What Host Board?

hfaerohfaero
in KiwiSDR Discussion
Hi, I'm keen to buy a KiwiSDR and from a local source here in New Zealand there seems to be two board options, one is the BeagleBone Green the other a BeagleBone Black (Rev C). Being an absolute beginner with BeagleBone products (I've had a few Raspberry Pi's) and noticing that the SeeedStudio kit offers a Green, is Green the best option?

Thanks,
Mike

Comments

  • jksjks
    Hi Mike. I also just answered your email. Seeed bundles the BBG with the Kiwi combo version because they manufacture the Green. The lower cost allowed us to meet the combo's retail price target versus having to buy BBBs. BBGs are generally cheaper because they have fewer features. Features that the Kiwi doesn't use. So it really doesn't matter. You could even save some money by finding an old 2GB BBB rev B someplace. The Kiwi distribution will fit on the smaller filesystem versus the 4GB of the rev C.
  • hfaerohfaero
    That's great advice, thanks John.
  • WA2ZKDWA2ZKD
    IIRC, some BBB can cause spurs (?)
  • jksjks
    edited June 2018
    I have a very old BBB made by Element 14 that has spurs. But given what we know today I can tell you these are just much stronger Ethernet spurs. So perhaps they just used the wrong (or are missing) bypass caps on the Ethernet RJ45 connector termination. A later E14 I looked at was absolutely fine.
  • hfaerohfaero
    Thanks guys, more than a year on I still don't have my KiwiSDR :-(

    I got caught up in the hype for an Airspy HF+ and waited nearly a year for it but was disappointed in its performance, mind you that was prior to the new firmware that gave some gain control back to the user rather than the arbitrary software/firmware controls. Still, reading the plight of some users it seems that the Airspy HF+ may not be the better HF receiver for me so I've dropped the idea, sold it and as an interim I've been using a SDRPlay RSP2 with some success but hanker for a truly dedicated HF only receiver.

    I may now look at running some Cat6 shielded cable out to the shack as I've seen the results of ethernet spurs on almost every receiver I've owned. I've managed to mitigate this recently by installing an access point between my router and the shack and running solely on WiFi. It works OK when the receiver is connected via USB to a PC connected via wifi to the router but this won't be an option with the KiwiSDR.......or will it? Can BBG and KiwiSDR be accessed/controlled via a wifi dongle or is that just jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!!?
  • jksjks
    Several years ago I tried getting wifi dongles to work using Debian 7. I had nothing but problems and gave up. Other people have had success using more recent Kiwi releases. If you do some searching in the forum you can find their comments.

    More people use wifi bridges that have a short Ethernet connection on each end. But then of course your back to the problem of having Ethernet in the equation. Again, their comments are in the forum if you do some searching.
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