Hi, I'm a recent engineering grad who did 3 courses in DSP but never used an actualy dsp board (all our labs were in Matlab). Does anyone have schematics for a TI or analog devices DSP development board. Or do you know of companies that sell discontinued boards? Thanks
Build my own DSP dev board?
Started by ●November 21, 2003
Reply by ●November 21, 20032003-11-21
"evil engineer" <evil@engr.com> wrote in news:yeqvb.3920$IZ1.3760@edtnps84:> Hi, > > I'm a recent engineering grad who did 3 courses in DSP but never used > an actualy dsp board (all our labs were in Matlab). Does anyone have > schematics for a TI or analog devices DSP development board. Or do you > know of companies that sell discontinued boards? > > Thanks > > >As a designer of many different DSP boards, I wonder what your motivation is? I can certainly understand that designing a board may have value as a learning experience. In this case, you probably don't want to clone an existing design (unless you want to learn CAD layout). You can't possibly design and build a DSP board for less money than you can buy an off-the-shelf solution. Our dev kits start at $250, Analog Devices & TI both have eval boards that are probably all under $500, and many are cheaper. If you want to learn how to program a DSP, you would be better off using a more contemporary board than a discontinued board so that the DSP you learn is more current. I think the best way to learn more about DSP applications is to decide on a real project. It doesn't have to be overly sophisticated but it should have an identifiable goal. The next step is to actually go through the process of finishing it. There will certainly be difficulties and bugs. It might even smoke. Until you sweat out the details of a real project, you will never be a design engineer. -- Al Clark Danville Signal Processing, Inc. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Purveyors of Fine DSP Hardware and other Cool Stuff Available at http://www.danvillesignal.com
Reply by ●November 21, 20032003-11-21
Al Clark wrote:> ... Until you sweat out the details of a real project, > you will never be a design engineer.Amen to that! But why does that make it appropriate -- I believe it is appropriate -- for the OP to buy rather than build? (I'll explain my reasoning if you explain yours.) Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●November 21, 20032003-11-21
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> wrote in news:bplhi5$74a$1@bob.news.rcn.net:> Al Clark wrote: > >> ... Until you sweat out the details of a real project, >> you will never be a design engineer. > > Amen to that! But why does that make it appropriate -- I believe it is > appropriate -- for the OP to buy rather than build? (I'll explain my > reasoning if you explain yours.) > > JerryI'm not sure we really disagree. I would encourage anyone to build a project for the learning experience. The original poster was looking for a schematic to copy and possibly build (clone?). My point was that it would cost a lot of money and not necessarily teach him effectively. My suggestion would be to either 1. Design and fabricate his own board, write the code, etc. or 2. Use an existing board and learn to write some code for a real project. I just didn't see much point in just cloning someone else's design. He also seemed to be looking to do something very cheap. Designing and/or fabricating your own board is not cheap. Besides time, it also takes tools such as a PC layout program, microscope, good soldering station, board prototyping, etc. We have many good engineers that participate in this news group who do not design and/or build hardware. Algorithm development, software engineering, etc are also very real engineering skills. These guys have to sweat out bugs too, even if it means recompiling instead of dealing with "Essence of Allen Bradley" -- Al Clark Danville Signal Processing, Inc. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Purveyors of Fine DSP Hardware and other Cool Stuff Available at http://www.danvillesignal.com
Reply by ●November 21, 20032003-11-21
Al Clark wrote:> Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> wrote in news:bplhi5$74a$1@bob.news.rcn.net: > > >>Al Clark wrote: >> >> >>> ... Until you sweat out the details of a real project, >>>you will never be a design engineer. >> >>Amen to that! But why does that make it appropriate -- I believe it is >>appropriate -- for the OP to buy rather than build? (I'll explain my >>reasoning if you explain yours.) >> >>Jerry > > > I'm not sure we really disagree. I would encourage anyone to build a > project for the learning experience. The original poster was looking for > a schematic to copy and possibly build (clone?). My point was that it > would cost a lot of money and not necessarily teach him effectively. > > My suggestion would be to either > > 1. Design and fabricate his own board, write the code, etc. or > > 2. Use an existing board and learn to write some code for a real project. > > I just didn't see much point in just cloning someone else's design. He > also seemed to be looking to do something very cheap. Designing and/or > fabricating your own board is not cheap. Besides time, it also takes > tools such as a PC layout program, microscope, good soldering station, > board prototyping, etc. > > We have many good engineers that participate in this news group who do > not design and/or build hardware. Algorithm development, software > engineering, etc are also very real engineering skills. These guys have > to sweat out bugs too, even if it means recompiling instead of dealing > with "Essence of Allen Bradley"Forgive me. My turgid prose obscured my intent -- complete agreement -- and I read too quickly, overlooking the evil engineer's intention to clone an old board from a schematic. Even so, it made far more sense to me for him buy a board (or a programmable sound card) and build a real project than for him to exhaust himself swimming upstream like a salmon, only to arrive at the spawning ground projectless and gasping for strength, with a working DSP board as a trophy. If I ever want to build my own board, I'll try to impose on your hospitality. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●November 23, 20032003-11-23
Al Clark wrote: || My suggestion would be to either || || 1. Design and fabricate his own board, write the code, etc. or || || 2. Use an existing board and learn to write some code for a real || project. || || I just didn't see much point in just cloning someone else's design. || He also seemed to be looking to do something very cheap. Designing || and/or fabricating your own board is not cheap. Besides time, it || also takes tools such as a PC layout program, microscope, good || soldering station, board prototyping, etc. || || We have many good engineers that participate in this news group who || do not design and/or build hardware. Algorithm development, software || engineering, etc are also very real engineering skills. These guys || have to sweat out bugs too, even if it means recompiling instead of || dealing with "Essence of Allen Bradley" || Well, the OP wants something cheap, because he doesn't seem to have enough quid to buy one of your boards and he may succeed to get a discontinued board for much less at EBay. He also seems to overestimate his skills and to underestimate todays boards complexity. Of course it would be good to try in his case to build one, so he can appreciate the ready made things after having wasted money and lots of time. :-( These kids are good at videogames and they think reality is made up like this, so they have a lot of confidence in succeeding... Of course any serious engineer gets the eval-board first and then, when everything is working he will have to make his own design embedding it into the piece of gear he is doing. Even this is hard for most softies. I'm happy with this as they usually hire a consultant when the first attempts are not doing well. :-) And in my experience it is the same as with the computer kids, or rather say they *are* computer kids. So every means coming down to reality *is* good and we should encourage him in every way to make the mistake rather now as a student then when he found a work and costs that company all this money and especially time. -- ciao Ban (Bernhard von Roon) electronic hardware designer
