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Soapy SDR plugin for bladeRF

The Soapy Blade RF project provides a plugin module to use the Blade RF device within the SoapySDR API and software that supports SoapySDR.

SoapyBladeRF table of contents

• Installers
• Dependencies
• Building Soapy Blade RF
• Detecting the Blade RF

Installers

Pre-built installers for various systems are available through the Pothos SDR environment.

• https://github.com/pothosware/PothosCore/wiki/Downloads

Dependencies

• Install LibBladeRF - http://www.github.com/nuand/bladeRF
• Install SoapySDR: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/wiki

Or install Blade RF packages on Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:bladerf/bladerf
sudo apt-get install bladerf libbladerf-dev

Building Soapy Blade RF

The CMake build system will locate libbladerf and SoapySDR development files on your system. The plugin module will be built and installed into the SoapySDR modules directories.

git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyBladeRF.git
cd SoapyBladeRF
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Detecting the Blade RF

Use the SoapySDRUtil application to see if SoapySDR can detect your device. In this example, lets use the --probe option to print information about the Blade RF:

SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=bladerf"
######################################################
## Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library
######################################################

Probe device driver=bladerf
[INFO] bladerf_open_with_devinfo()
[INFO] bladerf_get_serial() = 0123456789
[INFO] setSampleRate(1, 1.000000 MHz), actual = 1.000000 MHz
[INFO] setSampleRate(0, 1.000000 MHz), actual = 1.000000 MHz

----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=bladeRF
  hardware=bladeRF
  fpga_size=40
  fpga_version=0.3.3
  fw_version=1.8.0
  serial=0123456789

----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 1 Tx
  Timestamps: YES
  GPIOs: CONFIG, EXPANSION

----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: YES
  Antennas: RX
  Full gain range: [0, 61] dB
    LNA gain range: [0, 6] dB
    VGA1 gain range: [5, 30] dB
    VGA2 gain range: [0, 30] dB
  Full freq range: [237.5, 3800] MHz
    RF freq range: [237.5, 3800] MHz
  Sample rates: [0.16, 40] MHz
  Filter bandwidths: [1.5, 28] MHz

----------------------------------------------------
-- TX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: YES
  Antennas: TX
  Full gain range: [0, 56] dB
    VGA1 gain range: [-35, -4] dB
    VGA2 gain range: [0, 25] dB
  Full freq range: [237.5, 3800] MHz
    RF freq range: [237.5, 3800] MHz
  Sample rates: [0.16, 40] MHz
  Filter bandwidths: [1.5, 28] MHz