BLADERF WINDOWS
®
INSTALL GUIDE
INSTALLING BLADERF SOFTWARE WITH MATLAB
®
& SIMULINK
®
SUPPORT
JUNE 29, 2016
bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Contents
1 Overview 1
2 System Requirements and Recommendations 1
3 Installation Procedure 2
3.1 Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Execute Installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2.1 Destination Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2.2 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2.3 Firmware Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2.4 MATLAB Search Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.5 Start Menu Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.6 Ready to Install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.7 Installation Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.8 Firmware Update Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.9 System PATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2.10 Installation Completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4 Testing Basic Device Access 14
5 MATLAB and Simulink 15
5.1 MATLAB Search Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.2 RX GUI Demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.3 Viewing Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.4 Adding a bladeRF block to a Simulink Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Overview
This document describes the Windows installation procedure for pre-built bladeRF soft-
ware and its associated MATLAB & Simulink support.
System Requirements and Recommendations
PC system requirements, such as processor and RAM specifications, are largely dependent
upon one’s target SDR application. While the bladeRF can be used on a USB 2.0 port, a
USB 3.0 controller is recommended in order to fully leverage the sample rate capabilities of
the device.
Recommended minimum configuration:
Quad-core 64-bit processor (3 GHz)
4 GB RAM
USB 3.0 Controller
Windows 7 64-bit
Supported Windows versions:
XP (32-bit & 64-bit)
Vista (32-bit & 64-bit)
7 (32-bit & 64-bit)
8.1 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Supported MATLAB versions:
2014b
2015a
2015b
2016a
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Installation Procedure
Download
The latest available installer may always be found at:
https://nuand.com/windows_installers/bladeRF-win-installer-latest.exe
Previous installer versions are located at:
https://nuand.com/installers.php
Execute Installer
Ensure the bladeRF is not connected to the system. Do not connect it until after the installer
completes successfully, or until instructed to do so by the firmware upgrade console.
Begin by running the installer executable. If Windows prompts whether the program
should be allowed to execute, verify that the publisher is listed as Nuand, LLC before
clicking Yes.
Once started, a welcome screen will be presented, as shown below. Click Next to continue.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Destination Location
Next, the installer will prompt for an installation destination. Update this field, if desired,
and click Next.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Driver Installation
This screen presents three driver installation options. If this is the first time installing
bladeRF software on a machine, a driver must be installed. Otherwise, driver installation
may be skipped using the last option.
As noted on this screen, some issues have been reported when using the CyUSB3 driver for
applications utilizing transmit capabilities. (RX-only applications have not been found to
be affected.)
Thus, until these issues have been further investigated and resolved, it is recommended
that the libusb driver be used.
This installer can always be re-run to (re)install a driver, or install a different driver. Addi-
tionally, a driver may be installed at a later time using Zadig
1
.
Click Next once the desired option is selected.
1
http://zadig.akeo.ie/
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Firmware Update
The following page provides the option to update the bladeRF firmware during the instal-
lation process. This is generally recommended, as firmware releases include feature updates
and fixes.
As noted on this installation screen, the v2.0.0 bladeRF firmware introduces a new USB
VID/PID. This requires libbladeRF (bladeRF.dll) v1.16.0 or later.
However, third-party applications or other systems (e.g., live images, Linux distributions)
may provide older libbladeRF versions that cannot detect a device running this newer
firmware. Therefore, the v1.9.1 firmware is also provided for reverse compatibility purposes.
It is always possible to upgrade (or downgrade) firmware at a later time using the bladeRF-cli
program
2
. The FX3 firmware images are provided in a fx3 firmware folder within the
bladeRF installation.
This installer may also be re-run to switch between the v1.9.3 and v2.0.0 firmware.
Use Next to advance to the next screen.
2
See https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF/wiki/Upgrading-bladeRF-firmware
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
MATLAB
®
Search Path
If a 64-bit MATLAB installation is detected, the following screen will be presented. It is
recommended to select the default option of adding bladeRF items to the MATLAB search
path.
