IRC log for #neo900 on 20161121

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06:17.58jammhello
06:18.39jammquick question about the use of LMV221 on inbound
06:19.29jammwouldn't it not be sensitive enough to detect the return signal? it only goes down to -45 dBm
06:20.31jammor am I not seeing something about how the coupler is supposed to be working?
06:35.53jammsorry, this is also regarding the neo900 proto v2 schematic
06:38.21Joerg-Neo900the concept is to detect direction of signal. If 'inbound' signal (actually outbound reflected on antenna) is so much weaker than the original outbound that the LMV221 doesn't see it anymore, we have no problem at all
06:39.28Joerg-Neo900if any inbound signal is so strong that its reflection on modem  triggers the outbound detector, for sure the inbound detector will also see it
06:40.20Joerg-Neo900and will also rate it stronger than the reflected signal on outbound, so we avoid false positives
06:41.14Joerg-Neo900we don't want to trigger on arbitrary inbound signals, we only know one thing: they are not relevant for us
06:43.04Joerg-Neo900the purpose of the whole coupler is to reliably detect TX energy and discern it from inbound energy from nearby other transmitters
06:45.13Joerg-Neo900as an additional benefit you can use it to check other transmitters (phones) if they send RF, if you get close enough to them to couple sufficient energy from their antenna into Neo900's antenna
06:45.30Joerg-Neo900but that's not the main purpose
06:46.13Joerg-Neo900jamm: ^^^
06:51.05jammhmm, i see, so is it for detecting a bad mismatch on the antenna? or for ambient rf levels (but wide band?)
06:53.12Joerg-Neo900it is for detecting outbound RF energy and discerning it from inbound RF energy that gets reflected on modem input and goes back the line through the coupler direction antenna from where it came
06:53.32Joerg-Neo900the reflected signal will be weaker than the original signal
06:54.07Joerg-Neo900so no matter how strong the inbound signal and how weak the outbound signal, we can tell apart the two
06:55.17Joerg-Neo900you wouldn't want false positives from your pub neighbors cell phone, right?
06:56.04Joerg-Neo900not even when he places his phone right next in touch to yours, on the bar
06:56.56jammbut i thought a coupler's purpose is to be directional, so you would only ever see your transmitted signal?
06:57.18jammi'm not completely sure though... i have never thought about it being used where other signals are coupling strongly
06:57.56Joerg-Neo900http://wstaw.org/m/2016/11/21/plasma-desktopme2244.png
07:00.07Joerg-Neo900a) the coupler never has an infinite separation  b) we have reflections on modem input, the so called return-loss which is as feeble as 5dB when the modem is idle
07:01.03Joerg-Neo900so the reflected inbound signal in coupler is only a 5dB lower than the original inbound signal
07:02.20Joerg-Neo900even if the coupler was working perfect, we couldn't tell apart a true TX signal from a 5dB stronger RX aka inbound signal
07:02.41Joerg-Neo900unless we also probe for the inbound signal strength
07:03.11Joerg-Neo900which for inbound signals *always* is higher than the reflected signal
07:05.08*** join/#neo900 luke-jr (~luke-jr@unaffiliated/luke-jr)
07:05.25Joerg-Neo900in above diagram see how the light blue dotted signal also goes bouncing off the modem and going through coupler in TX direction
07:09.50jammyes, I see, I guess I just figured this factor was much higher, and you didn't need to worry about enough that it interferes with your output power measurement
07:10.00jamm(very nice picture btw!)
07:10.12Joerg-Neo900thanks :-)
07:10.31jammand maybe I just get to use nicer antennas with better return loss lol
07:17.20jammoh yeah, 1 more question, about the NFC/RFID section with the TRF7970A, and the kinetis microcontroller
07:19.32jammdid you look at using an ic that has support in the linux nfc subsystem?
07:20.20Joerg-Neo900err, the TRF7970 has
07:20.36Joerg-Neo900http://neo900.org/stuff/papers/nfc-draft.pdf
07:21.12Joerg-Neo900http://neo900.org/resources
07:21.37jammoh yeah, it does :P
07:22.24Joerg-Neo900btw many thanks for actually looking into our schematics! :-)
07:22.35Joerg-Neo900much appreciated
07:23.08jammhaha yeah sure, i am really interested in the neo900 and couldn't resist a peek :)
07:27.07Joerg-Neo900http://wstaw.org/m/2016/11/21/plasma-desktopbW2244.png
07:33.18jammah ok I think we needed better Android support where we used the nxp pn7120 instead of the TI part.
07:34.06jammI think Android support is possible with the TRF7970A, but TI hasn't really done anything with it yet (not like NXP, anyways)
07:34.16Joerg-Neo900NXP is nasty when it comes to datasheets about their "smart" chips
07:35.44Joerg-Neo900almost all (Android) phones use the PN5dunnowhat with embedded CPU for the more complex protocols, and they don't share any info about the formware blobs to load in there, nor about the CPU
07:36.28Joerg-Neo900thus we used a 'dump' RF frontend chip and our own MCU to do the compelx protocols
07:36.38Joerg-Neo900'dumb' even
07:37.32Joerg-Neo900we could have done without MCU if we wouldn't want SWP for the SIM integration
07:38.47Joerg-Neo900but now we have a really nice NFC system that outperforms many RFID/NFC eval boards hands down
07:39.13Joerg-Neo900you can do pretty much everything possible with this design
07:39.23jammyes, that is pretty awesome, especially with the sim integration!
