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RASDR Startup Guide
It is recommended that the user begin by becoming a member of SARA:
and joining the RASDR Users Group:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RASDR/info
The RASDRviewer program sets up the RASDR2 hardware for safe operation as a powerful radio astronomy receiver. Please do not attempt to exercise any of the disabled transmit functions, as these functions are unsupported and will produce receiver spurs, higher current drain and higher operating temperatures.
RASDR edge connectors should not be abused -- mechanical strain must be minimized. Switching power supplies can contribute electrical noise and should be only used with caution. If RASDR is installed in a box, heat sinking or cooling may be advised. The thermal transfer characteristics of any enclosure must be such to radiate the heat into the environment outside the box. If the user’s DigiRED board is an older prototype unit, not obtained through SARA, then he must remove R50, R52 & R56 from the SPI bus to allow the SPI flash to work. See Sheet 4 of the Digi-RED_v.1_r.2.rar schematic, found here:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RASDR/files
RASDR should operate from a single USB3 power source (power hub or externally-powered adaptor) or from two independent USB2 power sources. The use of two independent USB2 or USB3 sources will minimize current density in the micro connectors, plus may stabilize the power feed in noisy conditions.
Data are routed through the ‘receive’ USB3 connector, located at the end of the board with the two SMA connectors. If RASDRviewer is not used and there is a chance that transmit functions may not be suppressed then the transmit SMA connector should be terminated with a 50 ohm terminator to minimize RF noise. Data transfer rates are faster when a USB3 superspeed connection is used, although a USB2 connection will operate with lower bandwidth. Some USB3 adapter chipsets function better than others so if you want to choose a USB3 adapter, please ask for suggestions from the Users Group.
If firmware is not preloaded, then the Cypress bootloader must be used to load the firmware before operation as a receiver. The easy approach is to download and extract files from Cycontrol.zip, found here along with instructions for using:
https://github.com/myriadrf/RASDR/tree/master/host/CyControl
The data image that must be loaded is the firmware/bin/usb_rx.img file at:
https://github.com/myriadrf/RASDR/blob/master/DigiRED/firmware/bin/usb_rx.img
The SARA firmware can be loaded in two ways. First if the SPI flash is not loaded, the user can select the option on the Cypress Control Center to load the image to RAM on the FX3 chip after the “bootloader” is highlighted in the screen.
If on-board FLASH is empty, make sure that jumper J2 is shorted, connect digiRED board to the PC’s USB port and then run “USB Control Center” application. The board should boot to the bootloader.
Choose menu command “Program F3SPI FLASH”. In the status bar you will see “Waiting for Cypress Boot Programmer device to enumerate....” and after some time window will appear. Select provided img file and press “Open”. Status bar of the USB Control Center” application will indicate “Programming of SPI FLASH in Progress…". This message will change to the “Programming succeeded” after FLASH programming is done.
Note: FX3 will boot firmware uploaded to FLASH each time after power-on if jumper J2 is shorted. This is the most convenient way to operate.
If it is necessary to reprogram FLASH with new firmware, do these steps:
- Disconnect digiRED from USB port.
- Make sure that jumper J2 is open.
- Connect digiRED board to USB port.
- Short jumper J2.
- Do the steps described in the section above for programming an empty flash.
Windows needs to be able to associate the Cypress Driver with the SARA Vendor and Product IDs. The first time that the USB connection is made with the SARA firmware image installed, Windows will search for a matching VID/PID. It will not find one. Therefore, you will need to direct Windows to use one of the.inf files from the following link:
https://github.com/myriadrf/RASDR/blob/master/DigiRED/driver/digired-windows.zip?raw=true
You need to download the correct (inf) driver for your machine to a convenient place on your machine. This location is used for the Windows search. This step will not be needed once Windows is aware of the association of the VID/PID with the Cypress driver.
RASDRviewer runs under Windows XP, 7 or 8. It is available to SARA members for download as described in one of the “new member” messages for the RASDR Users Group or in the README file following. It should be noted that the readme text file will change with each subsequent version of RASDRviewer. Therefore this link should only be used for RASDRviewer 1.1.0.0.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RASDR/files/RASDRviewerSoftware/
RASDRviewer can output CSV files in long-duration format (large files permitted), or in a shortened format that complies with Excel limitations. These data files are useful for analysis via Excel or other programs such as Python routines. Sample Python code examples may be shared here:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RASDR/files/PostprocessingSoftware/