Programmer and maker Yimin Gu has launched an add-on accent for the Digilent PYNQ-Z1 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) improvement board which provides it software-defined radio capabilities: the PYNQSDR Hat.

“Each software-defined radio and FPGA are attention-grabbing,” Gu writes by the use of background to the challenge. “Particularly, the mixture of [Analog Devices] AD936X RF transceiver and [AMD Xilinx] ZYNQ 7020-level FPGA SoC [System on Chip] is able to working openwifi.

“Value has been retaining common DIYers away from this type of platform,” Gu continues, “as analysis boards from ADI and Xilinx are each extraordinarily costly. Cheaper ones like [the] AntSDR exist, however [it] appears all of them have tied the RF and ZYNQ chip collectively, so these aren’t appropriate for generic ZYNQ improvement any extra.”

The PYNQSDR Hat goals to unravel that. Slightly than combining the radio chip and FPGA on a single board, it acts as an add-on to a lightly-modified Digilent PYNQ-Z1 improvement board — offering direct entry to software-defined radio capabilities whereas nonetheless permitting the FPGA for use individually as and when required.

“This supplies openwifi and PlutoSDR functionalities,” Gu explains, referring to an open supply IEEE 802.11 baseband FPGA design and Analog Units’ PlutoSDR firmware initially designed for the ADALM-PLUTO SDR, “in the meantime retaining the key if not all features of PYNQ-Z1 intact, with [a] summed worth doubtlessly decrease than all presently out there openwifi-capable platforms.”

The PYNQSDR HAT is that can be purchased by itself for $125 or with a PYNQ-Z1 which has been modified with alternative zero-ohm PMOD resistors for $299 on Gu’s Tindie retailer. Design recordsdata for the board have been revealed to GitHub below the reciprocal GNU Basic Public License 3, whereas Gu gave a chat on the challenge at FOSDEM ’22.