Sep 26 – 30, 2022
Capital Hilton
US/Eastern timezone
All GRCon talks are now available to watch at https://www.youtube.com/GNURadioProject

Kuiper Linux Distribution - simplify hardware prototyping with GNU Radio

Sep 26, 2022, 1:45 PM
30m
Presidential Ballroom (Capital Hilton)

Presidential Ballroom

Capital Hilton

Talk SDR Instrumentation and Control Main Track

Speaker

Michael Hennerich (Analog Devices GmbH)

Description

Traditionally, adding hardware interaction to a GNU Radio or Python program, has been challenging. Libraries, drivers, device tree overlays, and GNURadio modules must all be configured properly and tested. Often times, the Linux kernel would need to be rebuilt with the desired drivers enabled. While this is not difficult for an engineer that is familiar with the process, it can still be a daunting task even when everything goes right. However, a recent open source offering from Analog Devices, Kuiper Linux, simplifies much of this. In this presentation we will show how to quickly use GNU Radio and hardware from Analog Devices to build your own 500 MHz FMCW radar.

The Kuiper Linux Distribution is based on Raspbian and is created with ease of use in mind. It incorporates prebuild Linux device drivers for hundreds of Analog Devices components. It supports multiple Circuit Note and Eval boards with RPi HEAD, Arduino, PMOD and FMC connectors. And it allows rapid prototyping complete Converter, RF, Sensor and Control Systems with commercially of the shelf low cost HW.

It preloads a number of important applications, software libraries, and utilities including:
GnuRadio Companion, IIO Oscilloscope (basic GUI for debugging IIO devices), Libiio, pyadi-iio (Python abstraction layer for IIO devices), and many more

While Rasbpian targets Raspberry Pi platform boards, ADI Kuiper Linux supports several other platforms in addition to the Raspberry Pi. These include:
Arduino form factor ARM based FPGA platforms such as Intel/TerASIC DE10-Nano or Xilinx/Digilent Cora Z7
Most popular FMC FPGA carriers from Xilinx and Intel with ARM/ARM64 support: Zynq7000 (Zed board, ZC706, ZC702), MPSoC (ZCU102), Versal (VCK190),
SoC FPGA (A10Soc, A5Soc)

The presentation concludes with a step by step example on how to write the distribution onto an SD Card and customize it for your platform. Then we add a devicetree overlay for a ramping frequency synthesizer wired to the Raspberry Pi, and control that with the GRC flowgraph. Finally, we’ll add in the ADALM-PLUTO, transmit a 500MHz FMCW radar chirp, and plot the radar return in GNU Radio.

Talk Length 30 Minutes
Acknowledge Acknowledge In-Person

Primary author

Michael Hennerich (Analog Devices GmbH)

Co-author

Presentation materials