ARINC-410 Radio Subsystem – Putting it all together

All right we got most of the design out of the way now. So now we just need a plan to bring all the pieces  together.

The Plan:  I figure every body needs a few radios and the guys with the heavy tin needs a lot more. So I need to be expandable, and flexible. So here are the parts of the system:

• Linux Pc with ALSA, and multiple pci audio cards
• arduino
• Radio Heads that are ARINC-410 compliant
• Master Interface Card – which holds the arduio, and does board decoding. With space for 2 74LS138 decoders
• Radio Head interface cards one per card.
• Audio Interface card. This card has 3mm jacks on it to hook to your pc’s sound card.
• Your audio panel & audio sub-system mixer, etc.
• Your cables from the Radio Head to the Interface card.
• Your cables to chain the audio panels together.

Now what form factor are we going to use? I think that the STD Bus (28/56) will fill the bill perfectly. Not only are they still making racks for them (Vector Electronics), but it has been around for almost 30 years and has not died off yet. So there are some surplus parts around. I’m going to keep the mechanics simple. Each card will be plugged into a slot. So the board addressing will be a jumper on the board. KISS. At the other end of the card there will be a standard 40 pin idc right angle header, and a pin header for the audio.

Notes:  

• The Master Interface Card and the Audio Interface Card have the same address. When you READ you are reading the switch positions. And During a WRITE you are turning on or off  the Digital Switches on the Audio Interface.
• The Master Interface Card and the Audio Interface Card, may end up as simply the Control Card.