07:39.44jammyeah, I am still wondering how you are going to fit it all on the board haha
07:39.58Joerg-Neo900probably the RFID board will buy our devices for R&D and evaluating of new protocols ;-)
07:40.30Joerg-Neo900((fit on the board)) that's actually a huge concern and problem, yes
07:41.23Joerg-Neo900last we checked, we had a coverage of ~70%
07:41.50Joerg-Neo900so pretty much on the limit
07:42.20Joerg-Neo900we'll see :-)
07:43.31jammit would be great to have all that functionality for sure, so best of luck...
07:43.41Joerg-Neo900thanks!
07:44.16Joerg-Neo900you wouldn't know of layouters who accept a job?
07:44.44grydidn't get that part
07:44.59Joerg-Neo900gry?
07:45.25grydo you want to hire a layouter? what does that do?
07:45.42Joerg-Neo900layout? :-)
07:46.27Joerg-Neo900we have Ahycka, but never place all eggs in one basket, you know
07:46.27gryweb layout? electric chip layout? layout of a dinner table? what?
07:46.50Joerg-Neo900PCB layout, obvously. sorry for being fuzzy
07:46.51varuboard layout & organizing traces appropriately, i'd assume
07:46.59varuwhich is *not* easy
07:47.25jammnot really unfortunately... we have another person at my company that does a lot of the layout (mostly Altium though,) but I don't know if we can do as complex a design yet
07:47.30Joerg-Neo900kicad pcbnew
07:48.04ds2KiCad for Neo900?
07:48.17gryooh :-)
07:48.18Joerg-Neo900yeah, we would even accept altium if that's needed to get the job accomplished
07:48.19jammi still have fears of doing DDR(2,3) layouts haha, even though TI gives you the whole design
07:48.29ds2oh my... condolences for the the poor layout guy
07:48.36Joerg-Neo900hehehe
07:49.02Joerg-Neo900jamm: DDR2 is harder
07:49.10Joerg-Neo900more timing contraints
07:49.13ds2did POP get dropped?
07:49.18Joerg-Neo900no
07:49.30Joerg-Neo900luckily not
07:49.31ds2then there is no DDR layout :D
07:49.38Joerg-Neo900exactly
07:49.48jammyes...
07:49.51ds2just breaking out 300+ balls
07:49.58Joerg-Neo900:nod:
07:50.00ds2fun with VIP
07:50.09Joerg-Neo900VIP?
07:50.17jammhow is the mainline support for the DM3730?
07:50.29Joerg-Neo900linux? great
07:50.30ds2it is a 0.4mm BGA
07:50.41jammwe used it in one of our products a bit ago, but then TI got stuck on 2.6.37 and kinda dropped it
07:50.42Joerg-Neo900aaah
07:50.47ds2there really isn't room to do vias in between balls so you have to do Via In Pad
07:51.11ds2and probally have to do it blind
07:51.22Joerg-Neo900we will need in-pad vias, yes
07:51.43Joerg-Neo900blind capped in-pad vias
07:52.07ds2lots of pressure for the layout guy to not screw up
07:52.31Joerg-Neo900elaborate please
07:52.43ds2blind vias == $$$$$$ board
07:52.47Joerg-Neo900yes
07:53.53ds2layout person needs to be clever to make sure board is rescueable like appropriate place to wire around or cut traces
07:54.53Joerg-Neo900we don't hope for fixing stuff by cutting traces :-) If you knew which traces need to be cut-able you already could do stuff right instead ;-D
07:56.47Joerg-Neo900ds2: maybe you want to have a look at the schematics?
07:58.29Joerg-Neo900http://neo900.org/stuff/kicad/proto_v2/2016-11-20/
07:58.43Joerg-Neo900jamm: ^^^
08:04.17Joerg-Neo900wpwrak: make U602:5,7 NC
08:05.08ds2PDF?
08:05.27Joerg-Neo900yep, the kicad files are in git, as always
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08:05.37Joerg-Neo900~git
08:05.37infobotfrom memory, git is https://neo900.org/git/?p=www;a=summary
08:05.59how900https://neo900.org/git/ee
08:06.00ds2PDF is preferred. no kicad install.
08:06.14ds2I can look later in the AM. it is 00:06 local
08:06.24Joerg-Neo900:-)
08:06.47Joerg-Neo90033:06 here
08:06.50ds225 pages is a bit much to review at this time ;)
08:06.51Joerg-Neo900;-)
08:07.05jammyeah haha 2am here haha
08:07.41jammgood luck!
08:07.44Joerg-Neo9009 past midnight
08:07.53how900Latest Neo900 schematics were updated (what Joerg-Neo900 pointed at) in https://neo900.org/resources
08:08.07Joerg-Neo900how900: thanks!
08:08.27Joerg-Neo900and n8
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08:08.42how900Joerg-Neo900: sleep tight
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08:12.11Joerg-Neo900U601:6 still throws me over, so that would indeed be a trace we might want to be able to cut in protoboard
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