Back in 2019 over on Hackaday, Mike Szczys wrote a piece called “Hands-On: GreatFET is an Embedded Tool That Does it All”. This article covers:
We hope you check it out!
The July recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Manoj Kumar Mondal from India! Manoj requested a HackRF so he could take some security courses at his university; having a HackRF is a pre-requisite for the course. We look forward to hearing from Manoj as he progresses through the course!
The June recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Kyle from SkullSpace. SkullSpace is a hackerspace located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Kyle plans to put together a group of SDR and wireless enthusiasts. This group will put on classes, host labs, and lead projects that help the community learn more about SDR and wireless. If you are ever in Winnipeg on a Tuesday evening we hope you take advantage of SkullSpace’s open night and check out their hackerspace!
This is a cross post from our LUNA project page on Crowd Supply.
Global supply chain issues continue to be difficult to traverse, but once in a while we do get a little bit lucky! In a previous update [1] we mentioned that Lattice had pushed out the lead time on our FPGAs for LUNA from 30 weeks to 60 weeks. Well, the expected delivery date for those FPGAs got pushed out again. Thankfully, we were able to purchase another ECP5 part for the first batch of LUNAs from an authorized Lattice distributor in a 381-ball package rather than a 256-ball package. We already have the 381-ball FPGAs in hand, so we don’t have to worry about those lead times changing again. We are still waiting on other components though, so with this FPGA substitution our estimated shipping date for LUNA will still be December 2022.
Both FPGAs are from the same manufacturer and are part of the same line. The firmware and software we are creating will work the same regardless of which of the FPGAs is present on a given LUNA board. The primary difference impacting LUNA is that the substitute FPGA is slightly bigger than the original FPGA we had picked out. The original FPGA was 14x14 mm and the substitute FPGA is 17x17 mm. To accommodate this change in size we expect to increase the board area of LUNA to 51x51 mm instead of its original 48x48 mm.
This change adds 297 millimetres squared of available space. 93 millimetres squared of the extra space will be taken up by the bigger FPGA which leaves 204 millimeteres squared to use. The Great Scott Gadgets team has not yet settled on what we will be doing with the extra space but we will update you all as soon as we finalize our decisions. If you would like to make requests for or share your thoughts on what to use this space for, please come discuss in our Discord server.
[1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna/updates/luna-delayed
The May recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is C.J. who is a Broadway tour sound engineer that works backstage with wireless RF microphones. Every week the tour moves to a new location and C.J. has to re-coordinate wireless frequencies for the show. He’s hoping to use the HackRF we are sending him to improve his RF monitoring and create more precise RF layouts for the travelling shows.
The April recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Anmol, a high school student in India! Anmol learned about Great Scott Gadgets after watching Michael Ossmann’s video on complex numbers, which is part of his Software Defined Radio with HackRF training video series. Anmol is the IT president of their school and is excited to use the HackRF we will be sending them to share the world of Software Defined Radio with other students.
The March recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Katerina Autumnrain! Katerina had such an enthusiastic and detailed application to the Free Stuff Program that we just had to send her the HackRF One she requested. In her application she had this to say:
“I believe that the HackRF could enable me to open up the oft more confusing aspects of radio, particularly modulation modes like QAM and digital systems like satellites and P25/DMR. I’d also like to try and promote the higher frequencies (33cm and beyond). Once the bandwidth and frequency limitation is lifted I can more or less apply that knowledge I’d gain from those systems and make both learning experiences and some pretty neat tech for people to explore, utilize, and build themselves. I ultimately believe I could cultivate a sort of resurgence in radio geekery in my area, as it unfortunately seems to be on the downturn somewhat, and promote higher levels of curiosity.”
It’ll be really exciting to follow Katerina’s updates on her HackRF-fueled radio journey!
The February recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Matthew Hilts! Matthew is a student at the University of Dayton who will be spending his Spring semester learning about and using GNU Radio. To help enhance his studies we have sent Matthew a HackRF One. We look forward to hearing about what he learns!
The January recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Rüzgar Erik and the Sivas Science High School Science and Tech Club! The club has about 35 students who meet weekly to learn about various topics and develop their own projects. We will be sending this club their very own HackRF One so they can upgrade from their current SDR which they made from an old tv tuner SDR and Rüzgar Erik’s Baofeng radio.
Once they have received their HackRF One, the club will try to receive images from NOAA, find number stations, and dive into the world of RF.
Free Stuff is a program where we at Great Scott Gadgets give free hardware to a person or group once per month. We’ve been running this program since February 2015 by having interested parties email us their free stuff requests.
Starting now, Great Scott Gadgets has a new Free Stuff Program application process where, instead of emailing us, anyone interested in getting free hardware from Great Scott Gadgets can apply using our new application link. The application link and extra details on the Free Stuff Program are available on our Free Stuff page.
Free Stuff recipients are chosen once per month out of all applications we have received over the last twelve months. We typically give out one piece of hardware free of cost, pay for shipping, and feature Free Stuff recipients on our blog. With this refresh of the Free Stuff Program we are currently at zero applications so now is the best time to apply. We look forward to seeing your applications!
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