As a means to keep tabs on various apps to see how they’re playing, I downloaded the latest MyriadRF drivers, and then installed SDRConsole V3.0…Went through the usual ‘discovery’ phase of my LimeSDR with SDRConsole and ran it on my freshly installed i5 Win10 machine. …What happened…? I tried using my V1.4 Lime (flashed to the latest firmware off the Lime server) and it doesn’t tune anywhere. Whatever was in the spectra didn’t move when I tuned and when I was tuning in the HF band there wasn’t anything there but spurs that stayed in the same place no matter where I tuned. So I grabbed my other V1.4 Lime (similarly flashed with the latest firmware), went through the discovery phase on that Lime, and the same thing - - spurs in the spectra that don’t move when I tuned and nothing coherent in HF.
Last year this application was running fine - especially when the HF fix surfaced about the same time (well, maybe February of last year) and I displayed several screenshots of a very active HF band using SDRConsole V3.0…Today, it appears broken. And again, I am running the latest MyriadRF driver (Windows Signed Driver), too.
So…What happened…? Both of my V1.4 Limes work great with SDRAngel…Why is SDRConsole broken? If anyone has any clues on this, please let us all know.
AFAIK SDRConsole is binary only and if it is compiled with an older version of LimeSuite chances are that this is not compatible with the new firmware. I had similar issues in the reverse situation when trying the Lime-Mini with an old firmware and SDRangel compiled with the latest version of LimeSuite.
I still have a lot of problems implementing the new LimeSuite in SDRangel and for now only single Rx really works.
I have a mini and a standard Lime. Both were working with SDRConsole but shelved them until the transmit works well. Looking to build a VHF rover. Hopefully we can get something working and then I’ll stop updating. Marty, keep up the good work. N0UU
Instead of posting here, please look at http://www.sdr-radio.com/Support and ask questions in my own support group. Given the number of SDRs I support, you can’t expect me to know about all firmware releases which may not work with previous versions of the support library.
There is where my support group comes into play - post issues there, let me know what the problem is and I’ll respond quickly. I only came across this posting as a result of the MYRIAD weekly summaries.
FWIW the latest SDR Consoles works fine with the Lime Mini.
No harm intended for the sdr-radio.com support board, and I’ll make a more concerted effort to post there. There’s just us hardcore Limers that are over here on MyriadRF and this is where we’re asking the questions such that the Lime community is informed, too. Edouard with SDRAngel also has his own support group for his app, but questions often originate here. I’m certain this is frustrating for the developers of apps. Again, I’ll do my part to post there.
I haven’t tried the Lime-Mini yet with SDRConsole because I wasn’t sure if it was supported yet (I found out to the contrary about 2 weeks ago from other Lime-Mini owners that are using their Mini’s with 'Console). But I will check that out because my V1.4 Lime with the latest firmware doesn’t tune anymore and it’s been the observation with other V1.4 owners.
More on the other thread on sdr-radio.com…Stay tuned…
Please point me at ‘the latest firmware’. With the latest drivers from GitHub my Limes are working OK, so I need to know where the latest firmware is and how to install it.
Ah - found the info with Google. Let’s see how badly I can wreck the radio .
It seems that Lime are making life hard for the poor Windows developer. Where on earth do I fins the lms7suite these days? It seems you have to know in advance where it is in order to find it .
If you can point me at a lms7suite download for Windows I’ll be able to get the latest rbf installed.
Some SDRs as simple to support, Lime’s not one of them .
I have been testing mine and a friends Lime-minis on various PCs with SDRconsole amongst other things. Both on latest v1.4. Mine very occasionally sparks into life, but normally crashes fairly quickly, especially if reset. His seems to work much more reliably, but performs strangely at lower frequencies. My current working assumption is that some register values are not being set to a auitiable default and just take on random values when powered up. Hence mine has a slight bias to very poor settings and his has a bias towards something more workable.
Being as the problems exist in gqrx and cubic sdr too, i think its an issue with the fpga gateware.
I have been totally stuck on possible things to try for a while now.
Firmware is usually installed ‘auto-magically’ to the LimeSDR V1.4 (or the original Beta Lime V1.2, but becoming more useless for that version of LimeSDR) using the programming tool in LimeSuite but here is the link to where the firmware resides currently (and per version):
I have been going the automatic programming route because it’s just easier. You can also program the Lime from the command line by just typing the following: LimeUtil --update
Let me know if you need anything else - thank you very much for working this again, Simon…!
I thank you, and the whole Lime Community thanks you, too, for getting SDRConsole coherent with the Lime V1.4 again, Simon. Let us know when the app has been updated and where it can be downloaded for checkout.
So, I’ve just loaded 1.4 onto a Lime SDR (USB) and it worked with the beta 2 kit on http://www.sdr-radio.com/Software/Downloads released a week or two ago, so this was a false alarm - user(s) didn’t get the latest software (there’s an update button in the Help panel of the ribbon bar btw).
I have just compiled the latest LimeSuite.dll support code and am currently running the same radio without problem. Gain is higher, but the radio does seem cleaner.
I’ll post a kit in my support group tomorrow with luck, failing that on Monday.
I’m here to officially state that your March 23rd release of SDRConsole V3.0 that works with the updated V1.4 firmware in the LimeSDR is working perfect again in the HF band with the Win64 version of 'Console. Great job on getting that cranked out and I’m looking forward to transmit when that comes along.
Thanks for your support, @SimonG4ELI! We are working to make updates to Lime Suite smoother and to provide application developers with more information on changes.
What would have really helped is a starter page for Windows users, listing the steps to install the needed software (LimeSuiteGUI), install new firmware, if needed grab the latest source. Everything needed is on the Wiki, but it’s a case of being able to find it only if you know where it is already . If you look at https://wiki.myriadrf.org/LimeSDR you see it’s a hardware wiki and you have to dig for the software, rather than a wiki for the software. This is why I now have all the info on my own website for future reference.
Also, a groups.io list would really help developers proactively support new firmware before complaints come in from eager users who install anything and everything the second it is released. The list can also be used to announce bug-fixes / changes to the LimeSuit.dll support. A forum like this is OK for discussions, but not announcements IMO.
Work is under way on new getting started documentation and this includes dedicated pages for Windows, Linux and Mac. This should be in place soon and will hopefully help.
You can sign-up to get notifications of updates to Lime Suite via the form on:
The list hasn’t been made use of yet, due to the more ad-hoc nature of releases to-date, but we’re working on making these more predictable and accompanied by a change log etc.
Thanks. I suggest getting Windows / max / etc. at the same high level as the hardware itself. Also using a 1.5 kV cattle prod on people who complain about software having bugs when they haven’t reported the bug in the software’s own support forum.
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