6,500 4x40 3/16” machine screws!)

So all things considered, we are close to being on track to starting delivery of the SDR Cube kits late next week - on/around Dec 3.  They all won’t get out the door at the same time, but they should all be shipped within several days of the first one getting shipped.

The “assembled & tested” Cube components are also making their way through the Contract Manufacturer (CM) shop, currently getting prepared for auto assembly and test.  But it looks like the end of December is not going to be reasonable delivery time from the CM, as his end-of-year crunch and plant closing for the holidays is going to affect our schedule.  This is beyond our control, but the CM assures me that a couple weeks into January is indeed going to happen.  The good news, I guess, is that we will miss the Christmas mailing rush, which should add a great deal of confidence for successful and timely deliveries.  We’ll keep everyone posted on this.

Some of you guys ordered some Cube components as kits and other components as assembled.  The mailing costs we have set up cover just one mailing ... So I was thinking of putting an “Extra Mailing” PayPal button on the Order page for those who want their kit components shipped when first available (next week), instead of waiting for the Assembled & Tested components to be ready in another month.  This will only be a small extra charge, and it will be totally up to you if you wish to get a head start on the kit assembly part of your order.  

So that’s about it for now.  We’ve been quiet here mainly because we’ve been “out in the factory” (i.e., the other part of the basement here!) getting things sorted and packed up.  

November 16, 2010:

Parts Galore
I’m up to my elbows here in the lab with tons o’ parts for the Early Bird ordering round, still scheduled for shipping by the end of this month (for kits) and by the end of Dec (for assembled items.)  Man, what a busy time here!  Kitting is progressing well with no show-stoppers as of yet ... But having done this for more than a decade with the NJQRP and AmQRP clubs, I’m sure something will pop up; but we’ll work around it efficiently when it does.

 

SDR Cube to the Field
I recently had a chance to get out of the shack and actually do a little operating “in the field” <gasp> ... What a joy, as it always is here with the gorgeous fall season foliage!  Went up into the Appalachian Trail (accessed from the Harper’s Ferry access point in West VA) with my typical portable “go kit”: battery, EFHWA antenna, Elecraft T1 antenna tuner ... and now the  SDR Cube!  See the new pic I posted of my QRP tote case on our web page in the top left side (http://www.sdr-cube.com).  Fit’s beautifully in there, and I just love using it with my 5-AHr 12V battery for the Cube.  (See comment below on Station Accessories.)

 

Special “Early Bird” pricing ends on Nov 30th

After opening for early ordering a couple weeks ago, a number of SDR Cube Transceivers and options are still available ... but only until Nov 30th for the special introductory pricing discount.  Starting on Dec 1, the price will increase.  So spread the work to your friends and clubs about the special reduced pricing that is still in effect ... but only for a couple more weeks.

 

Station Accessories (N2APB)
Ever since announcing the coming availability of the “blank” matching enclosure for the SDR Cube, guys have been commenting on things they will be putting into their Accessory Enclosures.  And since I have the good fortune of having some prototype blank enclosures at hand, I thought I’d mention what station accessories I actually have in progress here at Chez N2APB.  I am repackaging the nifty Norcal Power meter (http://www.norcalqrp.org/ncpowermeter.htm) into a matching box that will sit right next to my SDR Cube.  This allows measurement of power and SWR for the little Softrock that is built into the Cube.  I also have a battery enclosure containing the standard 5-Ahr, 12V gel cell (3.5”x2.75”x4”) that many of us use, and in the spare space I’ve built-in my Elecraft T1 tuner (http://www.elecraft.com/) along the side with BNCs coming out the back and the pushbuttons accessible from the side.  In yet another blank enclosure (isn’t it nice having the prototypes?!) I have found a convenient way to install my Ensemble RXTX (http://www.wb5rvz.com/sdr/ensemble/) in our 4”x4”x4” Cube, thus being able to operate this multiband Softrock “RF deck” externally as an option.  I am also building up the MOBO all-band Softrock front end (http://www.wb5rvz.com/sdr/mobo43/index.htm) which will also go into an Accessory Enclosure for my SDR Cube station, but that’s not yet advanced far enough for pictures.  But photos of all these other projects will be posted just as soon as I have time to do it!

 

Version 1.0 is smoothing out wonderfully!
During our beta test time (that we are still in), we’ve been optimizing various aspects of the SDR Cube’s operation and user interface ... Personally, I just love using the Cube daily here in the shack as I work on all the other things mentioned in this update.  It’ on 12 hours a day and I often swivel around to have a QSO when someone pops in – I probably have 2-3 QSOs per day, and everyone has been commenting on the nice quality of the signal: CW (my favorite mode), phone and digital (through the NUE-PSK modem).  Anyway, here are the latest interface optimizations ... we settled on a nicer/better black anodized aluminum knob for the main tuning, an it’s a real joy to use.  We determined a better way to indicate the fast/medium/slow modes for tuning across frequencies (an underscore character is used beneath the digit being tuned, as you’ll see in the new video to be posted).  We added a convenient way to get back to “factory default settings”.  We re-arranged the status indications on the pretty blue display, thus corresponding better to the physical controls on the front panel.  And we added a calibrated keyer speed indication (in wpm) to the display.  BTW, if not mentioned already, Juha added some splendid “CW waveform shaping” that allows the SDR Cube to transmit a very pleasant, good quality CW tone for the receiving station.

 

Documentation Updates
Design partner Juha OH2NLT and I have nearly finished shaking all aspects of the SDR Cube software and version 1.0 is almost ready for starting to program into the controllers for the kits.  When this happens in the coming week or so, we’ll be posting the source code, which is being released as open source under the GNU General Public License for anyone else to use.  The parts lists are complete, of course, and I just need to clean up comments and formatting for posting this week.  Updates to the Operator’s Manual are also coming this week, as will be the Assembly Manual.  We also just about have ready a “technical page” which gets into some gritty detail concerning performance of the Cube, as well as the challenges of using the Softrock as the RF front end to the Cube product.)

 

Meanwhile ...
Back to the kitting!   Please pass along the word about the SDR Cube availability to your friends and club members.  News and articles of it are soon coming in the major magazines, but you all here are on the leading edge of this technology with us ... and it’s fun!