Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Alternative Hardware [was: Re: A Humble Request.... - "Open-Hardware"]

[Martin Braun]

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 02:23:47PM +0100, Patrick Strasser wrote:
> > He didn't ask for a simulator, he asked for real hardware.
> 
> He did not back his request with some deeper insight why he exactly
> needs this thing except for he wants it and has not enough money to buy
> it. We do not know what he wants to accomplish, and how he thinks to get
> there, what he already did. This would be very valuable information -

If I may add a note here: I agree with Brian and Patrick, and would even
go further to say that developing fun stuff needs no hardware at all.
In fact, whenever I do, say, some kind of receiver, the first thing I do
is record signals to a file, so I don't have to touch any hardware *at
all* until I've reached a point where I believe my code might work in
real life.
As long as I'm in the software domain, my tools of choice are Matlab (my
dishes out free licences to our students) and scipy. You can get quite
far that way. Pre-recorded signals are available on the net, and a
polite query on this list to obtain such files from other users is not
uncommon. Of course, using Matlab etc. it's also quite possible to write
transmitters.

As Patrick said, we have no idea what the OP wanted to achieve, but as
was also said before, writing something along the lines of "I've just
completed a complete receiver chain for standard XYZ, is there anyone
with a working USRP to help me out" is likely to get a more favourable
response.

Finally, if you're a student, a university's probably not far. Here, if
you're a student and really want to do something with a USRP (and other
hardware), we usually manage to figure something out. The common case is
that we make developing something with GNU Radio and the USRP a topic
for a Bachelor's thesis. Students get lab access, some tutoring, meet
other GNU Radio developers (unfortunately not too many) and even get a
degree at the end. How about that.
In fact, that's how most of the guts of the Spectral Estimation Toolbox
got created.

So, I hope this didn't sound too snobbish -- but I think that using GNU
Radio, essentially any budget is enough to get started doing serious SDR
stuff.

Cheers,
MB

-- 
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)

Dipl.-Ing. Martin Braun
Research Associate

Kaiserstraße 12
Building 05.01
76131 Karlsruhe

Phone: +49 721 608-43790
Fax: +49 721 608-46071
www.cel.kit.edu

KIT -- University of the State of Baden-Württemberg and
National Laboratory of the Helmholtz Association

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