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March 19, 2018March 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

FOSSASIA Summit 2018 Schedule – March 22-25

FOSDEM is the “Free & Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting” takes place the first week-end of February every year in Brussels, Belgium. It turns out there’s an event in Asia called FOSSASIA Summit that’s about to take place in Singapore on March 22-25. There are some differences however, as while FOSDEM is entirely free to attend, FOSSASIA requires to pay an entry fee to attend talks, although there are free tickets to access the exhibition hall and career fair. There are also less sessions as in FOSDEM, but still twelve different tracks with: Artificial Intelligence Blockchain Cloud, Container, DevOps Cybersecurity Database Kernel & Platform Open Data, Internet Society, Community Open Design, IoT, Hardware, Imaging Open Event Solutions Open Source in Business Science Tech Web and Mobile Since the event is spread out over four days, it should be easier to attend the specific sessions you are interested in. I’ve […]

January 25, 2018January 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Building a Compact Digital TV Transmitter with Raspberry Pi Zero, Pi Camera, and LimeSDR Mini USB SDR Board

There are few affordable standalone systems that allow you to transmit video over the air, and back in 2016, I had the chance to check out V-Bridge Muses-β MPEG-2/-4 encoder and DTV modular taking HDMI or composite video input. It was easy to use and worked fine, but it would still cost close to $600, and might have been a little smaller. Evariste Okcestbon has now created its own digital TV transmitter prototype, combining LimeSDR Mini USB SDR board with Raspberry Pi Zero board, and instead of supporting external input from HDMI or AV ports, he used an official Pi camera for video, and was able to transmit the video over a 1.2 GHz connection to a Raspberry Pi 2 with an RTL-SDR dongle, with the Pi 2 board also taking care of displaying the video signal. The full flow of transmission can be summarized as follows: Video from […]

September 18, 2017September 18, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

LimeSDR Mini is a $135 Open Source Hardware, Full Duplex USB SDR Board (Crowdfunding)

LimeSDR open source hardware software defined radio was launched last year with the promise of integration with Ubuntu Snap Store allowing to easily download and install various radio implementations such as LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa, etc… It was offered for $200 and up as part of a crowdfunding campaign, but Lime Microsystems is back on CrowdSupply with a cheaper and low end version aptly called LimeSDR Mini.LimeSDR mini specifications: FPGA – Intel Altera Max 10 (10M16SAU169C8G) with 16K Logic gates, 549 KB M9K memory, 2,368 KB user flash memory Storage – 4 MB flash memory for data; 2x128KB EEPROM for RF transceiver MCU firmware and data RF Lime Microsystems LMS7002M RF transceiver Tx & Rx SMA connectors Frequency range – 10 MHz to 3.5 GHz RF bandwidth – 30.72 Mhz Sample Rate – 30.72 MSps with 12-bit sample depth Power Output (CW): up to 10 dBm USB – 1x USB […]

November 15, 2016August 22, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

GR-LoRa is a Reverse-Engineered Open Source Implementation of LoRa PHY

LPWAN standards such as LoRa or Sigfox allow you to transmit data over long distance, at ultra low power (up to 10 years on a AA battery), and for free if your use your own network (P2P or gateway), or a few dollars per years if you go through a network provider. The low cost is possible since those standards rely on 900 MHz ISM bands, meaning nobody has to pay millions of dollars to the government to obtain a license fee. Matt Knight looked at LoRa, and while Level 2 and 3 of the protocol (LoRaWan) has public documentation, Level 1 (LoRa PHY) is proprietary and the standard is proprietary. So he decided to reverse-engineer LoRa PHY using Microchip RN2903 based LoRa Technology Mote and Ettus B210 USB software defined radio, and software packages and tools such as Python and GNU Radio to successfully deliver GR-LoRa open source “GNU Radio […]

