LimeSDR 1.4s out in the wild. Numerous issues

There are 2 3v3 fan headers too J19/20 shown in the user guide:
https://wiki.myriadrf.org/LimeSDR-USB_User_Guide

“J19, J20 | Pin header | 3.3V fan connection pin headers, 0.1” pitch (J19) and 0.05" pitch (J20)"

Mine has been on over a day and while noticable warm is not too hot to touch.

@ cswiger
Just as an addition: fan is on when temperature is >= 55 deg C and it is off, the temp is < 45 deg C.
This is valid for latest gateware, i.e. when LimeSuite reports GW:2 GW_rev:6. For previuos versions the fan is always on.

Just want to stop by and say thanks to all the posters. I was having a Windows 10 driver issue at first with my lime SDR, but I think I have got it worked out. It works with gqrx now. I’ll mess around in Linux a little bit later this evening.

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I thought I would throw my $0.02 into the bucket. I have two LimeSDR boards delivered as of 01/26. I’m running Ubuntu 16.10 with the latest LimeSuite and SoapySDR being built from github. I’m building gnuradio and gqrx via pybombs. None of the PPA packages other than the limesuite-udev package are installed. Both boards are enumerated by the system. Both LimeUtil and SoapySDRUtil see the boards, display --info, and respond to --make just fine.

Initially both boards were deaf on HF (below 30 Mhz) using GQRX. Marty, KN0CK, gave me some hints that got me to the point that I now see signals below 30 Mhz, only it’s the FM broadcast band being repeated over and over between 1.4 Mhz and 30 Mhz. I do not see any HF signals that are normally in band.

Initially when I ran any executable that accessed the boards I would get a version mismatch message for both the firmware and gateware. I tried running “LimeUtil --update” on both boards. It appeared to transfer both images to the boards, but on subsequent uses still showed the same version mismatch error message. I finally tried downloading both the LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.3_r3.0.img and LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.4_r2.2.rbf locally and loading them with the LimeUtil “–fw” and “–fpga” options. Oddly only the FPGA image appeared to take. I finally tried just the LimeUtil with --fw option and that took for the firmware. Now I don’t get the version mismatch messages for that one board.

Since the second board appeared to have a FPGA image (v2 r5) that is newer than available on the download link (http://downloads.myriadrf.org/project/limesuite/17.01) I left it in place and only updated the firmware to version 3.

Both cards still behave the same on HF. With all the sliders for gain set to max in GQRX, many signals I expect hear for FAA and local law-enforcement frequencies are not strong enough to be understood. FM broadcast and local UHF/VHF ham repeaters are coming in clearly, but the ones I’m line of sight to are easily in hearing distance.

Another problem I’ve seen is with USB3 enumeration on Ubuntu 16.10. USB2 works fine, and I can get a full 12 Mps out of the card for USB2. USB3 sees both cards, but I get an error on the console:

[ 139.367756] usb 6-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[ 139.385187] usb 6-2: LPM exit latency is zeroed, disabling LPM.
[ 139.386119] usb 6-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1d50, idProduct=6108
[ 139.386123] usb 6-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 139.386125] usb 6-2: Product: LimeSDR-USB
[ 139.386128] usb 6-2: Manufacturer: Myriad-RF
[ 139.386130] usb 6-2: SerialNumber: 0009060B00462017
[ 140.472200] usb 5-2: new high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[ 140.673802] usb 5-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1d50, idProduct=6108
[ 140.673806] usb 5-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 140.673808] usb 5-2: Product: LimeSDR-USB
[ 140.673810] usb 5-2: Manufacturer: Myriad-RF
[ 140.673813] usb 5-2: SerialNumber: 0009060B00462017
[ 144.625384] usb 6-2: can’t set config #1, error -110

Neither board is responsive on USB3 after this, and unplugging and moving to another USB3 port causes no new enmeration or console message until reboot. It could be a local error with udev, but I haven’t looked closer at it yet.

The big challenge for me is the support for HF. If anyone knows that magic incantation for resolving this, I would be all ears to hear it.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has gotten me this far. From the start of the Crowd-Supply campaign to bleeding edge code changes happening now - thank you.

-Freeman, N5FPP

Quick update on my USB3 problem. If I am diagnosing this problem correctly, error -110 is ETIMEOUT (Connection timed out).

-Freeman, N5FPP

Just got a chance (found my adapter :slight_smile: to do a real HF test and can concur with @n5fpp - I’m listening to Phil Collins wfm on 20.606Mhz - a station that’s actually at 100.9Mhz (80.294MHz diff) - but no sign of WWV etc.

Using a 30M dipole (10Mhz) that works find with my rx320 on the wsprnet.org, connected to RX1_L.

@cswiger Chuck, what happens if you use a bandwidth of 10 MHz or greater?

I have tried both 10 Mhz and 12 Mhz with USB2, no difference. USB3 is still down for me.

-Freeman, N5FPP

Thanks, was wondering whether it was an issue we see in Windows-land.

Let’s hope we get progress this week - I’m sure the various bugs are simple but probably obscure.

Hoping my 1.4 SDR arrives this week.

If you tune back and forth below 30Mhz it acts like it is a serious aliasing problem. The stations simply shift back and forth slightly.

Tried sample rate of 20e6 with same results.

The --fw and --fpga options are basically exclusive just by merit of how the util is implemented now. It will run the firmware load and exit. So to also burn the fpga image, you have to just specify --fpga without the --fw option.

