I received my LimeSDR mini today , and just can’t get it to work. Even a $7 RTLSDR is working better.
I’m trying to receive FM broadcast stations as a test, using SDR Console V3. 10MHz bandwidth, RX Antenna W, LNA at max, TIA at max, PGA at 19dB. Mode is BFM (Broadcast FM). Even with the above settings, I can at best get some random digital chatter, and not anything even remotely similar to a radio station.
Next test was with my Baofeng UV-5R transmitting at 446MHz with 1W of power. Even that signal wasn’t strong enough to be decently decoded.
All tests were done with a 15cm wire antenna.
I tried if upgrading the FPGA image worked, it didn’t. I’ve tried multiple USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports on my PC, it didn’t help.
Unfortunately there is no decent documentation on self-test procedures for the LimeSDR mini, the only real documentation applies to the full LimeSDR and doesn’t apply at all over half of the time for the mini.
I expected the LimeSDR mini to be a bit more finnicky to get to work than an RTLSDR (which isn;t even designed to be used as an SDR…), but I’ve been working on it for about 4 hours without any results. I am highly disappointed and am currently considering it a waste of $200 (including taxes), and the three month delay in shipping also isn’t working in its favor.
Does anybode have any idea how I can get a decent signal out of my LimeSDR mini?
Edit: Testing has been done native on Windows 10, and also in an Ubuntu 17.10 VM running in vmware workstation.
I’ve also added two screenshots of tests that were requested in other topics:
Unfortunately there is no decent documentation on self-test procedures for the LimeSDR mini, the only real documentation applies to the full LimeSDR and doesn’t apply at all over half of the time for the mini.
For sure ! When can we expect one decent documentation on test, setup and usage within LimeSuiteGUI or LimeUtil (under OS X for me) ?
Try with a lower bandwidth, for example 10MHz. My mini works well at 20 MHz, I think this is possibly a USB power issue. I can’t get reliable reception with a bandwidth greater than 25 MHz.
Use the SDR Console support group to raise questions, I don’t visit this website very often.
I’m not buying it. If my LimeSDR is working as it should, please tell me how to receive something simple as broadcast FM using HDSDR (which is compatible, according to the latest update from Lime). In HDSDR I’m also getting nothing more than noise.
@Zack@andrewback
The lack of support has been deafening the last month, which matches quite nicely with what my LimeSDR mini is receiving. Stil nothing. I reinstalled both HDSDR and the .dll, but still nothing but noise.
