LimeSDR/XTRX Serial Number

Projects LimeSDR
1

Hey everyone,

Getting straight to the question would be: does JTAG programming resets the serial number of LimeSDR devices (XTRX, Mini, …) ? Does limeFLASH preserve the serial number?

I was just looking into a way to identify different devices (not necessarily just LimeSDR’s) in a software, and serial number seemed convenient. However, I’ve noticed something peculiar with the way how serial number of my XTRX: when it came from CrowdSupply its serial was all zeroes. Which is okay, a bit strange but fine, whatever. Then at some point I ended up using JTAG programmer to recover its gateware. Maybe because of that, maybe something else has changed in the driver, but now the serial number is reported as all bytes 0xFF. Hence the question.

1 Like
2

XTRX initial gateware stored the serial number in last page of FLASH memory. limeFLASH did not modify that section, so the serial would have remained, but JTAG programming might clear all the memory. So it was not guaranteed to be permanent.
Now current XTRX gateware utilizes one time programable memory for the serial number data, so it will persist after reprograming. All bytes of 0xFF means the serial number has not been written yet.

1 Like
3

In USB based devices (LimeSDR-USB, Mini…), the returned serial number is the read only serial number of the USB SOC, so it’s not affected by FPGA gateware.

1 Like
4

Ah, lovely. Thanks for clarification!