BladeRF output plugin

Introduction

This output sample sink plugin sends its samples to a BladeRF device.

Warning to Windows users: concurrent use of Rx and Tx does not work correctly hence full duplex is not fully operational. For best results use BladeRF as a half duplex device like HackRF i.e. do not run Tx and Rx concurrently.

Build

The plugin will be built only if the BladeRF host library is installed in your system. If you build it from source and install it in a custom location say: /opt/install/libbladeRF you will have to add -DLIBBLADERF_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/install/libbladeRF/include -DLIBBLADERF_LIBRARIES=/opt/install/libbladeRF/lib/libbladeRF.so to the cmake command line.

The BladeRF Host library is also provided by many Linux distributions and is built in the SDRangel binary releases.

Interface

1: Start/Stop

Device start / stop button.

Blue triangle icon: device is ready and can be started
Red square icon: device is running and can be stopped
Magenta (or pink) square icon: an error occured. In the case the device was accidentally disconnected you may click on the icon, plug back in and start again.

2: Baseband sample rate

This is the baseband sample rate in kS/s before interpolation (4) to produce the final stream that is sent to the BladeRF device. Thus this is the device sample rate (6) divided by the interpolation factor (4).

3: Frequency

This is the center frequency of transmission in kHz.

4: Interpolation factor

The baseband stream is interpolated by this value before being sent to the BladeRF device. Possible values are:

1: no interpolation
2: multiply baseband stream sample rate by 2
4: multiply baseband stream sample rate by 4
8: multiply baseband stream sample rate by 8
16: multiply baseband stream sample rate by 16
32: multiply baseband stream sample rate by 32

The main samples buffer is based on the baseband sample rate and will introduce ~500ms delay for interpolation by 16 or lower and ~1s for interpolation by 32.

5: XB-200 add-on control

This controls the optional XB-200 add-on when it is fitted to the BladeRF main board. These controls have no effect if the XB-200 board is absent. Options are:

None: XB-200 is ignored
Bypass: XB-200 is passed through
Auto 1dB: The 50, 144 and 220 MHz filters are switched on automatically according to the frequency of reception when it is within the -1 dB passband of the filters
Auto 3dB: The 50, 144 and 220 MHz filters are switched on automatically according to the frequency of reception when it is within the -3 dB passband of the filters
Custom: The signal is routed through a custom filter
50M: The signal is routed through the 50 MHz filter
144M: The signal is routed through the 144 MHz filter
222M: The signal is routed through the 222 MHz filter

6: Device sample rate

This is the BladeRF device DAC sample rate in kS/s. Possible values are: 1536, 1600, 2000, 2304, 2400, 3072, 3200, 4608, 4800, 6144, 7680, 9216, 9600, 10752, 12288, 18432, 19200, 24576, 30720, 36864, 39936 kS/s.

7: Tx filter bandwidth

This is the Tx filter bandwidth in kHz in the LMS6002D device. Possible values are: 1500, 1750, 2500, 2750, 3000, 3840, 5000, 5500, 6000, 7000, 8750, 10000, 12000, 14000, 20000, 28000 kHz.

8: Variable gain amplifier #1 gain

The VGA1 (relative) gain can be adjusted from -35 dB to -4 dB in 1 dB steps. The VGA1 is inside the LMS6002D chip and is placed between the baseband filter and the RF mixer.

9: Variable gain amplifier #2 gain

The VGA2 gain can be adjusted from 0 dB to 25 dB in 1 dB steps. The VGA2 is inside the LMS6002D chip and is placed after the RF mixer. It can be considered as the PA (Power AMplifier). The maximum output power when both VGA1 and VGA2 are at their maximum is about 4 mW (6 dBm).

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