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  • Author Author: rscasny
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Poll: Are You Interested in Roadtesting a USB Software-Defined Radio Platform?

The USRP B205mini-i is a flexible and compact platform. It provides a wide frequency range (70 MHz to 6 GHz) and a user-programmable, industrial-grade Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX150 FPGA.

6002-410-021 Development Board, XC6SLX150, Spartan-6 FPGA

The RF front end uses the Analog Devices AD9364 RFIC transceiver with 56 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The board is bus-powered by a high-speed USB 3.0 connection for streaming data to the host computer. The USRP B205mini-i also includes connectors for GPIO, JTAG, and synchronization with a 10 MHz clock reference or PPS time reference input signal.

 

The hardware is conveniently accessible through the USRP Hardware Driver (UHD). UHD provides both a C/C++ and Python API that supports all USRP products and enables users to efficiently develop applications then seamlessly transition designs between platforms as requirements expand. UHD also offers cross-platform support for multiple industry standard development environments and frameworks, including RFNoC, LabVIEW, and Matlab/Simulink. To ensure you have no restrictions on how you use UHD, it is available on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. Do you prefer graphical programming? Try out GNU Radio, a free and open-source software development framework offering a graphical design approach.

 

RF Specifications

  • Channels: 1 TX, 1 RX
  • Frequency range: 70 MHz to 6 GHz
  • Instantaneous Bandwidth: Up to 56 MHz
  • IIP3 (at typical NF): -20 dBm
  • Power Output: >10 dBm
  • Receive Noise Figure: <8 dB

 

Conversion Performance and Clocks

  • ADC Sample Rate (Max.): 61.44 MS/s
  • ADC Resolution: 12 bits
  • DAC Sample Rate (Max.): 61.44 MS/s
  • DAC Resolution: 12 bits
  • Host Sample Rate (16b): 61.44 MS/s
  • Frequency Accuracy: +/-2.0 ppm

 

Power

  • USB Power: 5V

 

Environment

  • Operating Temp. Range: 0 - 45 °C
  • USRP Hardware Driver 3.9.2 (or later)
  • GNU Radio

 

Synchronization

  • 10 MHz clock reference
  • PPS time reference

 

Additional Information

Datasheet

Parents

  • That looks like a great device to test ... as a radio amateur myself, I've been using the Winradio Excalibur G31DDC (2MHz bandwidth, 0-50MHz frequency range) since 2010 - the best we could do at the time with processing power and USB 2.0 limitations, upgrading to a BladeRF x40 with the XB-200 transverter (~28MHz bandwidth, 60kHz-3.8GHz frequency range) in 2016 while also dabbling with the much-less-capable RTL-SDR (E4000/R820T-based) sticks.

     

    Since then, unfortunately due to an "accident" while on holidays, the USB 3.0 connector on my BladeRF x40 was sheared off and I only managed to recover USB 2.0 connectivity for about 5MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. Since then, I've been quite heartened by the variety of low-cost SDR alternatives, eyeing the LimeSDR and LimeSDR Mini which looked to be pretty compact and capable (61.44MHz bandwidth 100kHz-3.8GHz frequency range) with MIMO capabilities. Many of these are bare-board so end users can integrate them into end products or build their own cases ... also as a cost-saving measure.

     

    As always, there are other options like the HackRF One which offers less bandwidth but is more widely supported software-wise. In general, USRPs have also been favoured by researchers and GNU Radio users for its support (and Ethernet interface on some of them), but the price has been a bit higher as a result. It seems that this unit does come with options that have a case or board only and is quite a bit smaller than my BladeRF x40 set-up ... https://www.ettus.com/all-products/usrp-b205mini-i/

     

    Definitely something I'm interested in for sure.

     

    - Gough

  • in reply to Gough Lui

    Just out of curiosity, how would you go about testing this SDR ?

    The SDRs I'm used to seeing are well defined in purpose and functionality.

     

    This module doesn't mention modulation scheme: AM (SSB) , FM, FSK, PSK, etc.. is that user defined ?

    Is the antenna user provided as well , is there a small one etched in the PCB ?

    Would you take the 10 mW out and drive a pre amp and a final to get to 5W or so ?

Comment
  • in reply to Gough Lui

    Just out of curiosity, how would you go about testing this SDR ?

    The SDRs I'm used to seeing are well defined in purpose and functionality.

     

    This module doesn't mention modulation scheme: AM (SSB) , FM, FSK, PSK, etc.. is that user defined ?

    Is the antenna user provided as well , is there a small one etched in the PCB ?

    Would you take the 10 mW out and drive a pre amp and a final to get to 5W or so ?

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