[time-nuts] Frequency counter recommendation

[Chris Albertson]

What I was talking about was the process to move the project forward,
not design or requirements details.   So my list of moduals was just
to show what a list of modulas might look like, not to suggest those
exact ones.

Jumping ahead to design.  No one wants a serial RS232 interface. they
don't even make computers with RS232 ports much any more.  Those guys
that designed equipment that forced people to load costom USB drivers
just did not think.  There is no need for that.  What you do is make
you project appear to be some "standard" USB class and then the OS
(Linux, Windows or Mac OSX) will already have a driver.   That VNA
should have presented itself as a serial port.  And then the software
could read from a serial port.  But of course there would be not
physical RS232 device.

If you have to select an interface I'd rather have any wireless type.
WiFi or Bluetooth.

But if you are building a modular system you do NOT want to pick one.
You just make a project standard to use (say) I2C, SPI, "two wire" ir
whatever.  Then the counter module is controlled by i2c and if you
want to connect it to a computer you build the USB module but if you
want a stand alone no-computer instrument you build the "front panel"
that has LED numbers.
That is the entire ont is "modular", you avoid this kinds of decisions
and allow for easy upgrade as technology changes.

Other questions to resolve are "how many slices to cut the pie into".
I would argue for "very small" single funtions bulding blocks so we
don't have the HPSDR problem of years of time to design each one.

Selecting a physical chassis to use willl take time.  I like the idea
of using a disk enclosure because then you can buy a 1U or 8U rack or
an old PC chassis, If you modual looks like a disk there are plenty of
things it can fit into.