BLADERF WINDOWS
®
INSTALL GUIDE
INSTALLING BLADERF SOFTWARE WITH MATLAB
®
& SIMULINK
®
SUPPORT
JUNE 29, 2016
bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
License
This work by Nuand, LLC is licensed under:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Authors
Jon Szymaniak
<jon.szymaniak@nuand.com>
Nuand, LLC
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bladeRF Windows Install Guide Nuand, LLC
Revisions
Comments, feedback, improvements, and fixes may be sent to <bladeRF@nuand.com>.
Revision Date Summary
1 2015-01-08 Initial revision for 2016.01-rc1 installer
2 2015-06-29 Updated for 2016.06 release.
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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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