Building an IcoBoard FPGA based Software Defined Radio

The IcoBoard is an FPGA IO board that is compatible with the Raspberry Pi. An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is a silicon chip that can implement custom digital circuits (such as DSP processors) and be reconfigured with different circuits many times. Other silicon chips are ASICs (application specific integrated circuit) which have circuits that are set in stone.

Over on YouTube OpenTechLab has been trying to create a software defined radio with his IcoBoard FPGA. To do this he's combined it with an audio A2D/D2A (analog-to-digital/digital-to-analog) converter board and a Raspberry Pi. The video goes through the entire design process, including A2D/D2A selection and purchasing, PCB adapter design in KiCad, soldering the PCB, as well as 3D printing a frame.

In the last part of the video he does a simple test where a signal is input into the A2D converter, converted to digital and processed by the FPGA. The circuitry programmed into the FPGA then simply outputs the received data to the D2A which converts it back into an analog signal. In the next steps of the project OpenTechLab hopes to work on the software and turn it into a full SDR. Show notes for the video are available here.