Hardware Overview

The GReX hardware system has several "top level" components, which constitute the entire system. These include the feed antenna and low noise amplifiers (LNA), the frontend module, the digital backend, and of course the server. The following diagrams lay out general overview of the interconnections. Showing them all at once would be a bit much, so they're broken down here into discrete kinds of signals.

RF Signal Path

flowchart TD
    A[Feed]
    B[FEM]
    C[SNAP]
    D[Server]
    A --> L1[LNA]
    A --> L2[LNA]
    L1 -->|H Pol| B
    L2 -->|V Pol| B
    subgraph The Box
        B -->|H Pol| C
        B -->|V Pol| C
    end
    C -->|10 GbE| D[Server]

Power Distribution

flowchart BT
    L1[LNA]
    L2[LNA]
    B[FEM]
    C[SNAP]
    S[Switching Supply]
    R[Custom Linear PSU]
    P[Raspberry Pi]
    M[Mains Power]
    V[Synthesizer]
    G[GPS Receiver]
    M -->|120-240V AC| S
    subgraph The Box
        R -->|6.5V DC| V
        R -->|12V DC| G
        S -->|12V DC| C
        S -->|12V DC| R
        R -->|6.5V DC| B
        R -->|5V DC| P
    end
    B --->|5.5V DC| L1
    B --->|5.5V DC| L2

Clocks, References and Timing

flowchart BT
    B[FEM]
    V[Synthesizer]
    G[GPS Receiver]
    S[SNAP]
    A[GPS Antenna]
    subgraph The Box
        G -->|10 MHz| V
        G -->|PPS| S
        V -->|500 MHz| S
        V -->|1030 MHz| B
    end
    A --> G

Monitor and Control

flowchart TB
    B[FEM]
    S[SNAP]
    P[Raspberry Pi]
    D[Server]
    subgraph The Box
        P <-->|UART| B
        S <-->|GPIO| P
    end
    P <--->|1 GbE| D