Options
Sirius Radio, question of interest
jimmyw
Posts: 112
So, I developed about a year ago a Sirius radio interface because what is available out there to integrators sucks (having to emit a complicated IR code every time power dies is NOT integrator friendly) so I built an interface board that controls up to 4 sirius radio and you talk to it either over serial or ethernet, I dont use serial, but its a great debug tool. So, my question is, since I am getting to the board that hand etching these is getting bothersome.. Is there any interest in a product like this? If I can get commitments for 20 or so I can afford to get them prof made.
Pros and cons:
Pros:
4 radios with a single interface
SIMPLE protocol, all SAP commands are nicely tucked away, and instead you get pretty commands "$02,'D_TUNE:',itoa(nTuner),';',itoa(nChannel),$03"
Cheap to add radios and start with just 1 or 2
Other cool stuff!
Cons:
Separate components, (Controller + SC-H1*(1-4) )
Must either use velcro, double stick, and custom mounting to get away with a clean look, or put it on a 2 space shelf with a blank in front
multiple power connectors (1 for controller, 1 for each radio)(maybe I can change this, but later)
Others?
Now, if I get 20 or so orders this would be around $90 for the controller
and SC-H1s can be readily sourced for about 45usd
Compare to SRH2000 @ approx 200usd for 1 tuner + having to use an IR to emit the "go into passthrough" code
so saving are approx
tuners interface SRH2000 diff
1 tuner 135 200 65
2 tuners 180 400 220
3 tuners 225 600 375
4 tuners 270 800 530
caveats:
the radio in sirius position must be the radio with the highest subscription (they can all be the same, but radio 1 MUST have the > or = the subscription of the others)
if full scanning is enabled boot up time goes from 3.1 seconds to 49 seconds
full guide data (of non tuned channels) can only be requested from radio 1
the GET_TIME dst param is not correct (from sirius datastream) but the GMT time is spot on
most unsolicited data only comes from radio 1 (signal strength, time, data from non tuned channels)
unsolicited data of now playing channel comes from radio tuned to that station
when requesting subscribed channels the controller will have .75 of dead time before starting response, if unsolicited data is sent in this time, it is lost(sore point).
I plan on etching another board this weekend to take pics, the final board will look pretty much 100% the same, just prettier, better ground plane, conformal coating and silk screening etc
Jimmy
Also, I plan on posting this on remote central as well, but with a diff price point, since john public <> cool integrators like us
Pros and cons:
Pros:
4 radios with a single interface
SIMPLE protocol, all SAP commands are nicely tucked away, and instead you get pretty commands "$02,'D_TUNE:',itoa(nTuner),';',itoa(nChannel),$03"
Cheap to add radios and start with just 1 or 2
Other cool stuff!
Cons:
Separate components, (Controller + SC-H1*(1-4) )
Must either use velcro, double stick, and custom mounting to get away with a clean look, or put it on a 2 space shelf with a blank in front
multiple power connectors (1 for controller, 1 for each radio)(maybe I can change this, but later)
Others?
Now, if I get 20 or so orders this would be around $90 for the controller
and SC-H1s can be readily sourced for about 45usd
Compare to SRH2000 @ approx 200usd for 1 tuner + having to use an IR to emit the "go into passthrough" code
so saving are approx
tuners interface SRH2000 diff
1 tuner 135 200 65
2 tuners 180 400 220
3 tuners 225 600 375
4 tuners 270 800 530
caveats:
the radio in sirius position must be the radio with the highest subscription (they can all be the same, but radio 1 MUST have the > or = the subscription of the others)
if full scanning is enabled boot up time goes from 3.1 seconds to 49 seconds
full guide data (of non tuned channels) can only be requested from radio 1
the GET_TIME dst param is not correct (from sirius datastream) but the GMT time is spot on
most unsolicited data only comes from radio 1 (signal strength, time, data from non tuned channels)
unsolicited data of now playing channel comes from radio tuned to that station
when requesting subscribed channels the controller will have .75 of dead time before starting response, if unsolicited data is sent in this time, it is lost(sore point).
I plan on etching another board this weekend to take pics, the final board will look pretty much 100% the same, just prettier, better ground plane, conformal coating and silk screening etc
Jimmy
Also, I plan on posting this on remote central as well, but with a diff price point, since john public <> cool integrators like us
0