power requirements

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pmmeasures
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 1:53 pm

power requirements

Post by pmmeasures »

What is the official power need for the bladerf ?

I brought a 5v 1amp psu ultra low noise psu to see if there is any subtle or major gains from having a low noise power supply verse the generally noisy USB power but it seems not upto the task.

Now superspeed USB3 is Port rated 900ma and USB2 generally I think is 500ma and it has worked plugged into both.

Given USB spec is under psu rating I assume I have a duff psu

But what is the actual spec for the bladerf ?

[Edit] not forgetting yes I'd did change the jumps :-)
jynik
Posts: 455
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm

Re: power requirements

Post by jynik »

As a rule of thumb, I generally try to get a power supply rated for at least 2X what I expect to be using.

On USB 3.0 for full duplex operation, I've seen the bladeRF pull about 750 mA. I'd be nervous about trying to use a 1A PSU.

For what it's worth, I posted a link to the external supply I use. Granted, I haven't quantified it's noise characteristics.
pmmeasures
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 1:53 pm

Re: power requirements

Post by pmmeasures »

Thanks for your input all and anything is useful :-)

Maybe a case no improvement in anything but I know good quality low noise psus can make a significant sound difference in digital to analogue audio devices. I thought we'll given the digital nature of the device would a significantly better psu would have any effects.

Sort of a you don't know until you try experiment lol I have my eye on another psu but I I'm not sure it is on the market yet. But that is rated 2amp at 5v (ifi iusb) might try just using this current one to power the bias tee in my setup.

It is certainly supplying 5.18v ref multimeter but it plummets when powering the bladerf, unfortunately it's a USB power and I have chopped off the special usb passthough plug so can't exactly return it as faulty.

I'll keep experimenting :-) but would be good to get an official power spec.
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