The Windows installer for bladeRF-software

Nuand has new installer software for Windows

In the blog at nuand.com they write:

There is now a Windows based installer for the bladeRF that will install all of the relevant drivers, user mode utilities, and FX3/FPGA images. The file can be directly downloaded from http://nuand.com/downloads/bladerf_win_installer.exe .

OK, download this installer and open it

A warning, but what else can I do than execute this file?

Yes! There is bladeRF CLI in the Windows Start Menu

What about USB3?

The bladeRF-board was connected all the time at anUSB2-port. Now the LEDs stopped blinking. The installation did something to it. The bladeRF-board was connected all the time at a USB2-port. I’ll unplug it and reconnect to a USB3-port and start bladeRF CLI

Oeps, the board is invisible for bladeRF-cli when connected at a USB3-port!
Reconnect to a USB2-port and restart bladeRF CLI

Get the latest image for the FPGA

I have to get the latest.img from http://nuand.com/fx3/latest.img
C:\bladeRF-master_new might be a good place for it.
I’ll put it on C:\Program Files (x86)\bladeRF

A lot of errors, I seem to have to define a variable

I get a lot of errors and I have to define an environment variable in Windows.
So, in the configuration screen of the start menu of Windows I select advanced and environment-variables.

Defined BLADERF_SKIP_FW_SIZE_CHECK = 0

Now it seems to be OK

Connect an antenna and try to get samples into a file

Oh boy, this is interesting. It is late in the night already but I take the antenna from my Kenwood  TH-F7, it has the same connector as the bladeRF-board, and connect it to RX.

I created a file with samples. What is in this comma-separated-values file?

File  C:/temp/new282810M.csv reads:

…
89, 81
88, 80
92, 76
84, 76
90, 77
88, 76
92, 77
90, 84
85, 77
92, 80
88, 81
86, 75
92, 73
86, 82
91, 76
89, 81
91, 77
92, 77
88, 81
86, 73
88, 77
86, 77
90, 77
90, 77
91, 77
88, 77
91, 79

…

So, not so interesting. I’d expect more variation in the value of the numbers…

Epilogue

OK, installation of the Windows software with the installer from Nuand is a breeze! Thanks a lot for all their efforts. They keep doing a great job.

After installation I got error-messages with a clue: define BLADERF_SKIP_FW_SIZE_CHECK = 0

It seems I did only get some noise in the file with the samples. I'll experiment with some parameters like the gain, bandwidth, frequency and samplerate. I have a signal-generator that can put a signal up to 1 GHz on the antenna. With 100 W output-power to the RX-input of the bladeRF-board I should be able to get some smoke into and out of my file!

(dont try this with 100 W, some microVolts should be enough :>))