[TangerineSDR] Just joined and some comments

[Lyle Johnson]

Hello Scotty, Dan and Tom!

Still digesting the preliminary document.  I see lots of IO...

I also see references to PSWS which seems to be Personal Science Work 
Station.  Not sure what this is intended to be.

I also recall some interest in a "space weather station" but have been 
out of the loop for too long.

The TangerineSDR Data Engine seems to be a general purpose FPGA 
development board with lots of specialized IO.

I am unclear as to what specific problems this project is attempting to 
solve, or what peripheral board(s) might be needed to solve the problem 
set that is driving this development.  Are such boards already existing 
(hence the large set of various standard IO interfaces) or do many/most 
of them still need to be designed -- and if so how does that play out in 
the overall scheme of things?

TAPR's early history with general purpose solutions not aimed at solving 
a particular (perceived) need in the community in general meant a lot of 
development effort by one to five individuals to create something that 
was only adopted by a few tens (METCON comes to mind).

Does a board like the Red Pitaya - especially if it were to have a 
TAPR-sourced "IO expander" - already solve many or most of the problems 
that this board attempts to solve?  Or the new Red Pitaya-SDR with 
bigger FPGA, better ADC, 50-ohm front end, lower noise floor, etc but at 
$500 (fast 16 bit ADCs and 14-bit DACs) instead of $200 (10-bit fast 
ADCs/DACs) or $300 (fast 14-bit ADCs/DACs), solve the problem(s)?

-Lyle KK7P