SDR MK1 housing just arrived! Big thanx to my brother, who did the CAD drawings and organized the manufacturing!
As a result, SDR MK1 is going to live inside 110x80mm solid milled aluminum block! It costs 70EUR to manufacture, but somehow it feels like money well spent! :)
It seems, that the SDR MK1 is more and more becoming an open source product of a sort, where one can build it totally on his own, order a bare PCB, order a PCB with some (difficult to assemble) components mounted and rest in a anti-static bag, order an populated board without an housing or have a complete radio delivered.
However, first I have to get the prototype running! Currently the PCB component placement is done and about 70% of routing is finished. I am still working with only two layers, so there is hope, but at least one area looks really tough at the moment (thank you National Semiconductor, for positioning three different power buses and internal analog filter caps all at the same side of the 128pin housing!!!), so it may end up with four layer board instead.
Here are some pictures of the housing. Note, that it still has to go through glass-balling and anodizing to get this satin Apple-like look. At the moment it is as it came from the milling.
Sounds like you almost have a solid build ready to be manufactured and sold. Get your paypal accounts ready, I am sure some people are going to want them. I know I am interested.
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