Stand-Alone Transceiver App for the LimeSDR - Who's First..?

Projects LimeSDR
1

LimeSDR Users:

READ HERE —> I’m on the cusp of starting a crowdfunding campaign or similar to raise funds enough for the first developer to either FINSH their work on the application they have running so far (SDRConsole and PiHPSDR are you listening?) or to some other developer that has the will/stamina to compete with the rest of the crowd and come up with either a transmit/receive .DLL for HDSDR or make a ‘stand-alone’ app that has the following features:

MUST BE A STAND-ALONE APPLICATION THAT DOES NOT USE GRC OR POTHOS AS THE BASIS OF THE APP
Spectra and Waterfall for receive with adjustable bandwidth (BW adjustment:100kHz to 20MHz, >20MHz stretch goal)
FULL transmit capability from 2 MHz to 3.8 GHz with microphone or audio input from the host PC
TX/RX Modes: AM/FM/USB/LSB/CW with applicable Rx/Tx bandwidths used for such modes
Digital Demod Capabilities: Stretch goal - Modularized and capable of installation for the users preference
Spectra/Waterfall Color Schemes:‘Linrad’, Green, B/W, whatever - but the windowing should be user selectable
Normal Controls for Rx/Tx: Frequency, gain settings, viewable BW, selectivity adjust, noise reduction, etc.
Platform independent/Cross Platform: Preferable Cross-Platform, Windows 10 a close second, but we’ll take Linux (Ubuntu 17), too
MUST have USB 2.0/3.0 capability for the Lime
CANNOT BE TIME LIMITED - MUST BE FREE APP - The crowdfund is paying you to do it.

There are probably several other ‘Most Important Requirements’ I’m missing, but you get the picture. If anyone has played with SDRConsole, PiHPSDR (with other SDRs), GQRX, or CubicSDR in receive, those are the features for the target app. But the app MUST have transmit capability, too - - no exceptions, waiting, excuses, ‘dog ate my homework’. Come to the table with BOTH and you win whatever is collected in the Crowdfund.

Your application MUST be submitted to me (Marty, KN0CK) for inspection and use before a winner is declared - - and I will record the time and date of its arrival when this takes place. ALL FUNCTIONALITY MUST WORK and the software must be OPEN SOURCE to allow others to modify the work for other features and modes after you wash your hands of it. You must also provide FULL instructions on how to install for Windows or Linux.

Target date for completion: July 4, 2017…There’ll be fireworks that day in the US if you complete it and all functionality works… :slight_smile:

FIRST ONE DONE WINS…ON OR BEFORE 7/4/2017

COME ON…WHO IS IN WITH ME ON THIS? I’m willing to put the first $100 forward and ask that IF we crowdfund this (soon) that we at least put $20.00 forward per backer. If no one comes to the table with the app by 7/4/2017, then the money goes back to the backers and we sit there in astonishment that no one was willing or able to do this…Pretty lame…

Okay - let’s hear back from anyone/everyone on this…Here’s your poll to gauge feasibility - Poll closes 1 week from today (4/28/17 @ midnight Central Time USA), so PLEASE VOTE - - NO CROWDFUNDING TAKES PLACE UNTIL FEASIBILITY IS ASSESSED - SO VOTE IN THE POLL BELOW!!!:

Poll page: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=58fa683de4b06cb867ea3290

73 de Marty, KN0CK

5 Likes
2

I can’t wait to get my LimeSDR to do all of this. I think a tablet for control and a box for some amplifiers, switches, cabling and such, and the rest is setup and configuration. This is not my goal though.

3

Great idea Marty and good luck with it! I think getting it done by july 2017 might be a bit optimistic, but depends who you can find I suppose.

Try Freelancer to find the guy to do it - I’ve used this in the past with very good success.

1 Like
4

@TegwynTwmfatt,

Thanks for the info, but the developers (so far) know who they are that are working the Lime. This is a challenge to them that LimeSDR users will pay them to finish the job and do it by mid-summer…Let’s see who wins… :slight_smile: I just want to see how many will back the project and post as such here.

