In a previous update Danny Webster, Principal RF Design Engineer at Lime Micro, demonstrated the open source GNU Octave software being used to both generate and plot WCDMA cellular (3G) signals. In this video, Danny takes us through another demo in which he was able to use Octave to receive and demodulate GPS signals.

In this video we see a low cost, window mounted active antenna connected to a USB 3.0 LimeSDR board, which Danny explains has been configured to use an on-board numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) to implement a low-IF system, which offers certain performance benefits over zero-IF systems. In addition to receiving signals from multiple satellites, Danny notes how the great overall system performance made it possible to measure variations in doppler shift also.

Over the course of the campaign we’ve had numerous backers ask about the availability of the Ubuntu app store. Earlier today Lime Micro and Canonical announced that work has started on this, with a view to making it available once the crowd funding campaign successfully reaches its $500,000 pledge goal. While both open source and proprietary applications could be published to the store, the announcement also makes it clear that any Lime developed applications will remain fully open source.

Andrew and the LimeSDR Team