Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Measurement Computing DAC and USRP on the same programming language in Windows.

[Shabbir Ahmed]

Hi Eric and Jason:

Thank you very much for the suggestions.

@Eric: I did look up the COMEDI project earlier but they donot have the drivers for the USB-1408FS that I am using.

@Jason: I just finished installing gr with USRP on windows under CYGWIN. I will start with the writing a block part asap.

Thank you loads again.

Regards.

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 2:40 AM, Jason Uher <address@hidden> wrote:

On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Eric Blossom<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 04, 2009 at 02:43:10PM +1000, Shabbir Ahmed wrote:
>> Dear all:
>>
>> I need to run Measurement Computing DAC in parallel to GNURADIO/USRP. The
>> DAC feeds to a variable gain aplifier. I want to use the USRP as a receiver
>> and measure the strength of the signal. Feed the result into a code which
>> will determine the control voltage required by the valirable amplifier.
>> Now the problem is that I measurement computing DAC only runs in windows,
>> drivers are only for windows, and I have been coding in C++. Any ideas how
>> to run both the USRP and the DAC on the same programming language, and on
>> Windows Platform.
>>
>> Would really appreciate your help. Thank you loads in advance.

I'll start by assuming that you have gnuradio installed on your
windows machine and some method of getting/setting data with the DAC
from windows using some sort of  manufacturer provided driver/API.  If
that's true you should be able to modify the current files for various
sources to make your own data source to get the samples into gnuradio.
 This moves the control of your entire system into the gnuradio scope

Some places to start:

Howto write a block (very basic):
https://radioware.nd.edu/documentation/advanced-gnuradio/writing-a-signal-processing-block-for-gnu-radio-part-i

Source code for the USRP sources/sinks (very complicated):
http://www.gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/trunk/gr-usrp/src
http://www.gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/trunk/gr-usrp2/src

I would look at the following from your checked out trunk as a place
to start with your block:
gr_sig_source_c.cc
gr_sig_source_c.h
gr_sig_source_c.i

These are a good place to start because you can see how to take some
known data and send it out in stream form.  You should be able to
replace the signal generator part with your current code that reads
samples and have a basic version working relatively quickly.  If you
want you should even be able to work in some member functions to
change the gain parameter you are calculating so you can do it
directly from python/gnuradio.

Jason

-- 
Shabbir Ahmed
PhD. Student
Centre for Telecommunications and Microelectronics
Victoria University
Email: address@hidden