n3ajx radio experiments

Another Clone that Might not Suck  Buoyed by the ADS1293 success, I started trolling (in the classic sense) my favorite mass retailer of dubious breakout boards for DDS's a bit more capable than AD9833's or AD9834's.  In particular, I wanted dual DDS's for quadrature capability, AM capability, and (hopefully) FM/PM capability.   The AD9854 seemed to fill the bill, but most example boards were a bit on the salty side, price-wise.  I did find one for $65 (US) which was way better (price-wise) than the rest.    Anyway, I bought one of these.  It came with a stick-on heat sink and a power pigtail that plugs into its own connector.  No software, no instructions.  "Control boards" could be sourced from the same mass retailer, but there wasn't much indication the software's source code was available or that the control boards with work with this AD9854 board.  It was time to dive in and see if I could get it running or if I shafted myself....

Give the Clones a Chance This post isn't strictly radio-related, but stick with it - it's more about a process than an end result.  One of my health issues I alluded to in the previous post was heart-rate issues.  Specifically, high resting heart rate due to congestive heart failure.  (It's now controlled with medication, so this isn't my last stand.)  Since I had a vested interest, I thought I'd branch out and build my own ECG for grins rather than diagnostic use.  (Any info contained, herein, should not never be applied to diagnosis of anyone's heart problems - let the experts do that.) I went down a typical path, and got a quick and dirty 1-lead (channel) prototype working using an AD8232 analog front end (AFE).  I just looked at it's analog output using my Rigol.  The 8232 produced a nice ECG waveform if I didn't move very much.  It was also a bit susceptible to electric noise pickup (I'm too cheap to buy shielded snap leads).  Anyw...