On 11/07/2010 09:38 PM, alexander levedahl wrote:
This is the third time I have asked for help, each time I
have tried to be civil, but I get responses back telling me to learn
linux, not help with GNU-Radio/USRP2. Or if they are help with
GNURadio/USRP2, it is with GRC, which doesn't work with whatever
version of Fedora I happen to have.
My initial request for help was a couple of weeks ago and was this:
I
just started using the USRP2 with GNURadio. I have made a script that
uses the gnuradio library, but it does not try and interface with the
USRP2.
How do you do this? Or
alternatively is there a list of gnuradio functions that I can look at
that has how to set this up? I have tried doing a google search for
this, but it turns up nothing that I have found to be helpful.
Thanks
Alex
The response was for GRC, which doesn't work with whatever version of
Fedora I have; however, by looking through the examples I tried to
scrape together something, that didn't work.
My second request for help was this:
I
have tried transmitting an analog signal from one USRP2 to another, but
when I run usrp2_fft.py on the rx computer, there is no receive signal.
The analog signal is supposed to be two tones at 350 and 440 HZ
transmitted at 2.6GHz. Can anyone help me figure out what I am doing
wrong?
This included the python script that I had written; I did not get any
responses.
My third request:
I have tried transmitting an analog signal from
one USRP2 to another, but when I run usrp2_fft.py on the rx computer,
there is no receive signal. The analog signal is supposed to be two
tones at 350 and 440 HZ transmitted at 2.6GHz. Can anyone help me
figure out what I am doing wrong?
I
have tried using GRC, but at the most up to date version does not work
with Fedora, which is the OS that I have to use, this is for a research
project with a professor at my university, and the mandate is to use
Fedora, this does not look like it will change in the near future.
Again the response was to use GRC, which does not work with the version
of Fedora that I have.
Fedora 11 is old and no longer
updated. Upgrade your fedora.
As I mentioned in my initial request for help, I cannot change the
version of Fedora that I have. It is mandated by a person who at the
beginning of this semester made the decision to use this specific OS
and it cannot be changed because of a large amount of software that
would have to be reinstalled. This ordinarily would not be a problem,
except for the fact that the software has to be installed in a specific
manner depending on the specific version of the OS and the OS itself.
I do not use that software, but that is the reason I was given. This
again would not be a problem since I have a laptop that I can do
whatever with, but that doesn't solve the problem for everyone else on
the project, somewhere between 15 and 25 people. And I have Fedora 13,
my inclusion of the statement about Fedora 11 was to illustrate a point
about how confusing the instructions are.
If you make a mistake installing
software, its not a big deal, just google around, and if you need help,
ask for help, polietly and someone will help. Complaining is not
gonna fix anything.
I did ask for help; however, I did not get it, I got people telling me
to use GRC, which doesn't work with whatever version of Fedora I happen
to have.
And what if I don't understand 75% of phrases
in these 7 "simple" steps?
I use Linux, and almost every program
i use is a single click install from the software center and its free.
Your comparing installing binaris in windows to installing bleeding
endge source code in linux. Not a valid comparision.
Interesting, the one time I actually need to
use linux, it is not a "single click install." Someone gave a bash
script that installed GNU-Radio, and that works as long as I restrict
myself to using the sample scripts that come with GNU Radio, which
again is not useful.
1) As with a lot of things that seems
complicated at first, some basic knowledge helps simplify things
greatly. I'd suggest checking out a basic linux book at your library.
Perhpas some others on the list can suggest some.
2) Linux isn't that scary, and most
problems you encounter can be fixed up with a bit of googling.
Or perhaps you could suggest some? I also tried googling for help with USRP2, but got
back links for a program I can't use or links that don't help.
3) GNU Radio + USRP isn't an easy
thing. It requires knowledge of programming, DSP, digital
communications, and maybe even some basic electronics/circuits. If you
already have that knowledge, why not take a bit more time and get some
linux knowledge under your belt. The two (at this point) really go
hand-in-hand.
