Spectrum analyzer Updates ?

Information on the latest releases, and bladeRF updates
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dvcpro50
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:56 pm

Spectrum analyzer Updates ?

Post by dvcpro50 »

Is there any news on the Spectrum Analyzer progress?

One thing I was interested in is the ability to use the MIMO capability to permit spectrum comparisons

Any news would be very much appreciated also I am wanting to use this on either Windows or on a Mac under 10.10
jynik
Posts: 455
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm

Re: Spectrum analyzer Updates ?

Post by jynik »

Unfortunately, this side project has been on my "back burner" for quite some time and will likely remain there due to limitatations in my time and community interest. There's a number of tasks that would need to be completed first before this can be realized, as well as some higher-priority tasks. On the "community interest" side, I haven't heard much interest; many people are perfectly content with the already-existing SDR software solutions.

Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear... but that's the truth of the matter - I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

Originally, what I had wanted to do was integrate the bladeRF into a nice form factor with an embedded Linux target (e.g., ODroid, Wandboard) and a touchscreen, and develop a simple spectrum analyzer. The plan was to use Yocto and the meta-sdr layer to generate images "ready to go" SD card images for a few popular platforms. To allow this to operate on some of the less-capable platforms, (e.g. Raspberry pi), the plan was to offload computations to the FPGA and ship post-processed data back to the host for display and reporting of measurements. Additionally, we would want to accelerate frequency tuning, perhaps via a VCOCAP lookup table in the FPGA, to allow the device to sweep much quicker.

So, the above doesn't sound like it really fits the Windows/OSX use-case you had in mind... However, with all that said, I'd encourage you to use a new forum thread or wiki page to discuss what the functionality you'd like to see and how it differs from existing solutions out there.

Best regards,
Jon
ykhaled
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:38 pm

Re: Spectrum analyzer Updates ?

Post by ykhaled »

I hope that there would be Spectrum analyzer functionality on BladeRF. I'm not sure if there are existing tool to drive the central frequency to swing the 28Mhz spanning bandwidth quickly. SDR Console has limitation on the spanning BW.
If anyone can share any GUI to assist in using BaldeRF as spectrum analyzer would be great.

I'm looking to control VBW, RBW, Spanning beyong 28MHz.

Thanks
jynik
Posts: 455
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm

Re: Spectrum analyzer Updates ?

Post by jynik »

Robert did a proof of concept for sweeping larger frequencies via modifications to gr-osmosdr and gqrx: https://www.nuand.com/blog/large-bandwidth/

It's do-able -- someone needs to write it, and I unfortunately am not left with enough time in my life to do so.
RadioGuy
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:11 pm

Re: Spectrum analyzer Updates ?

Post by RadioGuy »

Hi,

I was wondering about the spectrum analyzer and was wondering if trying to duplicate a embedded spectrum analyzer is really the best way to go. Especially with something like a Raspberry PI which has limited processing ability.

I would personally like a spectrum analyzer but the existing commercial solutions are very, very expensive. I just happen to have a few BladeRF x40s and was wondering if a very simple solution to this wouldn't be to tether multiple bladeRF's together and synchronize the clocks in them. Then assign a different bladeRF to different sections of the spectrum. Yes I know this is very expensive, but commercial solutions can be 10s of thousands of dollars...

Also, I was wondering if anybody has had any success connecting a bladeRF to a PC with a connection method other then USB. USB is really, really cool but it has some limitations. I'm wondering if something like PCI express wouldn't be an interesting way to connect up a bladeRF. The FPGA in these devices are very flexible, so except for getting a decent number of I/O pins broken out and getting adapter circuit boards made that can fit inside a PCI express slot, I don't see any major roadblocks.

Essentially, I just wondering if a PC based solution would be a great way to go here.

Thoughts/Comments... Maybe I'm just doing model glue or something...
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