Frontend Hardware which is not USRP

GNU Radio
1

Hi everyone ,

I am doing a project on GNU Radio. I am working on a different recevier
frontend which is not USRP. The GNU Radio seems to intergrate with the
usrp.
I have installed the radio but i couldnt figure out what i have to
change
inorder to make it work with other front ends ( not the USRP). I am new
to
the GNU radio so any help is appreciated.

Best ,

Cheetah

2

“Cheetah” - I believe, but someone correct me if this isn’t correct:

In order to non-USRP hardware to be used with GNU Radio (let’s call
your new hardware HW), you’ll want to create 2 new modules that
emulate the API of the USRP’s modules: gr-hw and hw. The former is a
set of GNU Radio blocks that provide the source and sink for HW, and
interface between the HW module and the GNU Radio TB/FG blocks. The
latter is the actual interface to the new hardware, doing data
transport to/from, control, whatever needs to be done. Please note
that this won’t be a trivial task since, to the best of my knowledge,
there is no documentation of the required API - so you’d need to
“reverse engineer” it. Good luck! - MLD

3

On Mon, Dec 10, 2007 at 10:14:55AM +0100, Cheetah L wrote:

Cheetah
Please tell us more about your front end. Depending on how simple or
complicated it is, the amount of work varies from trivial to a fair
amount of work.

Basically you need a way to get samples from it and perform any
control operations. The USRP is on the complicated end of the
spectrum, mostly because of it’s flexibility and the work we had to do
to get good performance out of the USB. A basic A/D card is on the
simple end, assuming you’ve already got a Linux driver that’ll deliver
samples via “read” or something similar.

Eric

4

Eric B. wrote:

A basic A/D card is on the
simple end, assuming you’ve already got a Linux driver that’ll deliver
samples via “read” or something similar.

Didn’t the pre-USRP version of GnuRadio support the Measurment Computing
PCI-DAS4020-12? is that legacy code still available?

–
Copyright 2007 Angela Kahealani. All rights reserve without prejudice.
All information and transactions are private between the parties, and
are non negotiable. http://www.kahealani.com/ It’s all just choice.

5

On Mon, Dec 10, 2007 at 08:22:11AM -1000, Angela Kahealani wrote:

Eric B. wrote:

A basic A/D card is on the
simple end, assuming you’ve already got a Linux driver that’ll deliver
samples via “read” or something similar.

Didn’t the pre-USRP version of GnuRadio support the Measurment Computing
PCI-DAS4020-12? is that legacy code still available?

Yes, it’s the board we started with. We’ve pretty much abandoned it
because the USRP does more than it does, does it better and costs
less. If you happen to have a PCI-DAS4020-12, I think the easiest way
to get it integrated into the current GNU Radio universe is via the
gr-comedi interface. www.comedi.org says they support the board,
and Stephane Fillod wrote gr-comedi a couple of years ago. As far as
I know, gr-comedi hasn’t gotten much exercise. YMMV.

Eric