73 de Marty, KN0CK

5

Is it really true that there are no requirements for ongoing maintenance of this software? If so, it sounds like a dream job - deliver the software, get the cash and never think about it again :smile:

3 Likes
6

Alex,

…As long as it works properly and is tested as such prior to submittal… :slight_smile:

73 de Marty, KN0CK

7

Would need to be paid in bitcoins to, be fully able to drop the microphone and, walk out of the room never to be seen again. And fully wipe your hands of the project, with nobody contacting you for feature X or modulation Y and remedial support questions about totally unrelated hardware and software.

8

@mzs,

Like I told Alex ----> …As long as it works properly and is tested as such prior to submittal… :slight_smile:

73 de Marty, KN0CK

9

Id be interested in contributing to crowdfunding to this if it worked under linux. Just the ability to get the lime functioning as a hpsdr device (or better still, any soapysdr device functioning as an hpsdr device) like Pavel has done with the red pitya would be awesome. Ive got a bladerf sat here and a lime (when it finally arrives) that id love to use for ham work for tx that doesnt involve writing something in gnuradio.

Great idea Marty.

Jamie / m6xrj

1 Like
10

@j4mbob,

Thanks so much for your support - it’s high time that something happen…Please vote in the poll when you have time - thanks, again…!

73 de Marty, KN0CK

11

Marty,

Nice idea but in 2 1/2 months? Do you have any idea how much work is involved in such a project?

3 Likes
12

GRC: NBFM Transceiver

A narrow band FM transceiver has been set up for LimeSDR under GNURadio.

TRXnbfm145LimeP.grc.png1280×1024 35.8 KB

My GRC installation: Windws10/PothosSDR/GRC3.7.11.1.

I could not find an easy way to turn off the transmitter during receive. Instead, the following settings can be applied:
Osmocom sink: RFgain=0, IFgain=0, BBgain=0
Low pass filter: Gain=0
With these settings, the ouput power of the transmitter will drop by -70dB from max. to -60dBm. Measured max. output power is +10.3dBm.

1 Like
13

I agree crazy deadline for a huge amount of research and development.
rushing causes mistakes!

1 Like
14

I’m in if the specifications for the application includes cross platform compatibility.

73, Berndt
VK5ABN

1 Like
15

@SimonG4ELI @johngee,

Let it be known that I’m not underplaying the research and development of transmit for the Lime - I realize that this is a incredible challenge for anyone tackling it. I am not unerplaying your efforts to research this or create that mode on the LimeSDR on that short timeframe - - rest assured I’m not. I realize this is a hard nugget. But the LimeSDR market - we the people that have LimeSDRs and want to use them for something other than a receiver - are willing to fund the effort now to move it along since nothing else seems to be an incentive.

16 Hours after posting a poll asking for backers to join to make this happen I have 15 people at $20 per person willing to ‘pay it forward’ to the first person that can finish the job by July 4th. One of those people, me, is putting $100 forward. There will certainly be more people entering the poll over the next 6 days and based on that research the crowdfund will either start or we’ll continue to sit there using our Lime’s to listen to HF or FM radio like we are now and fabricate transmit in Pothos or GNU Racio Companion just to ‘feel good’ until somebody actually comes to the table with the full-up app without the crowdfunding.

Everyone greatly appreciates the efforts thus far with SDRConsole, Simon - it’s the best Windows app out there for the LimeSDR right now. Finish the job and get paid for it - the market wants it.

73 de Marty, KN0CK

16

@Barossa,

It’s in the requirements list now…thanks for the suggestion.

73 de Marty, KN0CK

17

@JMG,

Thanks for the GRC post - great effort. Unfortunately I’m looking for ‘stand-alone’ apps that don’t use another app (GRC or Pothos) as the basis for the transceiver app. But again, nice try… :slight_smile:

73 de Marty, KN0CK

18

Marty,

Someone who could write this would be able to earn $2,000 a day. As for my software - it isn’t Open Source and never wiil be. I’m expecting to add transmit support in the summer - it’s actually easy, I can transmit with ANAN radios at the moment, but I need to take a day or two and make sure I do the job correctly.

Also - seriously - for the software you desire $100 is very cheap. Commercial solutions start at around $25k.

19

Really, and where do they pay $2000 a day for programmers?
Last I saw (last month when I was looking for a new contract) the going rate was $500-$700 a day for Sr level programmers.

20

You don’t see this work advertised, you get approached by companies for short-term contracts where you have to deliver or don’t get paid.

FWIW I was on this rate 25 years ago in Switzerland writing private banking software.