Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Gnuradio DCS Module

[Jeff Long]

Martin,

Some ideas inline ... hope some of this is useful.

On 10/07/2014 03:30 PM, Martin Holst Swende wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> I am pretty new to Gnuradio / SDR, experimenting with a HackRF. As a
> startup experiment, I wanted to communicate with simple handheld radio
> devices (toy radios). These radios used DCS, and in order for my
> computer to bypass their squelch, I need to
> 1) Determine DCS-code
> 2) Add DCS to my transmissions
>
> Since I didn't find any suitable tools for that (?), I have now
> implemented a gnuradio module to decode DCS. The source code is at
> bitbucket [1].
>
> I started out by implementing the DCS decoder via a message block in
> python. This seemed a bit hacky, so I decided to implement it in C++
> instead following the "Out-of-tree modules" tutorial [2]. In the end, I
> implemented it as a Stream Tag block. My thought was that it would add
> tags to an audio stream, and a UI component somewhere would pick up the
> tags and display to the user (needless to say, a DCS-squelch could be
> built using the tagged stream).
>
> I now have a few question, both regarding the digital signal processing
> in general, and regarding gnuradio.
>
> 1. Currently, my block takes digital input. Here [3] you can see a
> picture of how I go from 960 hz sampled audio stream via DC-blocker,
> thresholding , interpolation and decimation into a digital signal (to
> the 'old' message sink). In the next stage, I'd like to take an audio
> source (with a few selectable common audion samplerates) instead, which
> means that my block must do all those things within the block itself.
> How is this normally done? Do I create a hierarchical block containing
> these blocks "under the hood", plus my new digital-in-DCS-decode block?

There's no right way. You can make a hier block in GRC, Python, C++, or 
leave it in the top level flow graph. GRC hier block is the easiest if 
it works for you.

> 2. Does it make sense to have DCS as a tagged stream? Should I chose
> some other type to communicate DCS ?

The choice of messages or tagged streams has to do with how you want to 
process the data downstream. If a downstream block needs the info 
associated with a sample (like a squelch) then tags are good. If it's 
thought of more as data (like for logging) then messages are good. There 
is also a tag-to-message block, so you can have it both ways.

> 3. Are there better ways to extract the digital signal from the audio
> source than my schematic above? Am I doing something stupid?

A low pass filter should be used to cut out voice. A rational resampler 
can replace the interpolate and 1-in-N blocks. You could combine the LPF 
and DC blocker into the taps for the resampler if you want to get fancy. 
The threshold can go after the resampler.

I'm not familiar with DCS, but typically a synchronizer block of some 
sort is used before the bits are processed. Otherwise, your bit 
alignment is due to luck (or short sequences).

> 4. Are there any suitable UI-components I can use to display DCS
> information - e.g. something which show information from streamed tags ,
> or mechanisms to modify variables based on tag info?

The QT time sink will display tags.

> Grateful for suggestions and ideas.
> Martin Holst Swende
>
>
> [1] https://bitbucket.org/holiman/gnuradio-dcs
> [2] http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/OutOfTreeModules
> [3] http://martin.swende.se/graph_part.png
>
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