Help... :-(

[drbob]

Well, I put the X115 and XB200 in a box to see how things would develop since the release and decided to take another run on Wednesday to see where I stood. Pulled the latest Windows installer, followed directions, and have arrived at a point of spinning my wheels going nowhere.

Installation is Windows 7 Home Premium, latest updates.

After installing the latest installer from the website, all appeared well until I ran the CLI.

Here's a report of what is said:

bladeRF> version

bladeRF-cli version: 1.6.1
libbladeRF version: 2.0.2
Firmware Version: 2.2.0-git-3d38fac2
FPGA version: 0.8.0

bladeRF> info

Board: Nuand bladeRF (bladerf1)
Serial #: xxxxxxxxxxxx
VCTCXO DAC calibration: 0x9c53
FPGA size: 115 KLE
FPGA loaded: yes
USB bus: 1
USB address: 1
USB speed: Hi-Speed
Backend: libusb
Instance: 0

bladeRF> probe
[WARNING @ host/libraries/libbladeRF/src/backend/usb/libusb.c:350] Found a bladeRF via VID/PID, but could not open it due to insufficient permissions, or because the device is already open.

Desctiption: Nuand bladeRF (currently open)
Backend: libusb
Serial: xxxxxxxxxx (matches Info, above)
USB Bus: 1
USB Address: 1

Only 1 and one only LED is active.

Looking at previous errors, I surmised that updating libbladeRF was in order (maybe?) but I've used the latest installer, so I'd expect that would be the most current version. While searching around for info, I found a github conversation involving Tucker (https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF/issues/641) that caused me to grab the referenced installer - that seems to have made some progress - the permissions issues are gone, but now I have an error RX DC calibration table not found for this board - even after running the cal dc rx routine.

So, the next test was to fire up SDRConsole... No love.

Any thoughts/direction from where I am?

[bglod]

The cal dc command is only valid for the current frequency. You have to generate the entire table. Once generated, remember to move the calibration table file to the proper location (refer to that Wiki page linked earlier).

[drbob]

How do you know if the table is loaded? I followed the process and put it in one of the locations specified, but I noted that when I load the Spectrum Browser from osmocom I have a +30dB spike in the middle of the screen (input 50 Ohm terminated), which I was anticipating would go away with the DC calibration...

Thanks for the response

As a side note, I finally got the thing working under Windows 7 but couldn't get a superspeed connection, so I dropped another drive in the machine and set it up under Linux which seems to be much happier with the USB 3.0 and reports superspeed at the X115... Guess I'm going to learn my way around GNU Companion!

[bglod]

Yeah, Windows is a strange beast. The bladeRF should work in super-speed mode on Windows though. We've tested it, and it works for other customers, but Windows 7 and USB 3.0 controllers do not always play nice together. Linux is substantially better in this regard and there are many more SDR tools available to you.

The DC calibration table, if put in the correct location with the proper name, should be automatically detected and loaded by libbladeRF upon device initialization. Although, it's entirely possible there is a bug in the loading mechanism for Windows. Now that you're on Linux, try to regenerate the DC calibration and see if you get any better results. If you do, please consider opening an issue in the bladeRF issue tracker on GitHub so we can look into it in more detail.

You can check if the table is being loaded by using the bladeRF-cli. You may need to add "-v debug" or "-v verbose" to the bladeRF-cli arguments to increase the verbosity of the output. You could also move the cal table you generated somewhere else and see if the DC spike gets worse.

When using the cal table, I would expect the DC spike to be reduced significantly; it may not be eliminated altogether due to limitations of the DC offsets available within the LMS6. Once you're certain the cal table is being loaded, you can remove any remaining DC offset in software by adding a DC filter block in GRC.

[drbob]

As a thought, in a future version of the bladeRF, it would be nice if the interface was Thunderbolt... ($^&*()_ you, USB 3!

[JackReacher147]

The cal dc command is only valid for the current frequency. You have to Delta Executor. Once generated, remember to move the calibration table file to the proper location (refer to that Wiki page linked earlier).

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