Live data from Hacker News

LimeSDR

limemicro.com

81–90 of 130 posts

Re: LimeSDR

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend not relying on SDR ADS-B reception alone and also checking online data systems for ADS-B that also use multilateration to track aircraft using their transponder when they aren’t ADS-B capable. Otherwise you might be operating under the assumption there are no contacts in your working airspace when there is aircraft present but not announcing their location. https://flightaware.com/adsb/mlat/

You need both data sources—a number of planes are “delisted” from the commercial trackers and won’t show up, but they still broadcast ADS-B. You can find partial lists of such registrations through a keen Google search.

[deleted]

Re: LimeSDR

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend not relying on SDR ADS-B reception alone and also checking online data systems for ADS-B that also use multilateration to track aircraft using their transponder when they aren’t ADS-B capable. Otherwise you might be operating under the assumption there are no contacts in your working airspace when there is aircraft present but not announcing their location. https://flightaware.com/adsb/mlat/

You need both data sources—a number of planes are “delisted” from the commercial trackers and won’t show up, but they still broadcast ADS-B. You can find partial lists of such registrations through a keen Google search.

https://www.adsbexchange.com/ does not blacklist or delist aircraft tail numbers fwiw.

Re: LimeSDR

#83

I got a LimeSDR when they first made them. Unfortunately the whole SDR software ecosystem is pretty terrible. Even with something as popular and widely supported as RTL-SDR most of the software is unusuable (with some happy exceptions). It also doesn't help that there is an absolute mountain of SDR software out there, but 99% of it is "this is cool, I'm going to write... eh nevermind" type stuff. There's so much ( ht…

The LimeSDR Kickstarter made these grand promises of running a repo full of usable apps for your board. Many years later that repo is still quite spartan.

I've generally had pretty good luck with my LimeSDR, but I don't try to push it too hard. The documentation can be frustratingly minimal in so many places and the USB implementation on my board is touchy (it must be plugged into exactly the right port on my computer or the device enumerates incorrectly and is unusable).

Re: LimeSDR

#84
post #71

I wish them luck, but judging by the ~week I spent trying to get a LimeSDR mini to work, their product is so half baked that it's basically not fit for purpose, and if you're considering getting one, I'd recommend something with an Analog Devices front-end instead. The PLL would fail to lock at random frequencies and temperatures. You'd try to scroll through e.g. the 2.4 GHz ISM band and would randomly get downconver…

Unfortunately, I agree with this. I was an early backer on the mini, and got it with the aluminium case. While the case looked great, it mechanically interfered with the antennae, meaning they didn't actually make a connection. Their support taught me how to screw in an antenna, ignoring the actual problem, before deciding my issue was too hard and ignoring me. I got eventually got in some antennae from Ossmann, but when other hardware/software issues cropped up, my enthusiasm for the device had already waned too much to want to put in effort. I got some basic things working eventually, but never outperformed cheaper devices.

Re: LimeSDR

#85
post #71

I wish them luck, but judging by the ~week I spent trying to get a LimeSDR mini to work, their product is so half baked that it's basically not fit for purpose, and if you're considering getting one, I'd recommend something with an Analog Devices front-end instead. The PLL would fail to lock at random frequencies and temperatures. You'd try to scroll through e.g. the 2.4 GHz ISM band and would randomly get downconver…

I've got the LimeSDR standard size one, and I've never been able to make good use of it. Thinking of throwing it on eBay soon.

Software support is far more limited than I'd prefer compared to other SDRs too, which someone at DEF CON told me was because they pissed off the community and copied of a lot of things from another SDR project. I don't know how true it is, but I can see that support on all sides is pretty half baked.

Re: LimeSDR

#86
post #71

I wish them luck, but judging by the ~week I spent trying to get a LimeSDR mini to work, their product is so half baked that it's basically not fit for purpose, and if you're considering getting one, I'd recommend something with an Analog Devices front-end instead. The PLL would fail to lock at random frequencies and temperatures. You'd try to scroll through e.g. the 2.4 GHz ISM band and would randomly get downconver…

I bought LimeSDR Mini back at crowdfunding campaign and didn't have good experience too. Janky middleware, problems with tuning, randomly occuring errors. I haven't used it in quite a while and I hoped these are all software problems they would fix eventually, sad to hear it is still broken.

Re: LimeSDR

#87
post #57
post #43

No WiFi support?

WiFi is hard to support, it's very complex from a signal processing and timing perspective.

Wifi is a pretty difficult protocol, but fortunately Linux ships with mac80211. So all that is needed is an SDR based PHY such as https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF-wiphy/ .

Re: LimeSDR

#88
Any suggestions on where to start to use this as a LTE uplink that reads from an SD card and uploads images? I'd like to replace my expensive faulty game camera subscription.

Re: LimeSDR

#89
post #88

Any suggestions on where to start to use this as a LTE uplink that reads from an SD card and uploads images? I'd like to replace my expensive faulty game camera subscription.

Using an SDR is the most painful and power-hungry way to replicate what already exists as cheap, optimized, small, commodity LTE modems.

Use the SDR for standards that don't exist as finished silicon yet.

Re: LimeSDR

#90
post #71

I wish them luck, but judging by the ~week I spent trying to get a LimeSDR mini to work, their product is so half baked that it's basically not fit for purpose, and if you're considering getting one, I'd recommend something with an Analog Devices front-end instead. The PLL would fail to lock at random frequencies and temperatures. You'd try to scroll through e.g. the 2.4 GHz ISM band and would randomly get downconver…

Which USRP do you use? And what do you do specifically with it?
Post reply on HN