Hi everyone. I received my Mini board two weeks ago, and I might have fiddled with LimeSuiteGUI for Windows before realizing there was a QuickTest designed for the Mini.
Anyways, I clearly recall the test passing all the four steps (I used the windows version), and then I moved to Linux to install all the related software and try other resources available there.
So far I’ve successfully tested RX of Iridium packets gr-iridium, digital tv with gr-isdbt and local GSM networks with gr-gsm. I even had success transmitting with SDRAngel in the amateur 1.25 meter band, both a local .wav file and the input from the mic, so I was quite happy with the results of the board.
Then, without any reason, I tried the QuickTest (LimeSDR-Mini_QuickTest_1v1) again under Windows 10 and I got the following:
The total output of the test is as follows:
[ TEST STARTED ]
->Start time: Tue Jun 12 13:14:15 2018
->Device: LimeSDR Mini, media=USB 3, module=FT601, serial=1D3AD46807CB9D, index=0
Serial Number: 1D3AD46807CB9D
[ Clock Network Test ]
->REF clock test
Test results: 5165; 18362; 31559 - PASSED
->VCTCXO test
Results : 6711001 (min); 6711163 (max) - PASSED
->Clock Network Test PASSED
[ FPGA EEPROM Test ]
->Read EEPROM
data: 18 02 24 18 02 24 2
->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):
->On board loopback test:
Test 1:(SXR=1000.0MHz, SXT=1005.0MHz, TXPAD=8): Result:(-31.1 dBFS, 5.00 MHz) - FAILED
->Configure LMS
->Run Tests (TX_1 -> LNA_H):
->On board loopback test:
Test 1:(SXR=2100.0MHz, SXT=2105.0MHz, TXPAD=8): Result:(-12.9 dBFS, 5.00 MHz) - PASSED
->RF Loopback Test FAILED
=> Board tests FAILED <=
Elapsed time: 5.98 seconds
I’m pretty sure I have the latest version of the programs loaded, when I connect the board to LimeSuite I get
INFO: Connected Control port: LimeSDR-Mini FW:5 HW:0 Protocol:1 GW:1.24 Ref Clk: 40.00 MHz
So my questions are:
- What does a RF loopback test fail mean? Should I be getting a degraded RX or TX performance because of this?
- Did I mess the settings within LimeSuite? (maybe I uploaded a wrong setting to the board?)
- What other tests should I run to pinpoint and correct the problem?
Thanks all in advance for any help and thoughts on this
[UPDATE: I just realized that running the “Start Test” again and again gives different output combinations of FAILED/FAILED FAILED/PASSED and even PASSED/PASSED for the two loopback tests…so maybe it’s a initialization issue with the test or board?]