My Lime seems completely deaf

@moles By the way, I never found a way to get audio from LimeSuite. Did you? While you were trying your tuning tests?

@W7BOT No, I don’t think LimeSuite has any demodulation. If not hidden in the myriad of settings.

The new user status and limits should expire after 24 hours. Sorry about that, but it’s just a spam mitigation measure in case of bot generated accounts.

Pinged @zack to see if he has anything else to suggest and if it does look like you have a faulty board, I’ll put you in touch with Crowd Supply and we’ll arrange for it to be swapped out. We’ll get this sorted one way or another.

Also, a big thanks to everyone who has been helping out with debugging! :slight_smile:

Thanks Andy. @Zack, there are a number of screenshots of my results and comparison with other users over at LimeSDR under SDR-Console. Thanks in advance.

@W7BOT,

Dave - Pour yourself a cup of coffee and start reading this thread -----> Happy days are here again - LimeSDR lives in HF!

It’s what started the prairie fire on HF receive once it was fixed…you’ll see A LOT of comparisons there over HF to UHF.

73 de Marty, KN0CK

Hey bud,

Pour myself a cup of coffee?? Holy bazooka … I’ve got the stuff coming out of my ears. I’ve been living on coffee alone for the past 24 hours as I battled with trying different things to see if my Lime REALLY is dead. I just watched your Foo2000 video, and am going to try that out now to see if that works.

Yeah, already read that whole thread end-to-end. Frankly, like most, I’m a bit disappointed with the unexpected HF underperformance, but hey … Lime’s great for everything else, right? I’m still toying with the idea of spending the kid’s inheritance and splashing out on a Hermes. Then I’ll have the best of both worlds. Don’t tell my wife tho.

It kills me to see the screenshots of other users. I just KNOW how much fun they’re having right now. And I’m sitting here staring at a deaf box. At least the LEDs work. Pretty entertaining light show … once you stare at them blankly long enough :slight_smile:

Anyway, one of my first projects when I get a working Lime is to build a pan-adaptor for my IC-7100. I’d just love to see the spectrum before calling CQ. Sounds like a cool 1st project to cut my teeth on. I’m busy learning Pothos as we speak.

Take care. Catch you on ‘Lime for SDR-Console’ again soon. That’s another project I want to become more involved in. I love that @SimonG4ELI Simon is building in the satellite module. That’s where my true passion lies. I’ve had numerous contacts with the ISS (and even MIR back in the day) and have worked many of the birds out there today. I want to make it WOB (worked ALL birds?) and Lime is a very big part of that goal. Especially for the 23cm birds.

This might not be part of it …

with Ubuntu gqrx …

try switching from wide FM to narrow and back a few times …

I tinkered quite a bit at first with mine. Still learning how the gain parameters operate. I found using the Extio with HDSDR to be fantastic as a receiver. Definitely try different antennas and also try moving the antenna around if you can.

Hi @W7BOT,

You mentioned that you performed steps 4.1 to 4.5 from Quick Test. My question is - do you see a signal i FFT Viewer when performing step 4.6?

Hi Zach @Zack

As you requested, I have re-run test 4.6. Screenshot below.

Step 4.1 - I connected to the board successfully
Step 4.2 - Loaded example.ini successfully
Step 4.3 - Set mu freq to 106.500 on SXR tab. this is the freq I have been using as a benchmark for my testing (strong FM broadcast stn in my area)
Step 4.4 - Set 80 MHz CLK_H … results in 10 MHz sample rate (10 MHz RF bandwidth).
Step 4.5 - here’s the screenshot of the station. NOTE this stn comes in as S9+ on my little scanner with a 4 inch rubber duck antenna. The screen you see is with a 30-1300mHz discone at 40 feet high connected to RX1_L. The signal on Lime IS WAAAY LOW.

Step 4.6 - I ran the ‘test signal’ as you requested. Here’s what I get.

Best, Dave W7BOT

Hey Dean, thanks for reaching out. HDSDR is something I know a little about. It’s the RX side of the Hermes, correct? But what’s the Extio you mention?

Yes, I’ve tried different antennas. First, I started with the little 2.4gHz sticks that came with the Lime (I ordered them on Crowd Supply with the original order + acrylic case). They don’t receive anything.

Then I went to a 12 inch whip which I use on my VHF HT (handi-talkie). Very little difference.

Finally I connected to my 30-1300mHz discone atop a 40ft mast out in the open. Only now am I able to hear ‘something’. But it’s bad. Hardly audible. And that’s comparing to my HT that receives the same signal on 106.500 indoors PERFECTLY with it’s rubber duckie antenna.

