Shacktopus Taking Shape

This is an intense time... driven by my old nemesis, the trade-show deadline. Actually, it's just a hamfest, but the pressure is every bit as intense as a COMDEX of the Olden Days: this is my first public appearance in years. I certainly don't expect to be done, of course, but the looming mid-June date is effectively keeping me from sinking into the sloth that characterized much of the past 3 or 4 years.

But it's not just that. Today I had a bit of an epiphany, discovering (thanks to Ned Konz) the joys of AVRStudio, a JTAG interface, and an ATmega128 development board. Damn, this stuff is cool! My last embedded environment was a serial port on a FORTH board, and while I love FORTH, it certainly didn't offer the intimacy with running code that we find in modern (and almost free) tools. And, of course, there is some serious horsepower in little $10 chips these days... along with all the things that can be hung on their ports with hardly any interface circuitry.

The architecture of Shacktopus has evolved considerably. The always-on processor is the ATmega128 (in the form of an Olimex AVR-MT-128), aided considerably by a collection of wondrous Maxim SPI devices: programmable attenuators for the matrix mixer, UARTs to generate a half-dozen extra serial ports, and I/O expanders to handle the largish collection of status and control bits (as well as a programmable active filter network to give me software-controlled high-pass, low-pass, band-bass, or notch). State machines manage a UI that spans a local LCD/keypad, remote access via DTMF tones and synthesized speech, and a remote telnet interface that arrives via the Linux board...

And that's the other system, the "Big Iron" in my backpack: a Technologic TS-7200 embedded ARM Linux system running at 200 MHz. This uses hamlib to deal with rig interface (initially the Yaesu FT-817), and also provides the full range of services one expects from a robust OS: Internet access, LAN presence, data logging, and an on-board web server that can be reached via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi from the Tapwave Zodiac that rides on my belt. That lovely PDA, and the Yaesu VX-6R that talks to the embedded VX-2R, comprises the wireless human-interface... no laptop necessary.

Connected to all this are quite a variety of interesting devices... as much as I can fit into the 12x16x3 inch polycarbonate enclosure:



More on all this in a future posting, or a proper web page for this thing that needs to be done Real Soon Now.

After the Sea-Pac show (and Field Day the next weekend), my plan is to put this new human-scale technomadic system to the test with two solo adventures: an Amtrak jaunt across the US, and a kayak jaunt of a week or so in local waters. At the same time, we'll be marketing the key components: the RigNexus board that runs all the I/O, the Li-Ion power system with SMBUS interface, and a few turn-key packaged versions for different applications. If you are interested in being an "early adopter," please let me know.