LimeSDR Mini + Osmo-trx-lms errors

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1

Hi,
Been playing with the LimeSDRMini for a little bit now, haven’t gotten serious into it until the last month. I’m having trouble using it with various different programs and “resetting” it to a decent default state when it gets plugged back in. As an example, a while back I was playing with osmo-trx-lms and it seemed to have worked fine. A week later it after using various programs like gqrx or attempting to use rtl_443 with it, osmo-trx-lms seems to be unable to set the VCTCXO and unable to calibrate the TX. LimeQuickTest looks fine to me. When using with GQRX however now I seem to be unable to pick up even basic FM and decode RDS without jacking the TIA, LNA and PGA settings extremely high.

Any ideas and advice on why osmo-trx-lms is unable to make the right changes?

—LimeQuickTest–
$ LimeQuickTest
[ TESTING STARTED ]
->Start time: Mon Apr 15 00:44:16 2019

->Device: LimeSDR Mini, media=USB 3.0, module=FT601, addr=24607:1027, serial=1D3AD5B2511398
Serial Number: 1D3AD5B2511398

[ Clock Network Test ]
->REF clock test
Test results: 3542; 16743; 29936 - PASSED
->VCTCXO test
Results : 6710998 (min); 6711153 (max) - PASSED
->Clock Network Test PASSED

[ FPGA EEPROM Test ]
->Read EEPROM
->Read data: 12 02 18 12 02 18 02
->FPGA EEPROM Test PASSED

[ LMS7002M Test ]
->Perform Registers Test
->External Reset line test
Reg 0x20: Write value 0xFFFD, Read value 0xFFFD
Reg 0x20: value after reset 0x0FFFF
->LMS7002M Test PASSED

[ RF Loopback Test ]
->Configure LMS
->Run Tests (TX_2 -> LNA_W):
CH0 (SXR=1000.0MHz, SXT=1005.0MHz): Result:(-13.2 dBFS, 5.00 MHz) - PASSED
->Run Tests (TX_1 -> LNA_H):
CH0 (SXR=2100.0MHz, SXT=2105.0MHz): Result:(-14.7 dBFS, 5.00 MHz) - PASSED
->RF Loopback Test PASSED

=> Board tests PASSED <=

Elapsed time: 2.38 seconds

---- osmo-trx-lms.cfg —
log stderr
logging filter all 1
logging color 1
logging print category 1
logging timestamp 1
logging print file basename
logging level set-all info
!
line vty
no login
!
trx
bind-ip 127.0.0.1
remote-ip 127.0.0.1
base-port 5700
egprs disable
tx-sps 4
rx-sps 4
rt-prio 18
chan 0
tx-path BAND1
rx-path LNAW

— Output —
sudo osmo-trx-lms -C ./osmo-trx-limesdr.cfg
Info: SSE3 support compiled in and supported by CPU
Info: SSE4.1 support compiled in and supported by CPU
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DLGLOBAL <0004> telnet_interface.c:104 Available via telnet 127.0.0.1 4237
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DLCTRL <000b> control_if.c:911 CTRL at 127.0.0.1 4236
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DMAIN <0000> osmo-trx.cpp:431 [tid=140144586563456] Config Settings
Log Level… 0
Device args…
TRX Base Port… 5700
TRX Address… 127.0.0.1
GSM BTS Address… 127.0.0.1
Channels… 1
Tx Samples-per-Symbol… 4
Rx Samples-per-Symbol… 4
EDGE support… 0
Extended RACH support… 0
Reference… 0
C0 Filler Table… 1
Multi-Carrier… 0
Tuning offset… 0
RSSI to dBm offset… 0
Swap channels… 0
Tx Antennas… ‘BAND1’
Rx Antennas… ‘LNAW’

Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DMAIN <0000> osmo-trx.cpp:387 [tid=140144586563456] Setting SCHED_RR priority 18
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:68 [tid=140144586563456] creating LMS device…
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:156 [tid=140144586563456] Opening LMS device…
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:162 [tid=140144586563456] Devices found: 1
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:172 [tid=140144586563456] Device [0]: LimeSDR Mini, media=USB 3.0, module=FT601, addr=24607:1027, serial=1D3AD5B2511398
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:181 [tid=140144586563456] Using device[0]
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] Reference clock 40.00 MHz
Mon Apr 15 00:58:17 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:191 [tid=140144586563456] Init LMS device
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:113 [tid=140144586563456] Sample Rate: Min=100000 Max=3.072e+07 Step=0
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:201 [tid=140144586563456] Setting sample rate to 1.08333e+06 4
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:207 [tid=140144586563456] Sample Rate: Host=1.08333e+06 RF=3.46667e+07
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:214 [tid=140144586563456] Setting Internal clock reference
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:218 [tid=140144586563456] Setting VCTCXO to 65535
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] Error
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:113 [tid=140144586563456] LPFBWRange Rx: Min=1.4001e+06 Max=1.3e+08 Step=0
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:113 [tid=140144586563456] LPFBWRange Tx: Min=1.4001e+06 Max=1.3e+08 Step=0
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:242 [tid=140144586563456] LPFBW: Rx=1.4001e+06 Tx=5.2e+06
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DMAIN <0000> LMSDevice.cpp:203 [tid=140144586563456] Antennas configured successfully
Mon Apr 15 00:58:18 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:251 [tid=140144586563456] Setting LPFBW chan 0
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] RX LPF configured
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] Filter calibrated. Filter order-4th, filter bandwidth set to 5.2 MHz.Real pole 1st order filter set to 2.5 MHz. Preemphasis filter not active
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] TX LPF configured
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DDEV <0002> LMSDevice.cpp:256 [tid=140144586563456] Calibrating chan 0
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] Rx calibration finished
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DLMS <0003> LMSDevice.cpp:102 [tid=140144586563456] Tx Calibration: MCU error 4 (SXT tune failed)
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DMAIN <0000> Threads.cpp:116 [tid=140144586798848] Thread 140144586798848 (task 15191) set name: CtrlService0
Mon Apr 15 00:58:21 2019 DMAIN <0000> osmo-trx.cpp:479 [tid=140144586563456] – Transceiver active with 1 channel(s)

2

Running other software shouldn’t change anything, but at some point over this period has Lime Suite been updated or new gateware flashed?

3

I agree, it shouldn’t. I’ve been running the same / latest LSuite and GW (19.01/1.29) for the entire period, a couple of weeks now.

Now that you ask and remind me, in between I was trying to understand the LimeSuiteGUI settings and trying to follow various tutorials on calibration and digging into the amp (thinking i was solving a low signal problem). Is there a documented set of “sane default” settings to reset the Mini to?

4

Settings are not persisted anywhere. Assuming you didn’t update Lime Suite and/or flash new gateware, nothing should have changed.

5

Hmm well thats dissapointing, thanks all the same.

Any insights on why VCTCXO can’t be set or the TX Calibration fails or how to fix?

6

Just figured I would give an update to this thread in case someone was searching for a solution to this or a similar problem.

My first test (without errors shown) was when I built libosmocore and osmo-trx from source which was checked out from git and built following the instructions on the OSMOcom site.

At some point I had added the repo for the “latest” (and subsequently “nightly”) builds from the official Osmo repository which replaced the main libosmocore and osmo-trx-lms I had installed from source and started giving me these errors.

Seems to be an issue with the LimeSDR libs used to compile the osmocom versions that’s not quite compatible with the LimeSDRMini or the LimeSuiteGUI v 19.01 GW v1.29 …

7

I think there may be changes which have made it into the Osmocom nightly builds which at the present time would require you to use Lime Suite built from git master, as they’ve not made it into a release yet.