Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-07 Thread Firas abbas
Hi vincenzo,

No need to be confused , lets put it together again:

1) The USB benchmark software can be found in the 
gnuradio/gnuradio-examples/python/usrp/benchmark_usb.py

2) What do  you mean by another disk? are both gnuradrio installation work from 
the same operating system ? or each drive has its own OS?
3) What is you OS?
4) What is the reading of [hdparm -t  /mnt/sda   ] on both drives?

5) Describe you setup please and what do you want to do. Fortunately,  for one 
day or less, I have function generator and spectrum analyzer in my home with 
the USRP system and I can run a copy of your experiments at my home to see the 
result on my system.


Firas
Vincenzo Pellegrini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I'm recording and replaying 
interleaved shorts @ 8Msps.. how is the benchmarking software called? I also 
have noticed a diffference between my main, old gnuradio installation and a 
fresh one just done from trunk on another disk... the fisrt is all right with 
transmissions up to 4 MHz the second stops at 2MHz, (using the same scripts of 
mine on both installations): when, on the fresh installation, I ask for 4MHz I 
can hear only noise being sent out (I think this is a different problem than 
the slow flow).. I'm a bit confused... 

thanks

vincenzo

2007/9/7, Firas abbas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: Hi Vincenzo,

Are you recording the 8Msps complex or short ?. In recording, I always prefer 
the interleaved complex short, because the real coming samples from the USRP 
across the USB is 16 bit short. The conversion to float (32 bit) complex is 
being done by software in the PC and thus adds no new information and does not 
enhance the data. It only complicate file storage process. If converting to 
short does not solve your problem, try to record and play smaller bandwidth 
like  6.4MHz (decimation 10) or  less.  Also test your  PC USB 2 speed by using 
the benchmark software found the gnuradio truck.

Best Regards,

Firas 

Vincenzo Pellegrini < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
  hi Firas, thanks for help!

i'm doing pretty much everything you suggested, and in fact, really!!, I
do think that my HD is doing a  very good work.

nevertheless I keep having the same problem,
this is what I also posted to the list:









I finally have a 7200rpm disk that does keep up very well with 32MBps 
and, I guess, even much more..

is then this assumption correct?

8Msps with gr_complex data type ==> 8e6*8bytes per sample = 64 MB/s

8Msps with interleaved shorts  ==> 8e6*2bytes per int * 2channels = 32 
MB/s 

I'm sure now that my drive can keep up with recording and replaying the
32 MB/s 
and I guess that even 64 with my new, xfs formatted clean disk is fine

my problem is that in both cases ( both using complex and interleaved 
shorts)

If I work with a 4 MHz bandwidth everything looks allright.
I can record and replay a 4 MHz fm band and perfectly listen to the
station at the center of it when sending it back to the receiver
 
but 

when I try to go 8 MHz I can hear a noisy,  extremely weak replica of my
signal, which is SLOW... like an old cassette player with flat batteries

and this is consistent with the fact that a file meant to last 10.717
secs @ 32MB/s, when played with usrp_interp= 16 (8MHz Bandwidth) 
lasts MORE than 13 secs, while if played with usrp_interp=32 (4MHz),
it lasts exactly the double of the correct value ie: 10.717*2=21.434

has this ever happened to anybody.. am I making huge mistakes that I
 havent discovered yet?

thanks 

vincenzo


On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 13:15 -0700, Firas abbas wrote:
> Hi Vincenzo,
> 
> Sorry for this delay, but I didn't saw your email in the mailing list 
> which I usually check. To solve your problem do :
> 
> 1) Buy SATA II harddisk drive
> 2) Put Linux in ext3 partition
> 3) Create  a small  Ext2  partition  for your  recordings (about
 > 4Gbyte)
> 4) Whenever you want to record or replay data  use this ext2 partition
> 5) When you want to record a new file, move the old file from the Ext2
> partition to another partition Ext3. Always keep in mind that the ext2
> partition should be totally empty before any new recording. Also don't 
> forget to empty the Trash after each file deletion from the Ext2
> partition.
> 
> I hope I made it clear. For more information send me an email.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Firas 
> 
> 

> Vincenzo Pellegrini  wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-09-03 at 20:04 -0700, Eng. Firas wrote:
> > Hi Vincenzo,
 > > 
> > 
> > 1) What is your recording system (PC specifications)?.
> > 2) How fast your hard drive can read/write data? because
> working with 8MHz 
> > means that your hard drive must be able to sustain writing
>  32MByte/sec?
> > 3) Do you use ext2 or ext3 ? Ext2 is very efficient in
> writing. 
> > 4) Are you recording complex or interleaved Short 8 MHz
> samples? 
> > 
> > Firas
> 
> first of all thanks for listening Firas,

Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-07 Thread Vincenzo Pellegrini
I'm recording and replaying interleaved shorts @ 8Msps.. how is the
benchmarking software called? I also have noticed a diffference between my
main, old gnuradio installation and a fresh one just done from trunk on
another disk... the fisrt is all right with transmissions up to 4 MHz the
second stops at 2MHz, (using the same scripts of mine on both
installations): when, on the fresh installation, I ask for 4MHz I can hear
only noise being sent out (I think this is a different problem than the slow
flow).. I'm a bit confused...

thanks

vincenzo

2007/9/7, Firas abbas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
> Hi Vincenzo,
>
> Are you recording the 8Msps complex or short ?. In recording, I always
> prefer the interleaved complex short, because the real coming samples from
> the USRP across the USB is 16 bit short. The conversion to float (32 bit)
> complex is being done by software in the PC and thus adds no new information
> and does not enhance the data. It only complicate file storage process. If
> converting to short does not solve your problem, try to record and play
> smaller bandwidth like 6.4MHz (decimation 10) or  less.  Also test your
> PC USB 2 speed by using the benchmark software found the gnuradio truck.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Firas
>
> *Vincenzo Pellegrini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* wrote:
>
> hi Firas, thanks for help!
>
> i'm doing pretty much everything you suggested, and in fact, really!!, I
> do think that my HD is doing a very good work.
>
> nevertheless I keep having the same problem,
> this is what I also posted to the list:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I finally have a 7200rpm disk that does keep up very well with 32MBps
> and, I guess, even much more..
>
> is then this assumption correct?
>
> 8Msps with gr_complex data type ==> 8e6*8bytes per sample = 64 MB/s
>
> 8Msps with interleaved shorts ==> 8e6*2bytes per int * 2channels = 32
> MB/s
>
> I'm sure now that my drive can keep up with recording and replaying the
> 32 MB/s
> and I guess that even 64 with my new, xfs formatted clean disk is fine
>
> my problem is that in both cases ( both using complex and interleaved
> shorts)
>
> If I work with a 4 MHz bandwidth everything looks allright.
> I can record and replay a 4 MHz fm band and perfectly listen to the
> station at the center of it when sending it back to the receiver
>
> but
>
> when I try to go 8 MHz I can hear a noisy, extremely weak replica of my
> signal, which is SLOW... like an old cassette player with flat batteries
>
> and this is consistent with the fact that a file meant to last 10.717
> secs @ 32MB/s, when played with usrp_interp= 16 (8MHz Bandwidth)
> lasts MORE than 13 secs, while if played with usrp_interp=32 (4MHz),
> it lasts exactly the double of the correct value ie: 10.717*2=21.434
>
> has this ever happened to anybody.. am I making huge mistakes that I
> havent discovered yet?
>
> thanks
>
> vincenzo
>
>
> On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 13:15 -0700, Firas abbas wrote:
> > Hi Vincenzo,
> >
> > Sorry for this delay, but I didn't saw your email in the mailing list
> > which I usually check. To solve your problem do :
> >
> > 1) Buy SATA II harddisk drive
> > 2) Put Linux in ext3 partition
> > 3) Create a small Ext2 partition for your recordings (about
> > 4Gbyte)
> > 4) Whenever you want to record or replay data use this ext2 partition
> > 5) When you want to record a new file, move the old file from the Ext2
> > partition to another partition Ext3. Always keep in mind that the ext2
> > partition should be totally empty before any new recording. Also don't
> > forget to empty the Trash after each file deletion from the Ext2
> > partition.
> >
> > I hope I made it clear. For more information send me an email.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Firas
> >
> >
> > Vincenzo Pellegrini wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-09-03 at 20:04 -0700, Eng. Firas wrote:
> > > Hi Vincenzo,
> > >
> > >
> > > 1) What is your recording system (PC specifications)?.
> > > 2) How fast your hard drive can read/write data? because
> > working with 8MHz
> > > means that your hard drive must be able to sustain writing
> > 32MByte/sec?
> > > 3) Do you use ext2 or ext3 ? Ext2 is very efficient in
> > writing.
> > > 4) Are you recording complex or interleaved Short 8 MHz
> > samples?
> > >
> > > Firas
> >
> > first of all thanks for listening Firas,
> > I'm using a sempron 3000+, 512MiB of Ram, and the HD is a IDE
> > with ext3,
> > and yes, 32MB/s is at is nominal limit... I'm using complex
> > samples..
> >
> > to bypass the "slow hd problem" before buying a new one, I was
> > just
> > storing a very few secs of my sample stream to the ram before
> > sending it
> > out..
> >
> > in the next stage of my work I will need an hd which is very
> > fast in
> > reading a 32MB/s complex sample stream... what would you
> > suggest for the
> > kind of HD and for the filesystem?
> > >
> > >
> > > Vincenzo Pellegrini wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Matt,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Tonight
> > > > I have been recording slices of commercial FM spectrum,
> > all centered

Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-05 Thread Vincenzo Pellegrini
really I was expecting them but I cannot see them, 
they should be in the terminal right? 

like uO when receiving and uU when transming right?

