si570 breakout fun

In researching SDRs, I discovered that a very popular chip that is used to provide accurate variable frequencies is the Silicon Labs' si570 XO chip. This little dandy has a low additional parts requirement, and is controlled via I2C. I managed to get a hold of a sample and I intended to try and mount it on a breakout board (in fact, this breakout board). Unfortunately, I was unable to get the SDA and SCL pins to solder correctly for me to the point that I could control it. I would power it up, and there is the factory-set frequency being generated on the CLK+ pin like you would expect. I would then hook up a Bus Pirate and try and interrogate for I2C devices, and nothing is discovered.

So I scotched that breakout board, flipped the chip over, and attached it using right-angle 1mm pin connectors to some protoboard. After powering it up with the Bus Pirate, I was able use it and detect the default I2C addressess for the si570. I'm now at a place where I can now play around with this guy with the MSP430 and LPC810 chips.

Here is the initial take, prior to adding pull-up resistors for SCL and SDA.

And the after-pic:

I'm thinking of using this chip in a comparable way to the Tenna Dipper, allowing me to figure out the resonant frequency for antennas for a wide range of bands (I'm guessing  anything from around 7 MHz to 300 MHz with this particular version of the si570; higher frequencies with different variants).

Additionally I would like to maybe use it as the oscillator with some simple filters to create some simple transmitters.

I also would like to maybe explore building my own Tayloe detector/mixer.

Too many things to do, too little time!