21

Hi Syed,

Reading all about the future Dreamcatcher 4 hardware is great. Like the built in “dish” antenna. And achieving the small size of the Lantern. Probably I missed it, but what will this new design be capable of? For instance Chat. Would I need two of the boards? What new user features will it have?

How about this idea. 16 channels of Push to Chat, or PTC Space Radio! That would get world attention. Of course I’m kidding. Still we are dreamers, like the word Dreamcatcher.

Don

22

So like down the road would this microprocessor be able to handle more bandwidth than just 2.5Kbits a sec just thinking about the future of the board like if it gets widely popular and there is like money available to support the cost of higher bandwidth speeds.

23

What do you mean by built in dish antenna? I just want to make sure I have not explained something poorly.

The purpose of the new design is primarily cost and size. It has a much less powerful CPU than the current design. There are no new features being added, other than providing schematics and source code for the radio.

Yes, definitely. The MCU (ESP32-S2) is not the limiting factor in the bitrate. Reducing bandwidth is simply a matter of saving money on operational costs.

24

The latest prototype boards were repaired (incorrect voltage regulator).

image
image1920×1080 332 KB

2 Likes
25

How do “heap” and “spiram” relate in terms we are used to seeing in Skylark?

26

Didn’t want to confuse, but “dish” was meant to mean satellite receiving antenna. Just a play on words.

Don

27

@maxboysdad I don’t believe heap has a counterpart in Skylark. SPIRAM is external RAM that is used by the firmware.

1 Like
28

As posted by @Syed in other Threads i got a Prototype from him today and it works on the EU Beam.
It needs a Frequency Converter in front of it, but i had a morfeus laying around so that’s not a Problem.
The Board itself is really tiny, that is what everyone was waiting for i think, good work by the Othernet Team!

Here a quick Photo of the somewhat janky setup :slight_smile:

IMG_20210210_165229
IMG_20210210_1652292304×1728 1.2 MB

Reception works great, the current UI isn’t great, but i’m already working on a better one, see the Dreamcatcher Repo Thread :slight_smile:

image
image491×515 19.7 KB

1 Like
29

Looking very good. What exactly is that morpheus device and what does it do?

30

The Morfeus is a Mixer and Frequencygenerator, it’s not sold anymore i think tho: moRFeus - RF Upconverter and Downconverter, Wideband Mixer and Signal – Othernet

31

Now that i got a Receiver Board i was able to add real data to my first Prototype of the new UI.

It’s still work in progress but the Statistics etc. are already working in realtime and it looks way better as before i would say :slight_smile: Still a lot to do including baking it into the Firmware tho.

image
image1368×758 79.7 KB

1 Like
32

so theoretically what would be the dreamcatcher 4 max data rate possible that the microprocessor could sustain and not loose any of the down stream data?

33

100 kbps has been tested without issue. Higher rates are possible (up to 200 kbps) but no time has been spent on that.

34

Finally was able to get my DC4 working on the EU Beam, works good after adding a LNA after my Morfeus Frequency Shifter that is needed for this Prototype Board.

image
image1397×636 59 KB

1 Like
35

What is the gain from your LNA?

36

no Idea really, it’s an SPF5189Z

37

spf5189z
spf5189z1216×764 188 KB

like this one?

38

jup something like that, got it from china a while back for a few euros, the production DC4 will not need this tho.

39

@Tysonpower Do you have that LNA just before the DC4? So it is connected to the F-connector?

40

i had the following config: LNB->Power Injector->5m Cable->LNA->Morfeus->DC4
I also noticed that the DC4 didn’t save the VOA newscast, the News etc. as Html work fine and get saved under the News Folder