Official bladeRF forum

Hi bladeRF-ers,

I bought a bladeRF last week and after updating the firmware and FPGA, doing the calibration and installing everything, it seems the board has a sensitivity close to zero. Board version is v2.0, Firmware 2.0 and FPGA 0.6. I mounted 2x VERT900 antennas.

I tried various gain settings with no success, usually the noise is increased only.
As an example, a GSM channel on 952.0Mhz should come strong as I see it with RTL and USRP but with bladeRF it is very week, see the attachment.

The apps that works with USRP and RTL do not work with my bladeRF board. I tried open-lte, LTE Cell Tracker, even kalibrate-bladeRF (although I heard it does not suppose to work).

I need to know if the board is defective or not. It will be wonderful to have an app that sets the RX/TX gain at some levels and then send an receive the signal through a physical loopback (I can make one with a 40dB attenuator). And then if the received signal is not within a range decide the board is defective. Does anyone have that?

Thanks,
BCD

Hi BCD,

Would you happen to have a signal generator / VSG that you can hook up to the bladeRF? There is a chance it might be the RX switches which could possibly be fixed by upping the IO drive strengths on the FPGA.

Regards,
Rob

Hi Robert,

I do not have a calibrated signal generator. Just bunch of USRPs and other stuff that can be used for sending/receiving signals.

I returned the board today for a refund. Maybe I will buy another one from other seller as this one had just one in stock.

Could you point me out on a good seller in Europe?
Also what is the latest board version I should look for?

Thanks,
BCD

Sorry we couldn't debug it in time, as long as your board is matte black it means it's the latest version and was factory tested to fully work.
Which country are you looking to ship to?

Hi Robert,

I would need to ship the board to Romania, EU.

Thanks,
BCD

Any suggestion?