First, I'd like to thank everyone that has given their input so far on this project! For anyone who is just now joining the party, you can go back to part 1 if you want the full scoop on what has been going on here, OR you can just continue reading, because I'm doing 2 things in this post - sharing the results of the vote from the post just prior to this one, and then summarizing where we've been, and where we're going next. As a reminder, this project will always be Crowd-Sourced, but never Crowd-Funded. I don't want your money, just your ideas!
Results of the Computer Vote
Last time, all of you helped me choose which small form factor computer I should use for this project. The vote was between the Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone, the Kangaroo+, or an Android Tablet. I asked everyone voting to pick their first and second choice, and I awarded 2 points for each 1st choice, and 1 point for each second choice. The winner ran away with the vote, and with the popularity of a certain fruit flavored computer (they wouldn't call it that if it tasted any different right?) I guess I shouldn't be surprised:
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Now What?
Those of you who have been reading along are probably asking whats next, and those who just got here are asking, what happened before this? I think that the best way to answer both of these questions is to recap what we've done so far, so here's the Readers Digest version of things up to this point:
One of the pieces of equipment that my work revolves around is built into a small black box. We had one that was being scrapped, so after the guts were removed, I was left with a nifty little box, complete with a LiFePO4 battery and charger.
I decided to get input from everyone who reads or comes across my blog on what would make a good project. The basic guidelines where that the project needed to be radio related, it needed to all fit in the box, and it needed to use the battery that was already there as it's power source.
The first step we took was to collect ideas for what to build. After collecting those ideas, it was put to a vote, and the decision was made to build an HF/QRP Go-Kit. With the decision made for the type of project, it was time to start nailing down some of the details.
The first details we decided on were what type of radio should be used (SDR or Non-SDR), and whether it should be a kit radio, scratch built, or something off the shelf. Those decisions bubbled up a couple of interesting things but ultimately led us to choosing the Bitx40 as the radio to use in this project. Along the way we also came to the conclusion that if a small computer would fit in the box, we should build one in. Since the Bitx40 is sufficiently small, there was plenty of room, so I put the computer question up to a vote, which got us to where we are today.
What's Next?
The hardware is picked, and most of it is now in hand. At this point my plan is to lay out everything in the box to see how it all starts to fit together. I'll share some pictures of how things fit and how they might be arranged in the box. At that point I'll look for input and ideas on the layout before I start making holes and mounting things.
Hope to hear from you when that time comes!
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