Wednesday 3 March 2010

2 Msps DATV using a USRP2 and WBX transceiver


I am now experimenting with DATV. The picture shows my first DATV transmission on 24 cms using Fedora 12, a USRP2 and a Hauppauge PVR500 MPEGII encoder card. The transmit rate is 2 Msps. The Linux box is a Core 2 Quad clocked at 2.8 GHz.

Most of the code I am using was written by others. I only had to write about 15 lines of Python to get it all going.

The receiver is a standard Fortec Star DVB-S set top box (STB). The small 5" screen on the left is the received signal and shows the transmitter's spectrum. The signal was local leakage picked up with a bit of wire plugged into the STB.

To get 4 Msps however I am going to have to change the interpolator and RRC filters. To get the speed I will be using MMX assembler. Which is proving more difficult than I first thought because to get maximum efficiency the code has to be arranged to reduce the number of pipeline stalls. This can involve some really strange ordering of the instructions. I have already re-written the code 4 times each time dropping another stall. I don't think there is much more I can do.

I am currently waiting for a surplus DirecTV B Band converter I bought on eBay to be delivered. This will be modified to allow the STB to receive 436 MHz transmissions. The USRP2/WBX can already transmit at 436 MHz if required.


A GH Engineering 1.3 GHz PA kit is also on order. I have not decided on an antenna yet.

I think I am going to have my work cut out to gather any viewers!

4 comments:

  1. I would like to replicate your experiment.

    Do you want to provide the 15 lines of code?

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  3. Yes certainly Matty you will need to follow the instructions on Rob M0DTS page.
    http://www.m0dts.co.uk/datv_live.htm
    Modify the batch file he uses and add the Python script I wrote. I will gzip the 2 files I changed over the weekend and send them to you (if you give me an email address to send them to).

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  4. Thanks for the files!

    I hope to test them with my USRP1 soon.

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