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Polls Poll: Are You Interested in Roadtesting a USB Software-Defined Radio Platform?
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  • Author Author: rscasny
  • Date Created: 14 Feb 2021 1:39 AM Date Created
  • Last Updated Last Updated: 11 Oct 2021 3:00 PM
  • Views 5156 views
  • Likes 2 likes
  • Comments 44 comments
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Recommended

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

  • usrp b205mini-i
  • roadtest survey
  • software defined radio
  • sdr
  • community survey
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Top Comments

  • Gough Lui
    Gough Lui over 5 years ago +7
    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…
  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago in reply to colporteur +6
    On initial discovery I found this RoadTest poll of interest. The picture of the product is deceiving. According to manufactures docs, The USRP B205mini-i delivers a 1×1 SDR/cognitive radio in the size…
  • Gough Lui
    Gough Lui over 5 years ago in reply to Fred27 +4
    Well, how else am I going to DX? Take photos by day, take IQ recordings by night ... Speaking of which, this is what happened ... https://goughlui.com/2017/11/05/an-incomplete-repair-bladerf-x40-software…
  • cghaba
    cghaba over 5 years ago in reply to robogary

    Probably the antenna is also software defined!

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  • baldengineer
    baldengineer over 5 years ago in reply to robogary

    robogary  wrote:

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

    The purpose of an SDR, at least such as this one, is that there are no hardware modulators. All modulation would be done in software and provided as I-Q samples to the radio.

     

    Are you thinking of ham equipment that has moved towards using an SDR instead of a traditional hardware mixer? If that is the case, then this is a module that would get surrounded by other "stuff" to make it application-specific. But the SDR itself only understands digital samples.

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  • robogary
    robogary over 5 years ago 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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  • baldengineer
    baldengineer over 5 years ago

    Yes, please, and thank you.

     

    A 6 GHz SDR would be interesting to play with. But I'm not certain what applications need a carrier that high? 5G FR1? (Is 50 MHz enough bandwidth?)

     

    The closest thing I have in performance is a LimeSDR mini, which only goes to 3.8 GHz but similar bandwidth. The big difference, though, is that the USPR costs at least 3X what the LimeSDR mini does.

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  • neuromodulator
    neuromodulator over 5 years ago in reply to DAB

    Depends on what you want to do with it. You can just use it to "surf" the spectrum with an app, or program it using GNU radio, Python or C, or even program the FPGA. Also, processing radio signals can get quite complex depending on what you want to do...

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  • DAB
    DAB over 5 years ago

    It looks like an awesome device.

    I wonder how easy it is to use?

     

    DAB

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  • hugohu
    hugohu over 5 years ago

    Probably not. I have my fair share of FPGA boards but I do not have a windows 10 device, and have yet to install linux on an old win7 machine.

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  • Gough Lui
    Gough Lui over 5 years ago in reply to Fred27

    Well, how else am I going to DX? Take photos by day, take IQ recordings by night ... Speaking of which, this is what happened ... https://goughlui.com/2017/11/05/an-incomplete-repair-bladerf-x40-software-defined-radio/

     

    - Gough

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  • Fred27
    Fred27 over 5 years ago in reply to Gough Lui

    Gough Lui  wrote:

    Since then, unfortunately due to an "accident" while on holidays, the USB 3.0 connector on my BladeRF x40 was sheared off...

    Yes, I can actually imagine you might take this on holiday with you.  image

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  • Fred27
    Fred27 over 5 years ago

    That looks like an impressive piece of equipment, but I just don't have enough knowledge of SDR to make a good go of this. To be honest, SDR is not an area of electronics I'm particularly drawn to. (These two facts are probably related.)

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