Looking fwd to yr Extio answer … I’m intruiged :slight_smile:

73 de Dave W7BOT

A direct link to the Extio is here: https://jiangwei.org/download/ExtIO_LimeSDR.zip

The developer posted information along with source code link here: EXTIO.DLL support

I have my LimeSDR installed in a metal enclosure with the 10 Antenna/SMA antenna connectors through one of the face plates of the enclosure. I find that I get poor reception when an antenna is mounted directly to one of the SMA connectors. Using a cable and mounting the antenna a few feet away makes a world of difference for me. My biggest problem as of now is images. I seem to get more of them with the Lime than I do with other SDR receivers I have. I’ll have to invest in a few additional filters.

Good man. Thanks :slight_smile: Going to play now !!!

You should check to see if your antenna settings are right and whether the RX1_L shunt is enabled. The L shunt was enabled the first time I used mine and killed all incoming signal.

Thanks @Kryan92. Where? Which tab? I’ve been using SDR-Console to control the Lime, but you never know … maybe Simon has overlooked this one?

I used LimeSuite GUI for my initial testing, and don’t have any experience with SDR Console. Under LimeSuite it should be under the RFE tab for the “input shorting switches” section. SDR-Console may or may not be properly untoggling them when you switch the antenna setting.

Also general reminder, max your gains at least (LNA + TIA + PGA)

Hi @W7BOT,

As far as I see it is OK. You are receiving a test signal correctly (step 4.6).
If you use example.ini file, then RX RF input selected is RX1_L.
Do you have a signal generator to test the RF input?

Hi @Zack,

Thanks for your time so far. Good to know the Lime is receiving a test signal correctly. Sadly, anything other than a test signal is where I’m having the problem. When it comes to using it as a true SDR (i.e. receiving REAL signals), it’s performance is totally unacceptable:

I have been comparing Lime’s RX performance to other equipment I have here:

  • Icom IC-7100 HF/VHF/UHF base station transceiver
  • Baufeng BF-F8HP VHF/UHF hand-held transceiver
  • Icom IC-PCR1000 comms receiver (0 - 1,300mHz)
  • cheap RTL-SDR stick

Different antennas tried:

  • the standard 2.4G WiFi antennas that came with my order
  • a 12 inch whip antenna I use on the handheld
  • my main RX antenna - 30mHz-1300mHz discone up 40ft in the open

In every single case, the Lime is not able to receive the signals that my other equipment is easily receiving.

E.g very strong FM broadcast station on 106.500 - all other receivers RX the station S9+ even with the 12 inch whip located indoors on my desk. Lime doesn’t even show a tiny blip on the FTT screen (or on the SDR-Console waterfall). When connected to my 40ft-high discone, Lime is only barely getting the station, whereas all my other receivers are just about overloading and I need to use the attenuator to prevent them catching fire.

Same for 144/430mHz ham bands. Same with 156mHz marine frequencies. Same with strong NOAA weather station on 162mHz. etc, etc, etc. I’m not even going to try <100mHz because we all know Lime is real deaf in HF spectrum without the end-user mod (which I’m not willing to do just yet … would void the warranty).

It’s not even able to see my WiFi router signal on channel 1 (2,412mHz) with it’s little Wifi antennas attached.

There is NO combination of gain settings and/or antennas and/or RX1_L, _H, _W ports that allows the Lime to receive an acceptable signal.

Basically, as it is right now, this $300 brick is getting it’s ass kicked by even my cheap $25 RLT-SDR dongle. That’s not what I was expecting when I backed this project.

As for signal generator, yes, I have one, but not specifically designed for RF. Mine does 0-200kHz only, 0-2V P-P, ouput impedance 600 ohms. I’m guessing this will not be good enough to ‘test the RF input’ as you’re suggesting.

But it seems to me Lime makes a good signal generator itself. Why don’t I loopback one of the transmitters into the RX stage with a uFL cable?? All I’d need is an ‘example.ini’ that sets up LimeSuite to do that. Could you provide such a ‘example.ini’ file for me? Or maybe a Pothos script? I’m not yet familiar with GNURadio or Pothos … not enough to write my own script anyway (I’ve only had Lime 4 days).

And I want to get to the bottom of this quickly, so that we can start the swap-out process as soon as possible. I’ve already waited nearly 9 month to get this far …

73s de Dave W7BOT

Dave,
can you please do me a small favor.
Put your Lime somewhere within FM broadcasting band with at last 15 MHz bandwith
than select RX1 L or RX1 W inputs but, leave that input open.
Use small tip with un-shielded cable from your measuring sets (AVO meter or similar)
With magnifier glass try to contact only center tip of selected RX input.
Let us know if any change noticed in signal level over all bandwith, screen copy can be
nice too…

73
Djani