SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Discussions related to embedded firmware, driver, and user mode application software development
SDR-Radio.com
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:28 am

SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by SDR-Radio.com »

Hi,

http://v2.sdr-radio.com/Download.aspx take the Beta. Has been tested on a computer in the US with USB 3.0, on my computer with USB 2.0.

Maximum sample rate is 38.4MHz, to use this you'll need a decent CPU. Lowest sample rate is 2 MHz.

Complaints here if you want, I'm going to start a few TX components today, step one is reading from the microphone - not rocket science I know.
bpadalino
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2013 4:53 pm

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by bpadalino »

This is great news! Thanks very much for this work, Simon!
syntroniks
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by syntroniks »

wooooo! Will check it out
syntroniks
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by syntroniks »

I was able to install and start correctly, but I could not visualize anything. I am not sure your software was automatically loading the FPGA, which I would like it to do. If that is not possible, think about inserting a note in your software when a user adds a bladeRF radio.

I like your interface and I'm looking forward to using SDR-Radio. Additionally, it reports (after closing and re-starting the software) that it can't get exclusive access to the radio. I'm using windows 7 64 bit and I have the latest build (as of 7 (pm?) the 20th)
SDR-Radio.com
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by SDR-Radio.com »

syntroniks wrote:I was able to install and start correctly, but I could not visualize anything. I am not sure your software was automatically loading the FPGA, which I would like it to do. If that is not possible, think about inserting a note in your software when a user adds a bladeRF radio.

I like your interface and I'm looking forward to using SDR-Radio. Additionally, it reports (after closing and re-starting the software) that it can't get exclusive access to the radio. I'm using windows 7 64 bit and I have the latest build (as of 7 (pm?) the 20th)
Hi,

I don't know what you mean 'cannot visualise anything'. Can you attach screenshots so that I can maybe help you? At the moment you're keeping me in the dark.
SDR-Radio.com
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by SDR-Radio.com »

syntroniks wrote:I was able to install and start correctly, but I could not visualize anything. I am not sure your software was automatically loading the FPGA, which I would like it to do. If that is not possible, think about inserting a note in your software when a user adds a bladeRF radio.

I like your interface and I'm looking forward to using SDR-Radio. Additionally, it reports (after closing and re-starting the software) that it can't get exclusive access to the radio. I'm using windows 7 64 bit and I have the latest build (as of 7 (pm?) the 20th)
Also,

At the moment I expect the bladeRF has the FPGA loaded *or* it's in the FX3 chip. I could obviously write a small program to load the FPGA but the console expects to be connected to a working radio at the moment.

Were I to add the ability to load FPGA / firmware code then I would rather write this as a nice standalone Windows program.
bpadalino
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2013 4:53 pm

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by bpadalino »

There is a way to query the device to ask if the FPGA has been loaded. That might be a good thing to try and alert the user in the case the FPGA is not loaded?
Montezuma
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:42 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by Montezuma »

Any reason for the initial frequency range of the bladeRF to be set to 50 - 3800 MHz? Editing it for users of the expansion board, when it is available, is a good idea, but wouldn't it be best to have the initial setup to have the range set to 300 - 3800 MHz?
SDR-Radio.com
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by SDR-Radio.com »

Montezuma wrote:Any reason for the initial frequency range of the bladeRF to be set to 50 - 3800 MHz? Editing it for users of the expansion board, when it is available, is a good idea, but wouldn't it be best to have the initial setup to have the range set to 300 - 3800 MHz?
Hi,

That's just the default I plugged in, of course you can change this. I don't think there's a way I can detect the presence of the HF board at the moment, so I'll change the default range to 300MHz - 3.8 GHz and see what happens when the HF board is available.
SDR-Radio.com
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by SDR-Radio.com »

bpadalino wrote:There is a way to query the device to ask if the FPGA has been loaded. That might be a good thing to try and alert the user in the case the FPGA is not loaded?
True, I'll maybe add this today.
Montezuma
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:42 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by Montezuma »

SDR-Radio.com wrote:
Montezuma wrote:Any reason for the initial frequency range of the bladeRF to be set to 50 - 3800 MHz? Editing it for users of the expansion board, when it is available, is a good idea, but wouldn't it be best to have the initial setup to have the range set to 300 - 3800 MHz?
Hi,

That's just the default I plugged in, of course you can change this. I don't think there's a way I can detect the presence of the HF board at the moment, so I'll change the default range to 300MHz - 3.8 GHz and see what happens when the HF board is available.
Oh, I don't see it as an issue either way, I was just curious as to why you elected to set the range to that band. I thought I remembered a discussion on the bladeRF being able to tune to frequencies slightly lower than the stated low end range of the LM chip, though I'm not sure if that is true, or if it would produce any usable result. As far is on the high end range, I am also unsure of.
SDR-Radio.com
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:28 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by SDR-Radio.com »

OK.

Anyway the bladeRF is a fine radio, just want the HF board for the 137MHz APT weather satellites and also those pesky Hams on 144MHz.
cmh716
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:16 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by cmh716 »

I just got my BladeRF and tried sdr-radio. At rates above 20MHz, i get a lot of stuttering. At 38MHz capture rate, the sir-radio process is only using 30% CPU according to the task manager. Any ideas what the bottleneck could be? Thanks - love the sdr-radio pgm
Montezuma
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:42 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by Montezuma »

cmh716 wrote:I just got my BladeRF and tried sdr-radio. At rates above 20MHz, i get a lot of stuttering. At 38MHz capture rate, the sir-radio process is only using 30% CPU according to the task manager. Any ideas what the bottleneck could be? Thanks - love the sdr-radio pgm
Could you provide more information? Are you using USB 3.0, with a "Super Speed" cable? What type of host computer are you using(CPU, amount of RAM, etc)? I haven't experienced any "shuttering", while running at 38.4 MHz, on a i7 4770k(overclocked to 4.0 GHz, but there is no reduced performance at 3.50 GHz), 16 GB 1866 MHz DDR3 RAM, a MSI Z87 XPower motherboard(all drivers updated to current), with a GTX Titan, and using a rear USB 3.0 port(AsRock USB 3.0, I believe).

Aside from hardware issues, have you checked other programming running, or simply tried rebooting?
cmh716
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:16 am

Re: SDR-Radio.com Supports bladeRF

Post by cmh716 »

Hi, thanks for the response. It's a 16GB memory Supermicro Board with an i7-3612QE quad core CPU 2.1GHz/3.1GHz turbo. HDD is a fast intel mSATA unit. The sdr-radio.exe process is only using 30% CPU. I'm using the onboard Intel USB 3.0 ports and the cable that came with the BladeRF (SuperSpeed). I am using a USB 2.0 sound card (on a separate USB controller). I wonder if that could cause it. There's a definite lag at higher capture rates. When I turn Disable the VFO, there is a several second delay before I stop hearing audio. So it's definitely "behind" on processing the data which puzzles me because the process is only using 30% CPU and under 1.5GB of memory. I checked again and it's actually lagging and stuttering at sample rates over 10MHz.
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