Triple (or Dual)-Mercury Directional Steering Program

• NOTE: This is ALPHA code, presently under active development and testing. (This program also works for directional steering with only two Mercury boards present on the Atlas bus if you set the gain of the third Mercury channel to zero on the steering control panel.)
  • This three-Mercury program is meant to run with Mercury v7.3 (or Mercury v3.2) in all three Mercury boards and may be used with Metis, Ozy, or Magister. If using Ozy or Magister the version number that is reported to the PC is Ozy v2.2 (obtained automatically from the Ozy_Janus.rbf file in the download folder). The program is designed to utilize three coherent Mercury receivers simultaneously on the Atlas bus. The program assumes that three separate antennas are connected, one to each Mercury board input. If Tx is to be used, make sure to place a T/R relay between each antenna and its Mercury board input to protect the input circuitry of the Mercury board from damaging overload conditions when transmitting. The program combines the three IQ data streams from the Mercury boards into a single IQ stream for demodulation. The user is able to select which antenna is used as the reference antenna and controls are provided to permit phase (and gain) adjustments of the non-reference IQ streams.
  • REQUIRED FIRMWARE (all may be obtained via the "Firmware_Update_Package" link below):
    • Metis v1.8 (if using Metis)
    • Penelope v1.7
    • Mercury v7.3 (or Mercury v3.2; v7.2 implements a single receiver in each Mercury board for 32% utilization of available FPGA logic resources whereas v3.2 implements four receivers in each Mercury board for 98% usage of the FPGA logic resources)
    • (if using Ozy or Magister, Ozy v2.2 will automatically be loaded when starting PowerSDR v2.2.3.triple_Mercury after a fresh power up of Atlas)
  • EXECUTABLE CODE:
  • PowerSDR v2.2.3.triple_Mercury (K5SO 4DEC2011) 3.1 MB download...executable and support files only
  • SOURCE CODE:
  • PowerSDR v2.2.3.triple_Mercury (K5SO 4DEC2011) download (31.3 MB) (complete package,Visual Studio 2008 solution and related files)
  • USER INFORMATION
  • Triple-Mercury program user information (560 KB pdf file)
  • FIRMWARE:
  • Firmware_Update_Package_29APR2012 (3.2 MB) (includes .rbf and .qar files for Metis, Ozy, Mercury and Penelope; also .jic files for Mercury and Penelope)
  • The .rbf files are used for loading into the boards using HPSDRProgrammer via ethernet with Metis or with a Blaster cable using USB, the .jic files are for loading using the USBBlaster-Binaries folder method via the "simulated Blaster cable" via USB. The .qar files are source code (archive file from the Quartus II project).
  • USBBlaster-Binaries folder (2.4 MB) (updated 21APR2012))...(includes files to use Ozy/Magister to load Mercury_v7.3, Mercury v3.2, and Penelope_v1.7 and a choice to use Quartus II Programmer v11.1)
  • CLOCK CONNECTIONS ON MERCURY BOARDS FOR COHERENT OPERATION:
  • Clock connections and jumpers needed for multiple-Mercury board operations (five photos)