Digital Video Transmission using LimeSDR and GNU Radio | Hacker News Reader

Digital Video Transmission using LimeSDR and GNU Radio

myriadrf.org

26 pointsdmmalam8 comments

Let's put this into perspective. We started with custom analog, RF, and then digital parts that were a pain to build. Then, reconfigurable logic came along to help prototype digital easily. FPGA's turned it into a revolution that keeps making waves with creative applications. I predicted and hoped we'd see clever engineers come up with FPGA's for analog and RF. Next, we had FPAA's to easily prototype analog functions. Sure enough, Lime Semiconductor followed with FPRF: field-programmable, RF tranceivers for software-defined networking. I figured they'd do all the usual stuff but waited for the surprise.

Now, this use of FPRF qualifies for that. I'd have never thought to put high-quality video on the ham bands. Just hearing about that gives me ideas now that I know it's feasible. It's really an amazing demo that shows the power that this tech puts into people's hands and how such enablers can create unforseen innovations. I might email it to Lime with a suggestion to showcase it as a case study.

This is outside my field where I can't directly build on it. Yet, I did collect a link for anyone interested in building on Lime's stuff. It's below. Any other really good ones people reply with I'll add to my collection to share on related threads.

Myriad RF https://myriadrf.org/

> I'd have never thought to put high-quality video on the ham bands. Just hearing about that gives me ideas now that I know it's feasible.

Dude, it's been feasible since the 1960's, and cheap since home video equipment became common in the 1970's. Old fashion NTSC signals are just simple AM modulators, dirt cheap and dirt simple to build. (OK, I admit that a VSB transmitter requires an interesting filter, but not out of the question, and more-or-less optional unless you are running high power.) Also, some hams have been doing NTSC over FM for quite a few years (SITN used to run over FM).

Modern digital video is also pretty much plug-and-play these days, although building a transmitter from scratch with a half dozen transistors isn't a thing.

Yeah, RF is out of my expertise a bit. I've been looking into non-digital hardware stuff for a few months to a year now. I figured I'd get some useful feedback.

Let's flip it in a different direction. What have you found to be the most interesting and noteworthy applications of FPRF for a hobbyist and/or manufacturer? What examples should I pass along to people wanting to tinker with them or push the envelope?

Well, not quite FPRF, but people have been using rooted Androids to build RYO-Stingray-Detectors. I'd love to see this become ubiquitous. With a nice API and some Google map-fu you could crowd-source a real-time nationwide map of Stingrays in operation. Perhaps an FPRF board like this would simplify the RF side of that.

Direct link instead of aggregation: https://myriadrf.org/blog/digital-video-transmission-using-l...

Thanks. Url changed to that from http://www.rtl-sdr.com/broadcasting-dvb-s2-with-the-limesdr/.

Submitters: HN prefers original sources. (Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

If you want another cool SDR, check out the RedPitaya [0]. It's not only an SDR, but it has support for 6 channels. It also comes with some stuff that lets it operate as a fully decked out 125 MHz scope and other stuff.

Really cool.

[0] - http://redpitaya.com/

Just a correction... it's only 50 MHz bandwidth (the 125 number is the sample rate). Just as an oscilloscope that's not really that good of a value, but the RedPitaya looks like it does lots of other different things, which is pretty neat.

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