But the --update should really take care of loading exactly the correct images. I just pushed a commit to show the image being loaded as well for extra debug information. So if this happens again it would be helpful to see the output of:

LimeUtil --update
LimeUtil --make

Best!

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@joshblum I noticed the changes in github and rebuilt limesuite. Here’s the output from LimeSuiteGNU when I did the automated update and reconnect to the board:

pascal@tsunami <116> LimeSuiteGUI 
16:04:23: Warning: Mismatch between the program and library build versions detected.
The library used 3.0 (wchar_t,compiler with C++ ABI 1009,wx containers,compatible with 2.8),
and your program used 3.0 (wchar_t,compiler with C++ ABI 1010,wx containers,compatible with 2.8).
LMS7002M values cache at /home/pascal/.limesuite/LMS7002M_cache_values.    db

########################################################
##   !!!  Warning: gateware version mismatch  !!!
## Expected gateware version 2, revision 2
## But found version 2, revision 5
## Follow the FW and FPGA upgrade instructions:
## http://wiki.myriadrf.org/Lime_Suite#Flashing_images
## Or run update on the command line: LimeUtil --update
########################################################

Estimated reference clock 30.7197 MHz
Selected reference clock 30.720 MHz
--2017-01-29 16:05:10--  http://downloads.myriadrf.org/project/limesuite/17.01/LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.3_r3.0.img
Resolving downloads.myriadrf.org (downloads.myriadrf.org)... 213.138.113.29
Connecting to downloads.myriadrf.org (downloads.myriadrf.org)|213.138.113.29|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 186040 (182K)
Saving to: ‘/home/pascal/.local/share/LimeSuite/images/17.01/LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.3_r3.0.img’

/home/pascal/.local/share/LimeSuite/images/17.01/LimeSDR-US 100%[==========================================================================================================================================>] 181.68K   130KB/s    in 1.4s    

2017-01-29 16:05:12 (130 KB/s) - ‘/home/pascal/.local/share/LimeSuite/images/17.01/LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.3_r3.0.img’ saved [186040/186040]

--2017-01-29 16:05:12--  http://downloads.myriadrf.org/project/limesuite/17.01/LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.4_r2.2.rbf
Resolving downloads.myriadrf.org (downloads.myriadrf.org)... 213.138.113.29
Connecting to downloads.myriadrf.org (downloads.myriadrf.org)|213.138.113.29|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 553152 (540K)
Saving to: ‘/home/pascal/.local/share/LimeSuite/images/17.01/LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.4_r2.2.rbf’

/home/pascal/.local/share/LimeSuite/images/17.01/LimeSDR-US 100%[==========================================================================================================================================>] 540.19K   216KB/s    in 2.5s    

2017-01-29 16:05:16 (216 KB/s) - ‘/home/pascal/.local/share/LimeSuite/images/17.01/LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.4_r2.2.rbf’ saved [553152/553152]

Estimated reference clock 30.7197 MHz
Selected reference clock 30.720 MHz
^C

I interrupted LimeSuiteGUI from the shell prompt instead of exiting nicely.|

Here’s the LimeUtil --make:

pascal@tsunami <117> LimeUtil --make
Make device 
Estimated reference clock 30.7197 MHz
Selected reference clock 30.720 MHz
  Device name: LimeSDR-USB
  Expansion name: UNSUPPORTED
  Firmware version: 3
  Hardware version: 4
  Protocol version: 1
  Gateware version: 2
  Gateware revision: 2
  Gateware target: LimeSDR-USB
  Serial number: 0x9060b00460f18
  Free connection... OK

Looks like everything is working with updating as expected.

The quick test for transmit and receive from the wiki shows everything working as expected (at least above 30Mhz).

-Freeman

@n5fpp, @joshblum,

It doesn’t look correct. The latest gateware should report:

Cool. LimeSuite is now updated to reflect the new image.

This is all pretty worrying to me. I would say 50% of my use-case for thus device would be HF, with VHF, UHF and microwave being the other 50%. Lack of native HF support would be a deal-breaker for me.

Gerry,

Don’t be worried - I’m now working with Lime on one issue (images at sample rates < 10Msps), once resolved I’ll (we’ll) work on HF. It did work on HF, it’s just been broken with the changes for the new hardware.

Hi Everyone,

And I don’t want to sound like an ‘echo-chamber’ here with all the comments leaning toward “…It used to work…”, but - - no kidding - - HF did work on the version 1.2 hardware and I have no doubt that on the new LimeSDR hardware HF will work, too. There are software issues with the LimeSDR part of this that changed from the days of the V1.2 hardware and it’s broken in the new firmware - has something to do with NCO settings being flipped from the prior to new versions. Not sure what progress there is, but let’s ask:

@joshblum Hey, Josh - any update with regard if HF will be working with GQRX on Windows and (soon) be able to work with Simon’s SDRConsole? Please advise - many thanks…! A lot of us HF’ers are counting on you…! :slight_smile:

Again, HF worked decently in HW version 1.2 - - I should know, I blogged on it A LOT when it was fixed with the V1.2 hardware and software at the time (nearly 7 months ago) but with a lot of changes in the current firmware package and new HW, it was likely that things in HF would be broken - - it’s getting fixed, so please be patient while the developers do their best to release the working code.

73 de Marty, KN0CK

Simon
If the issues are in software, I’m not worried… thanks for the clarification.
Wondering if Vector Network Analyser functionality is in the pipeline also?
/ Gerry

hah! Far too much to write before I get to VNA.