Hello all,
I’m very new to all star but i have a question. could you use a digirig for the radio interface to the raspberry pi? Can you use other computers such as a nuc?
NUCs would be great for ASL, and they are cheap (<$50 on ebay) and compact. Other similar small Thin Client / Mini PCs using the Intel Atom processor also work great. Both have a lot of advantages over RPi, especially with the prices RPis go for now.
NUCs are probably going to start out at 45W power consumption however which is 3x what an RPi or Intel Atom Mini PC such as a Dell Wyse 3040 will use. You probably don’t need that much power for a personal ASL node (unless you have 20 other friends who want to connect to your node), and an extra 30W does add up to extra electric bill expense if you leave the node on most of the time.
Digirig should also work fine, looks like it uses a CM108AH. All C-Media CM108x and CM119x should work fine, though I can’t guarantee that. If not, buy a $5 CM108 fob and solder on a few wires. (BTW the CM1xxB can work with or without a quartz crystal and I would avoid any fobs that don’t have a crystal. The ‘B’ fobs I’ve seen so far do have crystals.)
The following article has more details on using Dell Wyse 3040 or similar MiniPCs and CM108 fobs: AllScan - How To - Build a High-Quality Full-Duplex AllStar Node for Under $150