July 7, 2016July 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

OpenCellular is Facebook’s (soon to be) Open Source Wireless Access Platform

A few months after Canonical and Lime Micro LimeSDR open source software defined radio aiming to be used as a development platform, but also as the base for low cost cellular or other wireless base stations, Facebook has announced their own open source wireless access platform with OpenCellular project whose goal is to lower the cost of Internet connectivity in remote areas where the infrastructure does not exist. This is how Marc Zuckerberg summarizes the project: We designed OpenCellular as an open system so anyone — from telecom operators to researchers to entrepreneurs — can build and operate wireless networks in remote places. It’s about the size of a shoe box and can support up to 1,500 people from as far as 10 kilometers away. Along with our solar-powered aircraft Aquila and high-bandwidth laser beams, OpenCellular is the next step on our journey to provide better, more affordable connectivity to […]

April 29, 2016April 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

LimeSDR Open Source Hardware Software Defined Radio Goes for $199 and Up (Crowdfunding)

Canonical and Lime Micro showcased SoDeRa software defined radio (SDR) a couple of months ago, with a promise to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this year. They’ve fulfill their promise, and launched the open source SDR, renamed to LimeSDR, on Crowdsupply. LimeSDR board specifications: FPGA – Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23 Altera FPGA compatible with EP4CE30F23 System Memory – 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM RF Lime Microsystems LMS7002M RF transceiver with continuous coverage of the frequency range between 100 kHz and 3.8 GHz; 61.44 MHz bandwidth 4 x TxOut and 6 x RxIn U.FL connectors Power Output (CW): up to 10 dBm Wi-Fi, GSM, UMTS, LTE, LoRa, Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID, Digital Broadcasting, configurable through apps. USB – 1x micro USB3 via CYUSB3014-BZXC Cypress Microcontroller for control, data transfer and power Misc – Status LEDs, RGB LEDs, 4x switches Power – USB or external power supply Dimensions – 100 mm x 60 mm The board […]

February 23, 2016February 24, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Canonical Introduces SoDeRa Software Defined Radio Solution for Base Stations and IoT Gateways

Canonical and Lime Micro have jointly announced SoDeRa low-cost software defined radio (SDR) which can be programmed to support any type of wireless standard including UMTS, LTE, LoRa, Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID, Digital Broadcasting, and more, and aiming at helping operators reducing costs & complexity, while speeding up time to market and providing greater flexibility. The kit will include a board with the following specifications: FPGA – Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23 Altera FPGA (compatible with EP4CE30F23) System Memory – 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM RF Lime Microsystems LMS7002M Transceiver with continuous Frequency range of 100 kHz – 3.8 GHz 4 x TxOut and 6 x RxIn U.FL connectors for RF cables Power Output (CW): up to 6.5 dBm Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, LTE, any other air interfaces USB – 1x micro USB3 via CYUSB3014-BZXC Cypress Microcontroller for control, data transfer and power Misc – Status LEDs, RGB LEDs, 4x switches Dimensions – 100 mm x […]

October 12, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

PicoZed SDR (Software Defined Radio) System-on-Module Supports 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz Frequency Bands

PicoZed SoM based on Xilinx Zynq-7000 series SoCs was introduced in 2014 by Avnet. The company has now introduced a new version specifically designed for software designed radios which combines Zynq-7035 SoC with Analog Devices AD9361 RF transceiver supporting 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz frequency bands. Target applications include portable agile wireless communications, P25 public safety Radio, point-to-point communication, femtocell & picocell base stations and portable instrumentation. PicoZed SDR SoM specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq XC7Z035-2L FBG676I AP SoC with a dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz and Kintex-7 FPGA with 275K logic cells System Memory – 1GB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – 256Mb QSPI Flash, microSD Card Interface Network Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet PHY USB – USB 2.0 OTG ULPI PHY I/Os – 205+ User I/O + 4 GTX channels Radio Transceiver – Analog Devices AD9361-BBCZ integrated RF Agile Transceiver with: 2 × 2 RF transceiver with integrated […]