I am experiencing a critical issue with my LimeSDR Mini, and I am looking for some guidance to see if the board is bricked or if it’s a recoverable USB/firmware state.
My Setup:
Hardware: LimeSDR Mini
Host: Raspberry Pi (ARM64) connected via USB 3.0
Software: srsRAN (srsenb) / SoapySDR
Context & Symptoms: Initially, the board was working perfectly. I tested it successfully using SDRangel in full-duplex (RX was working, and TX was outputting a signal properly using the NCO).
The issue started when I tried to run srsenb to set up a 4G cell. The software connected to the Soapy device, but immediately threw an endless loop of USB connection errors:
After restarting the software and the board, the errors changed slightly to:
setSampleRate Rx fail: SoapyLMS7::setSampleRate() failedsetSampleRate Tx fail: SoapyLMS7::setSampleRate() failedRx antenna set to NONE
Current Status: Following these crashes, the LimeSDR Mini no longer works at all. The LED does not blink, the board is completely unresponsive, and it seems to have crashed at the hardware or firmware level after the srsRAN attempt.
Troubleshooting I have already done:
Unplugged the board, waited, and plugged it back in.
Tried different USB 3.0 ports on the Raspberry Pi.
Checked the temperature (it is not overheating).
Tried running LimeUtil --find and LimeUtil --FX3reset.
Could the “Write failed” loop (potentially caused by a USB power brownout from the Pi when TX was initiated) have corrupted the FX3 firmware or the FPGA? Is there a specific hardware reset or flashing procedure I should attempt to bring the board back to life?
The thread you linked describes my exact situation 100%. I had the exact same TransferPacket: Write failed loop before it died, and now I have the exact same symptoms (no LEDs, FT601 detected but update fails).
Since it looks like a known issue, is there a software way for me to force a flash recovery, or is the board physically bricked and I need an RMA? My distributor is currently waiting for an official engineer confirmation here on the forum before they process my return, so your conclusion will really help me out.
You can try recovery steps from the same link which I provided in that post.
In short:
1. check FT601 configuration using official FT60x configuration utility (you can post screenshot of configuration and I will tell if something wrong with it)
2. If you don’t see any LED activity and FT601 configuration is good then you can try re flashing FPGA gateware. For this you will need JTAG cable.
I tried to follow Step 1 and run the official FT60x configuration utility. However, as you can see in the attached screenshot, the utility completely fails to detect the board. It just says “No device is connected to the machine!”.
As for Step 2, I do not have a JTAG cable or the hardware equipment required to perform a low-level FPGA flash recovery.
Yes, the board is connected directly to a native USB 3.0 port on my motherboard. No hubs or extension cables are being used.
I checked the Windows Device Manager, and as you can see in the attached screenshot, it shows up under ‘Other devices’ as ‘LimeSDR Mini’ with a yellow warning triangle (Code 28 - drivers not installed). This explains why the FT60X tool couldn’t detect it on Windows.
You were absolutely right about the drivers! I installed the FTD3XX driver and the tool successfully read the configuration.
As you can see in the attached screenshot, the FT601 configuration seems perfectly fine (Custom Config Validity : Valid).
However, since the configuration is good but the board still has absolutely zero LED activity, this brings us exactly to your point #2. As I mentioned earlier, I do not have a JTAG cable or the hardware equipment required to re-flash the FPGA gateware manually.
