Has anyone tried one of the mini SDR boards like the uSDR in the Pocket Reform? I’m trying to figure out what to do with the spare slot. The uSDR is at a good price point but I do question how the unshielded board will deal with RF noise inside the chassis. Some people have mentioned the LimeSDR XTRX as well but I haven’t seen any followups.
It seems like the Pocket Reform would be a great platform for this since you could route your antenna connector out the side as in this post. This could possibly be used for Meshtastic or packet radio.
I’m also wondering about this, I backed the next and I’m looking forward to the 20mm screw grid which should be able to mount a nice SDR peripheral, and then sacrifice a portboard for antennas.
I’ll be doing some mods fairly soon with my new Pocket Reform. I have the new RCORE board already, the RK3588 chip with 32GB of RAM so that I have plenty of space to run SDR programs. I’m going to try putting the SDR in the second M.2 slot to verify function with the system before making anything permanent. The board I selected is the uSDR for testing.
What I am currently trying to suss out is drilling the holes in the case and antenna placement. With the new RCORE board, there is no room for an RF jack to be installed in the left port cover by the headphone jack. So I was thinking the top edge of the case in the thinner pocket area to the left and right of the center lid screw. First order of business is figuring out the drivers to make the uSDR chooch properly and get a signal in the first place. I just installed it last night and am figuring out the driver thing with usdr-lib and usdr-tools. The first holes to be drilled are going to be for the Wifi antenna. because with the all aluminum chassis I built, it’s not super great for using internal antennas anymore.
I was thinking about this as well, and have been looking at connector options. It would be nice to have a “quick connect” feature for SDR since you will likely want to swap antennas for different frequencies, and because SMA connectors have a somewhat limited lifespan (especially if the threads are exposed). Unfortunately almost all of the 50 ohm options with the proper frequency range are either too large or too awkward.
I did find some 50 ohm recessed panel mount BNC jacks, which would be great, but they would definitely protrude too far into the case and none have the proper connection on the other side. The best option might be a regular panel mount BNC to IPEX/UFL jack with a 3D printed “shroud” to protect the connector. With creative design this could even recess the connector slightly into the case.
Since it appears that up to 3 connectors are needed (one for RX, one for TX, and one for low frequency RX) then I don’t see anywhere to put them except through the lid.
Got the Wifi antenna mounted and signal has improved dramatically. Night and Day difference with the external antenna, even if it’s just a stubby. Will be testing other, better antenna systems soon.
Edit: The 2.4 GHz Yagi antenna is simply astounding for range and stability.
Just curious, which version of the top cover do you have? Original one with fully covered with copper layer, or the later one with copper cutout on both sides?
Right there at the top, so the polarization is correct when the device is in use. It is an SMA jack, and requires a 1/4 inch drill bit to install. It is tricky to get right, and it’s best to measure this very accurately. Use a good set of calipers and a scribe. I think the aluminum is providing a good ground plane for the antenna as well. It seems to be working very well.
