Using Labview to drive an SDR?

[W1RKW]

I recently acquired a copy of Labview and got to thinking if it is possible to experiment with Labview and drive some homebrew SDR stuff just for the sake of experimenting with hardware and software.  I can't see why not since Labview can drive hardware.  It would just be a matter of interfacing and implementing.  Anyone with Labview experience have any thoughts?

[AB2EZ]

Bob

in February 2010 National Instruments acquired Ettus... a small company that sells SDR hardware that is widely used in academia

http://www.ettus.com/ni

http://www.ettus.com/products

The Ettus hadware is similar to the SDR hardware thay many of the members of the AM Forum community are using/experimenting with. Until now, using this hardware has required expertise in Linux, a programming language called Python, and a high level SDR application programming toolkit called GNU radio. It takes a large commitment of time to get up to speed in using the Ettus hardware

http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/show/gnuradio

NI's intention is to provide relatively easy-to-use drivers that will enable LabVIEW to work in conjunction with Ettus hardware to build SDR systems of varying complexity... and which will run on Windows.

The first generation of these drivers is currently in beta testing (by several university teams who work with SDR-based systems in educational and research contexts).

Hopefully, this will lead to more usable approach for people like us to create custom SDR configurations with features and functions that we can bring to life in software and hardware. Hopefully the open interface between NI's LabVIEW application software and the Ettus SDR hardware will encourage the emergence of compatible low cost SDR hardware from multiple sources.

Stu

[WA1GFZ]

Bob,
LabVIEW is a very useful tool to know. We have a couple of real sharp guys at work who write our test interface software. good  luck and keep us posted!

[K1JJ]

Yes, it is do-able, Bob.

About 5 years back, before the HPSDR dual diversity software and hardware came out, I was looking for a way to phase two receivers together to null out storm static on the band.  On the web there is a UK ham who did it using Labview.  He had a complete receiver system interface working that actually nulled signals in software.

You will certainly learn a lot rolling your own, though for a quicker method, the existing HPSDR/PSDR software combo works well out of the box.

Good luck with it, OM.

T

[W1RKW]

I acquired a Labview version but also took 2 classes recently to learn how to use it.  I really liked what I saw and it got me to thinking about SDR.  It's a really cool and powerful tool.