5 ms·

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,

by ohazi 5y ago

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 downconverted signal or baseband noise on every other click. Two minutes later, the set of bands you could capture would be entirely different. There was no consistency whatsoever. When I went to their forums to see if other people had encountered the same issue, it turned out that basically none of the LimeSDRs even pass their own self tests [1]. I don't know how they're still selling these devices... they don't work. I returned it, paid ~4x more for a USRP, and could not be happier. The hobby is playing with radio modulation schemes, not debugging a defective piece of silicon. [1] https://discourse.myriadrf.org/t/new-limesdr-mini-loopback-test-failed/6067/2 https://discourse.myriadrf.org/t/new-limesdr-mini-loopback-t...

Prcmaker 5y ago
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.
tibbon 5y ago
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.
- mrjeeves 5y ago
  Argh, I'm jealous. I've been looking for suitable SDRs in the ~£180 range for a few months now, and nowhere has one suitable for 5G NR or 4G LTE available. HackRF seems to be pretty crippled in mobile networking, and Pluto seems to not work at all on srsRAN/srsLTE. I doubt you'd be willing to let go of your full-size LimeSDR for £180, though, and I don't blame you based on its demand level.
garaetjjte 5y ago
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.
azinman2 5y ago
Which USRP do you use? And what do you do specifically with it?
- ohazi 5y ago
  A B205. Mostly playing around with high spectral efficiency digital modulation techniques like PSK/QAM and OFDM using GNU Radio. Trying to shovel as much data as I can between two links with as little power as possible. I'd like to experiment with below-the-noise-floor communication, but haven't gotten there yet. It's sort of silly, because you can do all of this in simulation, but it's more fun with real hardware. Eventually I'd like to be able to build a (solar?) drone with a radio system resembling a cell tower and do ground-drone-ground relay experiments, but I'm extremely not there yet. I also wanted something that could transmit after I got a ham radio license (out of boredom during the pandemic, shortly after they started doing testing online), but haven't really used it that much, as I don't really have a good antenna set up. For data experiments, a wire or a PCB trace works well enough. I also do a lot of embedded Wi-Fi / Bluetooth stuff at work and would like to use this for packet captures, but haven't needed to yet. It's completely overkill for something like that though.
  - mNovak 5y ago
    Wait, they're doing the exams online now? My laziness to go to a testing center has been holding me back this whole time
    - ohazi 5y ago
      That's what I said... :-) I used hamstudy.org and took a test administered by GLAARG over Zoom. https://glaarg.org/ https://glaarg.org/
      - threeio 5y ago
        Very much this... two good combos, although the laurel VEC is also fantastic. Get your ticket, its a fantastic experimenters hobby... just ignore the stodgy old man part of it
jpm_sd 5y ago
Yep, the USRP series is solid. National Instruments buying them was really smart.
the_only_law 5y ago
I bought me one a year or so ago with some big project plans that I just haven’t started. Sadly my math is not up to par for doing SDR work or Signal processing. This is actually a shame. I looked into getting one of the cheaper USRP's (I think the cheapest options run a little more than the PCIe limesdr)
fortran77 5y ago
I had the exact same experience. It’s junk. Get a USRP if you can, or perhsps a bladerf if you’re a hobbiest.
sonic414 5y ago
Tried to make it work for a big project. Spent a lot of time debugging. I was suspecting the code at first. But finally realized the Radio wasn't working correctly. Couldn't return it or get a replacement.
georgeplusplus 5y ago
This has been my experience. I traded mine out for a HackRf

by ohazi 5y ago

Prcmaker 5y ago

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.

tibbon 5y ago

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.

mrjeeves 5y ago
Argh, I'm jealous. I've been looking for suitable SDRs in the ~£180 range for a few months now, and nowhere has one suitable for 5G NR or 4G LTE available. HackRF seems to be pretty crippled in mobile networking, and Pluto seems to not work at all on srsRAN/srsLTE. I doubt you'd be willing to let go of your full-size LimeSDR for £180, though, and I don't blame you based on its demand level.

garaetjjte 5y ago

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.

azinman2 5y ago

Which USRP do you use? And what do you do specifically with it?

ohazi 5y ago
A B205. Mostly playing around with high spectral efficiency digital modulation techniques like PSK/QAM and OFDM using GNU Radio. Trying to shovel as much data as I can between two links with as little power as possible. I'd like to experiment with below-the-noise-floor communication, but haven't gotten there yet. It's sort of silly, because you can do all of this in simulation, but it's more fun with real hardware. Eventually I'd like to be able to build a (solar?) drone with a radio system resembling a cell tower and do ground-drone-ground relay experiments, but I'm extremely not there yet. I also wanted something that could transmit after I got a ham radio license (out of boredom during the pandemic, shortly after they started doing testing online), but haven't really used it that much, as I don't really have a good antenna set up. For data experiments, a wire or a PCB trace works well enough. I also do a lot of embedded Wi-Fi / Bluetooth stuff at work and would like to use this for packet captures, but haven't needed to yet. It's completely overkill for something like that though.
- mNovak 5y ago
  Wait, they're doing the exams online now? My laziness to go to a testing center has been holding me back this whole time
  - ohazi 5y ago
    That's what I said... :-) I used hamstudy.org and took a test administered by GLAARG over Zoom. https://glaarg.org/ https://glaarg.org/
    - threeio 5y ago
      Very much this... two good combos, although the laurel VEC is also fantastic. Get your ticket, its a fantastic experimenters hobby... just ignore the stodgy old man part of it

jpm_sd 5y ago

Yep, the USRP series is solid. National Instruments buying them was really smart.

the_only_law 5y ago

I bought me one a year or so ago with some big project plans that I just haven’t started. Sadly my math is not up to par for doing SDR work or Signal processing. This is actually a shame. I looked into getting one of the cheaper USRP's (I think the cheapest options run a little more than the PCIe limesdr)

fortran77 5y ago

I had the exact same experience. It’s junk. Get a USRP if you can, or perhsps a bladerf if you’re a hobbiest.

sonic414 5y ago

Tried to make it work for a big project. Spent a lot of time debugging. I was suspecting the code at first. But finally realized the Radio wasn't working correctly. Couldn't return it or get a replacement.

georgeplusplus 5y ago

This has been my experience. I traded mine out for a HackRf