broken tx?

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dglatting
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:24 pm

broken tx?

Post by dglatting »

I have a x115 that I am having a problem with tx with and without the transverter board. I replaced the transverter so the problem has to be either the x115 itself, the usb interface, or me.

This is the board's codes:

bladeRF> version

bladeRF-cli version: 1.3.1-git-ba561a4
libbladeRF version: 1.5.1-git-ba561a4

Firmware version: 1.9.0
FPGA version: 0.5.0

Whenever I try to tx I get a timeout error. Using various GNURadio scripts including bladeRF_frs.grc, I get something similar to this:

Opening nuand bladeRF with device identifier string: "*:instance=0"
Serial # 417b...8a01
FW v1.9.0 FPGA v0.5.0
gr-osmosdr v0.1.4-72-g164a09fc (0.1.5git) gnuradio v3.7.9.1-69-gefed1fe3
built-in sink types: uhd hackrf bladerf redpitaya file
Opening nuand bladeRF with device identifier string: "*:instance=0"
Serial # 417b...8a01
FW v1.9.0 FPGA v0.5.0
INFO: Audio source arch: alsa
[bladeRF sink] bladerf_sync_tx error: Operation timed out
[bladeRF sink] bladerf_sync_tx error: Operation timed out
[bladeRF sink] bladerf_sync_tx error: Operation timed out
[bladeRF sink] bladerf_sync_tx error: Operation timed out
[bladeRF sink] Consecutive error limit hit. Shutting down.

If I transmit using the cli with 20 seconds of samples at 1msps (below), I will see a signal for ~630 seconds and then it disappears (timeout).

xb 200 enable
xb 200 filter tx custom
xb 200 filter rx custom
set frequency tx 131125000
set samplerate 1000000
set txvga1 -6
set txvga2 25
tx config file=/tmp/2400hz.sc16q11 format=bin
tx start

I am confused as to the problem. Bad hardware?
jynik
Posts: 455
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm

Re: broken tx?

Post by jynik »

Hi dglatting,

Did we speak on IRC by any chance? I seem to recall chatting recently with someone reporting a similar issue, and they noted that all was well when they tried a different host machine. (The GNU Radio Live SDR Environment is a nice easy way to quickly test things out on a different machine.)

In general, I'd recommend verifying that one's using a relatively new kernel or libusb version, given the various fixes introduced into XHCI support and libusb over the past few years. What Distro and kernel version are you running?

Give that GNU Radio Live image a shot if you can, and let me know how it goes.

Best regards,
Jon
dl2fbm
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2016 9:32 am

Re: broken tx?

Post by dl2fbm »

Hi,

I have the same problem on my laptop
running Kubuntu (latest version, 64bit).

As a cross-check I installed
the same OS within a virtual machine
on the same computer.
Within the virtual machine transmitting
and everything else works fine.

But I'm still unable to bring down this problem
within the native OS.

Regards
Klaus / Germany
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