Click Next when the desire option is selected.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Start Menu Folder
This page provides the ability to customize the Start Menu location under which shortcuts
to the bladeRF-cli and uninstall program are placed.
Click Next to continue.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Ready to Install
Click Next be begin installing files to the system. This is the last step at which the program
can be cancelled before changes are made.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Installation Progress
The installation will display a progress bar, as shown below.
If a driver has been selected for installation, a dialog will appear during this stage, providing
information about the driver install progress. This is shown on the following page.
If items are to be added to the MATLAB path, a MATLAB window will momentarily
appear while this is updated.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Firmware Update Progress
If a firmware update was selected, a console similar to the one shown below will appear.
A message is displayed, indicating that the bladeRF to update should be connected to the
system. Connect a bladeRF and wait for Windows to finish installing its driver. Check
Device Manager if it is unclear whether this has been done.
After pressing Enter, the firmware update will begin. Progress messages will be displayed
as the on-board flash is erased and reprogrammed.
Do not disconnect the bladeRF until the console displays a message noting that this pro-
cess has completed. After a firmware update, the bladeRF will need to be unplugged and
reconnected for the changes to take effect.
Should one accidentally disconnect the device or encounter a failure, the device will enter a
recovery bootloader mode. Information on re-flashing firmware while in this mode is available
on the bladeRF wiki
3
.
3
https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF/wiki/Upgrading-bladeRF-firmware#Upgrading_
using_the_FX3_bootloader
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
System PATH
At the end of the installation, the following screen is presented. Adding bladeRF items to
%PATH% will allow bladeRF-cli to be executed from cmd.exe, and other programs to
locate bladeRF.dll
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Installation Completed
Upon completion of the previous steps, the final screen is displayed.
Important: You may need to log out and log back in order for changes to the System PATH
and MATLAB search path variables to take effect.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Testing Basic Device Access
A quick means of verifying that the installation has succeeded is to view information about
a bladeRF using the bladeRF-cli program.
A shortcut to bladeRF-cli may be executed from the Start Menu location selected in
Section 3.2.1. Alternatively, it can be executed from cmd.exe as follows:
bladeRF-cli -i
Once in the command-line interface, information about the device may be obtained using
the version, info, and print commands. Sample output is shown below.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
MATLAB
®
and Simulink
®
MATLAB
®
Search Path
If bladeRF items were not added to the MATLAB search path in Section 3.2.4, then the
following paths must be provided to the addpath
4
function.
C:\Program Files\bladeRF\x64
C:\Program Files\bladeRF\matlab
Change C:\Program Files\bladeRF as necessitated by the installation location.
4
http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/addpath.html?requestedDomain=www.
mathworks.com
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
RX GUI Demo
A receive-only demo program implemented entirely in MATLAB may be executed via the
command: bladeRF rx gui
As shown below, this program allows various parameters to be manipulated while viewing
FFT plots and sample values in real time.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Viewing Documentation
For information about available device properties and functions, run doc bladeRF.
Because the bladeRF MATLAB support is implemented as a thin layer atop of bladeRF.dll,
the libbladeRF API documentation
5
may also be referenced for more detailed information.
5
https://nuand.com/bladeRF-doc/libbladeRF
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Adding a bladeRF block to a Simulink
®
Model
Simulink support is implemented via a System Object
6
. To add a bladeRF block to a
model, select the MATLAB System block from the Library Brower:
Once placed, double click the System block to specify that it should implement a bladeRF Simulink
object.
6
http://www.mathworks.com/help/vision/system-objects.html
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
A bladeRF block will default to being receive-only, as denoted by only having an RX
Samples output. Double-click the block to open up the block parameters. An input for
the transmit path may be enabled in the TX Configuration tab.
As shown below, the block may be configured for a full-duplex configuration, with both RX
and TX ports.
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Before running a simulation, the following settings must be applied:
Select Simulate using: Interpreted Execution in the block parameters
Devices tab
Configure the model’s Solver Options for Fixed-Step, with a discrete (no continuous
state) Solver.
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