Rich, I do not think this is the end of the project. I just didn't want to spend months on this project. And I was hoping that more people might be wanting to help coding. That's why I've put the code on github. I think your ARM based project will be an interesting project. I hope you will post it on this web site. If there is one one thing I would change it would be swapping the network connection with a high speed usb connection. We were actually making a high speed continuous mode and implementing SDR. But Neal had a lot of trouble getting the data from the analyser to his pc because of his network at home. That's when this project stalled. By the way. I'm also busy with my 3D printers, both delta and carthesian types. That hobby consumes a lot of time as well. I guess that the 400mm/s you mentioned is travel speed, not actual printing speed? I think building 500mm printer is quite challenging if you want 0.1mm accuracy on all axes. Also very interesting stuff...., but another topic.

Please note that Microchip is phasing out the PIC16F628 and recommends the 628A for new developments. This means that we can't use the oscillator circuit with only a resistor connected to RA7, for the 628A an RC-combination is required. But why do you want to tune the oscillator frequency to match with the UART's baudrate? In my experience the PIC's internal oscillator is accurate enough for stable serial communication. Regards, Luc

Again many thanks for all your help. Ive now got a large order in Farnell's checkout so i'll add those Wire-Board Connectors. Any chance of 'seeing' the Elektor Lab's final product, fully wired etc?

Hi Breed, Well its not your project so I understand your contributions have already been huge helping out.  I would guess that Neal has dropped the ball which is of course his option as well.  I am not suggesting either of you "has" to do anything.  But if this is the end it would be nice for everyone reading about this that this is it. I liked this project.  I also had other projects I have been consumed with when this project came out.  I am currently finishing my custom 500mm 3D printer. 400mm/sec print speed.  Hope I don't get consumed printing 3D crap for the next 6 months.  The nights are never long enough :-} I was looking at this project as a potential next project.  However disappointed with the progress on this project in the last 8 months.  I have done the bootloader before and have a pickit3.  But I hate the MicroCrap development tools and hardware.  They hang and crash continually on me.  Maybe its all me, who knows but when I use an ST or NXP ARM processor on the same machine I am debugging my code, not the tools.  Never had a crash with Keil that I didn't expect. If you guys aren't going to move forward then I might do my own thing starting with an ARM based board with a few of the features you suggested included.  Probably start next month.  The C++ will be my biggest challenge but I am not afreaid of that.

I'm southern Europe, so it's courier charges plus import duty at 12%. The guy from connexelectronic.com has told me that a SMPS800RE would be more suitable to supply two of these Q-Watt amps. This has a small problem as this model only supplies +/- 50v http://connexelectronic.com/product_info.php/cPath/25_46/products_id/142