[App_rpt-users] usbfobs

[Steve Wright]

On 06/07/16 11:44, Kevin Custer wrote:
> Soldering a 48 pin LQFP and having it be fake is nothing short of a 
> bad experience.  Like Scott, I recently purchased a fair quantity of 
> CM119A's from a top CM distributor.  They told us the CM119 and CM119A 
> are now legacy products and the CM119B is current. Unfortunately, the 
> B model doesn't use a crystal and several developers agree that they 
> may not be suitable for digital and analog radio adapter 
> applications.  There were still a few hundred CM119A's in the 
> distribution chain as of a few months ago.

If the CM119 is dead, then we should scrap it.  I can't really see why 
we are focussing on that devices' built-in I/O, when we have computing 
devices such as RPI3 with scads of easily accessible I/O.

Linux sound is really well developed - "just works everywhere" I'd say.  
Why not build or reuse a DSP-based driver for that, that will handle 
voting - now we are in business with all the toys, for the foreseeable 
future.  Likely a simple CLI config tool could be developed too - choose 
RX audio device, TX audio device, signalling, save settings, done.  
Rinse and repeat for three devices.

Hardware VOTERs are fine for a single repeater with a few outboard 
receivers, but way too much money for non-millionaire clubs to convert 
"everything" to asterisk - they will stick with their IRLP node for 
sure, and that is a tragedy..  I see a few members here and elsewhere 
make it their business to put tens of thousands of $$ into communication 
systems, and that's enviable and laudable, but 90% of constructors don't 
exist on that rarefied plane.


S