I have knowledge of DSP, programming (however,
I had to start learning python), digital communications and circuits
and electronics. I do not know linux. My objective is to learn how to
use a USRP2 and I do not have the time to also learn linux.
Apples to oranges comparison. Linux
distributions have "installers"
for 100s and 100s of
of different pre-configured, ready-to-go applications, just like
Windows does. Those installers
take care of any pre-requisites required, typically. There are
pre-packaged versions of Gnu Radio
available for Fedora, including GRC. Those pre-packaged versions are
somewhat out-of-date
with respect to the current development (actually, sometimes *really*
out-of-date). On Fedora,
Using the "System->Administration->Add/Remove Software"
function allows you to select
from hundreds and hundreds of categorized software and install it
over the net, generally
utterly seamlessly. Try going in there and typing a search term,
like "gnuradio" or
"plotting", or "scientific" or "engineering", or "radio", or
"algebra", or "simulation", or
"electronics". Some of what you find there likely also has versions
for Windows.
When I do System-Administration-Add/Remove
Software and then search for grc I get grc-0.70-6.fc12, which I already
have ( or at least am assuming by the checkmark next to the little open
package box).
See my comment about how packagers for various distributions cannot be
*forced* to package
newer versions of things (in this case, GRC). No amount of
complaining to *this* forum can
change that. You can complain to Ford all you want about a GM
vehicle that happens to use
an older part that was originally made by Ford, but really, GM are
the right people to gripe at,
not Ford. I'll observe that even Fedora 14, which was released only
last week, still bundles
GRC 0.7, rather than a newer version. Nothing that *this* forum can
do about that.
So, the "fix" is to do an install from source, which as you've
discovered, isn't "one click install".
That's rather the nature of the beast.
It's like the difference between trading in your older and rather less
functional vehicle on a
new one, which only requires that you be able to handle sufficient
amounts of cash, and
deciding to "dive in" and repair the engine, transmission, and
suspension yourself. One of
them is going to, necessarily, require that you learn something about
engines,
transmissions, suspensions, and the appropriate tools for repairing
them.
One of them requires only a suitably-large bank account.
Let's use another analogy, because, hey, I'm full of them. You buy a
computer from Dell, which
sports a fancy "Intel Inside" sticker. Only you discover that
they're using a CPU that's at least
two generations out of date. So you call up the *Intel* help desk
and berate them for hours about
how your computer is using a two-generations out-of-date CPU, and
what the steaming heck is
Intel going to do for you? Intel will quite-rightly tell you to
complain to Dell, since Intel has been
making much-better CPUs for two years, it's not Intel's fault that
Dell are using somewhat-lesser
CPUs in the machines they sell to customers.
So you decide to upgrade your Dell machine yourself, and start bitching
and griping at Intel
and all their friends about how hard it is to upgrade a machine. You
have to know something
about screwdrivers, and anti-static wrist bands, and heatsinks, and
heatsink compound, and
oh crap, you just cut yourself on the sheet metal. You cuss and
swear and say things like
"you see how hard all you engineers at Intel have made my life!, you
see?!!!!"
P.S. You
might be able to avoid a lot of these problems if you wrote a tutorial
on how to write a python script that does this instead of an infinite
number of tutorials on how to write a python script that transmits
350Hz and 440Hz tones over speakers and a grc diagram that transmits
the same tones over the air.
This
sentence was supposed to mean that a tutorial on how to do simple
transmission with USRP2 in python (and not in GRC due to issues
installing it across different operating systems) would be helpful. I
am sorry that the meaning was not clear.
I have gone back through the build guide for
fedora that is located on the GNU radio website, and it does not help
with upgrading GRC. GNU radio is working fine, but GRC is not.
Alex
A volunteer group of folks will generally work on that which "turns
their crank". If that means
that some of the "useful" examples are done in GRC, rather than in
"raw" Python, then so be it.
You're free to, once you've done the necessary learning, put together
examples and tutortials
yourself and submit them to the project. Nobody is going to stop you.
--
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org
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