I’ll be at the annual Hamvention at Dayton again this year, for a short time so my last order time for dispatch before I go will be Thursday 17 May at 10:00UTC.

I’m back on Monday 21 May, so not a long trip.

At the AMSAT/TAPR dinner on Friday evening, I’ll be announcing details of a new SDR project we’ve been working on over the past few months which I hope you’ll think is very, very cool.

Many thanks, Howard

All FUNcube Dongles after and including serial number 5890 now have the latest firmware preinstalled. All units purchased directly from the FUNcube website from now on will have this firmware.

Many thanks, Howard

Let’s cut to the chase – update your firmware! The latest is 18j.

I’ve noted that a lot of people just starting out with the FCD start by using some of the great newer software products out there, like SDR Radio for example, that weren’t about or set up to directly work with the FCD when we first designed it.

Almost all of this software is dependent on later versions of firmware that you’ll need to install first before you can use the FCD with them.

To update your firmware, you need to follow these steps from Windows…

o Download the original FCD controller program FCHID003 (http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/FCHid003.zip), FCHIDBL bootloader program (http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/FCHIDBL001.zip), and the firmware image itself (http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/export18j.pro.bin).

o *Important*! Exit any applications that may try to access the FCD. These will break the update process as they coexist on the same USB communication channel, so they must be closed down first.

o Plug in the FCD and let the drivers install if necessary. If it’s the first time you’ve inserted the FCD, it might take up to a minute or so to install.

o Run the FCHID003 FCD controller program (FCHID.exe), and press “Reset to bootloader”. This puts the FCD into a special “bootloader mode” to allow you to upload new code. Ignore any errors you see in FCHID – this is because FCHID is trying to communicate with the FCD but, because it’s now in bootloader mode, FCHID won’t be able to interpret what it’s getting back from its USB commands.

o Exit FCHID.

o Run the FCHIDBL.exe program you just downloaded, press “Open file”, and select the “export18j.pro.bin” file you’ve also just downloded.

o From FCHIDBL, press “Write firmware”, and then wait a few seconds for the process to complete.

o Exit FCHIDBL.

o Remove the FCD and then reinsert 10 seconds or so later. This automatically takes the FCD out of bootloader mode and back to its normal SDR operating mode.

o You will see an error like this if FCHIDBL is still running when you reinsert the FCD:

HIDOpen of Vid_04d8&Pid_FB56 returns 1
USB VID/PID found.
HIDQuery returns 1
Query message: FCDAPP 18.10 Brd 1.1 No blk
Error: not in recoginised FCD mode

This is actually correct despite it suggesting it’s an error! It is just the FCHIDBL program not understanding that the FCD is in normal SDR mode: the FCHIDBL program only understands the FCD when it’s in bootloader mode.

Many thanks, Howard

I am sure many of you will be salivating over the Raspberry Pi Linux board. I have reports from a member of the FUNcube team who apparently has managed to get hold of one, and that the FCD works with it, although I am not sure if this is just at the driver level or if he also has SDR working with it too.

Anyway, meanwhile back at the FUNcube Dongle manufacturing and R&D facility, we’ve been playing with this http://omnima.co.uk/store/catalog/MiniEMBWiFi-p-16180.html over the past couple of months. It’s very cool. And very reasonably priced. And the FCD works with it at the driver level, both HID and audio. I have already had it streaming, but I need to do some more work to get it reliably sending via RTP.

You do need to be a bit of a hacker to use it, but that’s the same as any embedded board including the R-Pi. Unlike the R-Pi there’s no video out, so you need to provide a serial connection and/or ssh. It also has an HTML front end, as it’s based on OpenWRT.

If you’ve ever played with boards like these (eg, the Chumby Hacker Board and the BeagleBoard spring to mind), you’ll know that being able to rebuild the kernel becomes a way of life, a bit like taking you back to the mid to late 90′s with Linux on PCs. You need a LOT of time on your hands.

Unlike the CHB and the BeagleBoard though, I found that rebuilding the entire Linux based OpenWRT stack on the MiniEMBWifi was a walk in the park.

Back to the Raspberry Pi, there is much to applaud. But I personally found it excrutiating that they fell into some of the same traps that I did (and that I documented in several places) about manufacturing. This includes such things as far east manufacturers promising that they will only ever use the parts that you specify, and then go off and substitute something else.

Then there’s the non-small matter of device compliance and certification, where R-Pi state that they originaly thought they’d leave until later: getting retailers and distributors to take the risk of selling uncertified kit to end users is going to be difficult. Both of these issues we know have delayed R-Pi’s distribution already.

Performing certification and compliance testing is a bit like having the auditors in. If they don’t find something, they won’t feel they’ve justified themselves. Let’s all hope and pray that the certification and compliance results will not dictate any rework, or worse redesign, possibly further delaying this truly superb philanthropic endeavour.

Many thanks, Howard

In the past couple of months we’ve had some fun sourcing a few of the parts, and so we took the opportunity to over stock on those parts we seem to have occasional difficulty sourcing. Usually, we make batches of 500 at a time, and order appropriately.

For example, the USB connectors suddenly dried up, so I have about 1,500 in stock now. Similarly, with the tuner chip, I ordered 1,000 of those too. For a level translator device which obscurely suddenly disappeared from suppliers’ inventories in the package we use, we ordered about 2,000 of those too. Add to that 2,500 SMA connectors too! All of these parts have arrived so we don’t anticipate any problems in supply for some time.

Recently for two parts, we’ve had to use alternative devices. These include the crystal and the USB ESD protection. When we do this of course we have to retest which is time consuming in itself as you can imagine. The good news is that there’s been no measurable change in specification or decrease in reliability.

Many thanks, Howard

We have about 200 units in stock as I write, and another 500 on order, so you shouldn’t have any problems in ordering. If you do, please let me know!

Many thanks, Howard

I had a delivery this evening form the PCB assembler as promised, and I have just finished fulfilling all of the backorders which will be dispatched on Thursday.

I note that there are a few notes on the blog that have accumulated over the past couple of days, I’ll be answering those on Thursday, I have just finished an 18 hour day and I’m ready for some rest!

In the meantime, many thanks to all of you for your kind patience over the past few days.

Thanks again, Howard

I am afraid that as I write this note we have just exhausted our current stock of FUNcube Dongles.

If you ordered before 11am UTC on 16 February, then your order will be prepared today and dispatched first thing tomorrow morning (Friday 17 Feb).

There has been a problem at our assembler’s over the past couple of weeks which has unexpectedly put back my deliveries. They are working overtime to catch up with our orders.

I am expecting the next delivery on Wednesday 22 February from the manufacturer.

In the meantime, I will allow pre-ordering, but please be aware that they will not be dispatched until Thursday 23 February.

Many thanks, and I appreciate your patience while we replenish our stocks.

Howard

I have had a question recently about the inventory status. I can confirm that we have stock, and units are available for immediate dispatch.

We’ve pretty much been in stock permanently now since August last year, and I placed an order last week for a further 500, so I don’t anticipate any shortages.

Many thanks, Howard

We’ll be closed from 28 Dec to 6 Jan for a short vacation, so any orders received during this period will be shipped immediately when we return.

The last non-UK orders fulfilled before we go will be 27 Dec 21:00 UTC.

The last UK orders will be 26 Dec 09:00 UTC.

If you’d like an FCD dispatched while we’re away, feel free to order from Martin Lynch: http://www.mlands.co.uk

Many thanks, Howard