I cannot see these ones

thanks

On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 16:35 -0700, Matt Ettus wrote:
> Vincenzo Pellegrini wrote:
> > I've just checked, at 4 MHz I can not only tune the central station of
> > my fm band, really I can perfectly tune all them, all the stations in
> > the snaphotted band, even at he extremes, the CIC roll off reall gives
> > me no problem at this stage..
> >
> > with 8 MHz all this good stuff is simply ..gone
> >
> > enormous amount of noise and what I can hear is clearly being sent out
> > slower than it's due..
> >   
> 
> 
> Do you get overruns?  That means your machine can't keep up.
> 
> Matt



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Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-05 Thread Matt Ettus
Vincenzo Pellegrini wrote:
> I've just checked, at 4 MHz I can not only tune the central station of
> my fm band, really I can perfectly tune all them, all the stations in
> the snaphotted band, even at he extremes, the CIC roll off reall gives
> me no problem at this stage..
>
> with 8 MHz all this good stuff is simply ..gone
>
> enormous amount of noise and what I can hear is clearly being sent out
> slower than it's due..
>   


Do you get overruns?  That means your machine can't keep up.

Matt


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Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-05 Thread Vincenzo Pellegrini
I've just checked, at 4 MHz I can not only tune the central station of
my fm band, really I can perfectly tune all them, all the stations in
the snaphotted band, even at he extremes, the CIC roll off reall gives
me no problem at this stage..

with 8 MHz all this good stuff is simply ..gone

enormous amount of noise and what I can hear is clearly being sent out
slower than it's due..

any hint?


thanks 

vincenzo



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Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-04 Thread Matt Ettus
Vincenzo Pellegrini wrote:
> Matt,
> ...but please say it loud, say it clear: "vincenzo, you've made very big
> mistakes, because the USRP really can transmit an 8MHz wide signal
> without distorting it significantly, I've tested it"...
>   

I really don't know what you're looking for here.  There are a lot of
people transmitting a lot of different signals with the USRP and not
having issues.

There are some things you seem to be missing, though.  No system is
capable of using 100% of the nyquist bandwidth, and the USRP is no
exception.  On receive, our passband is flat out to about 75 or 80% of
nyquist.  For 8 MS/s complex sampling, that gives more than 6 MHz of
flat bandwidth.  On transmit, there are no halfband filters in there, so
you will see more rolloff from the CIC filters.  If this is a problem,
you have 3 options:

-  If your generated signal is at less than 8 MS/s complex, then you
should just upsample in software.
-  If your generated signal is at the full 8 MS/s then you can
predistort your signal to compensate for the CIC rolloff. 
-  Otherwise, I would suggest making a new FPGA image with halfband
filters in the TX side.  You can make room in there by removing one
receive chain (leaving only one).

Matt

PS  There is no need to send emails to both the list and to me.  I am on
the list, and don't need 2 copies of every email.



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Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 8MHz Tx Bandwidth.. Nightmare and Fear

2007-09-03 Thread Eng. Firas

Hi Vincenzo,


1) What is your recording system (PC specifications)?.
2) How fast your hard drive can read/write data? because working with 8MHz
means that your hard drive must be able to sustain writing 32MByte/sec?
3) Do you use ext2 or ext3 ? Ext2 is very efficient in writing. 
4) Are you recording complex or interleaved Short 8 MHz samples?

Firas


Vincenzo Pellegrini wrote:
> 
> Matt,
> 
> 
> Tonight
> I have been recording slices of commercial FM spectrum, all centered
> right where a good station transmits, 
> 
> the first slice was 300Khz wide, 
> the second was 2MHz 
> the third was 4MHz
> 
> then I sent all these signals to my Hifi FM receiver via the basicTX...
> all went fine and I could hear a good stereo sound from my recordings..
> 
> then I tried my nightmare: the 8MHz slice of spectrum
> the output was extremely weak but you could easily tell from what you
> could hear that the samples were not being sent out at 8Msps: the very
> poor audio was also "slow" as it happens when you set the interpolation
> rate too high, compared to the sample rate your samples were taken at...
> well, this is not just some attenuation next to the shoulder of my ofdm
> signal.. this is the whole signal .. gone..
> 
> So, I'm really not asking you, Matt, to solve a problem which is my duty
> to solve...and don't even want to bother the whole list with this
> stuff...
> 
> ...but please say it loud, say it clear: "vincenzo, you've made very big
> mistakes, because the USRP really can transmit an 8MHz wide signal
> without distorting it significantly, I've tested it"...
> 
> ..so even if this means that I still got much to learn, and much to work
> to find out where I'm doing wrong...
> 
> ...well, it would be much better than being forced to give up what I'm
> working upon..
> 
> please...
> 
> thanks
> 
> vincenzo 
> 
> PS. 
> I'm using default FPGA configuration...
> 
> 
> 
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