HackRF One arrived yesterday

[KC1UA]

One of the problems with all of these devices seems to be an utter lack of documentation as to how they actually work. The developers thus far seem to do 99.9% of their work in Linux, which leaves us simple Windows users high and dry.

I wound up writing a tutorial for getting the BladeRF running with Windows 7, and another 3rd party wrote one for Windows 8. It seems like we're left on our own in Windows. With regards to even a diagram of what ports do what on the HackRF, I haven't seen one yet. If there's one available maybe it should be posted in this thread.

Hopefully Flatliner is correct and instead of a bad run of them it's just a matter of finding the right input.

 

[DeweyOxberger]

There are three SMA connectors. One is labeled "Antenna", the others are "Clock In" and "Clock out". I tried patching clockin to clockout thinking that the osc was isolated from the mixer maybe but that didn't change anything. I also tried a different computer (so I've tried win7 x64 and win7 x32). No joy.

 

[foxtail]

Scancapecod, can you make any of the doc's available to us? Also with sdr#...I thought that the zadig driver is for the rtl stick only. Wouldn't the driver for the blade or hack need to be loaded not the zadig? Hopefully there will be more Windows support soon!

 

[KC1UA]

Well I'm not sure what you're referring to with regards to docs. I don't have any for the HackRF, which was the gist of my last post. We need some. We don't have any.

As far as the bladeRF is currently configured, Zadig is still used although it's my understand that may change going forward. My HackRF is still at least a few weeks away from arriving, depending on what NooElec has for stock, so I can't comment on it yet.

My point was the lack of Windows based doc's for any of these devices, the HackRF being the latest.

 

[MileHighAko]

I got mine yesterday but I can't get it to work. All I get is a flat spectra.



I downloaded SDR#, installed it, installed the driver with zadig.

Connected the antenna to the antenna port, usb to to the PC.

Ran SDRSharp.

Set source to HackRF, Radio to NFM.

Then hit Start.

All the lights come on (except TX) on the HackRF. A flat spectra appears (there is a center peak) but nothing else. I set the freq to 89 MHz.



What did I miss?

Did you increase the gain? In SDR#, click on the gear to open the device control settings, and slide the LNA Gain slider about 3/4 the way, and the VGA Gain about half way, and see what you find. Test around 100MHz where you'll find FM broadcast stations. Note, you have to click the Play button to access the gain sliders, otherwise they'll be greyed out.



You might also test a lower sample rate (8 or 10 MSPS) when starting out in case your PC isn't able to keep up with the faster rates.

 

[MileHighAko]

I see that there are three antenna connections on it. Maybe there is a connection setting somewhere to change connectors?

The ant connector is on the side with the buttons/LEDs. The two connectors on the other side are not for antenna, but are for clock synchronization if you're connecting two HackRF devices up (for example you wanted to do full duplex and need the devices operating in clock sync).

 

[MileHighAko]

The best location for documentation is here: https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/wiki.



You're right, the device's happy place is in Linux, but I've had great success with SDR#, and also have the hackrf_tools suite running fine on windows, executing transfers etc.. Only thing I'm going back to Linux for is gnuradio which is quite powerful (I have gnuradio working on windows, but not the Osmocom blocks which are needed to control HackRF).



Remember, HackRF is just a generic hardware device - it's up to the dev community to build support for it. Hopefully some of us windows users can help there.





Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk

 

[DeweyOxberger]

...I've had great success with SDR#, and also have the hackrf_tools suite

Did you have to install the hackrf_tools? The default SDRSharp seems to have the dlls for hackrf. When I tried to install hackrf_tools last night it killed SDRSharp.

I did try to adjust the gain but the sliders are disabled.

 

[KC1UA]

Thanks for the info. I had found that webpage, but I continue to have difficulty opening certain files in GitHub. Despite the fact that some of the instructions are listed as .pdf files, I can neither view them by clicking on them or view them after downloading. I expect it's my ignorance with regards to certain aspects of GitHub. I've been able to download and compile bladeRF builds so I'm not a complete moron (comments welcome ) but I'm coming up short in other areas apparently.

 

[MileHighAko]

I forgot to mention that HackRF on WIndows uses Zadig and prefers the WinUSB driver. There isn't a specific HackRF driver for Windows.



Seems like the two most common issues I'm reading about people having with HackRF on Windows is not getting the WinUSB driver installed properly with Zadig (in some cases, Windows assigns some other driver, and switching ports seems to be the quickest fix), and then not upping the gain settings in SDR#.



Hopefully we'll see other SDR applications support HackRF on Windows soon. I've been using mine on Win8.1 with great success since May - it's my favorite SDR.

 

[matt-KD0LVH]

Thanks for the info. I had found that webpage, but I continue to have difficulty opening certain files in GitHub. Despite the fact that some of the instructions are listed as .pdf files, I can neither view them by clicking on them or view them after downloading. I expect it's my ignorance with regards to certain aspects of GitHub. I've been able to download and compile bladeRF builds so I'm not a complete moron (comments welcome ) but I'm coming up short in other areas apparently.

Let me know what documents you need and I'll be happy to get them to you. If you are using Firefox, you can generally right click on the document and pick out "Save Link As..." to copy the file to your computer.

 

[KC1UA]

Using Chrome but it works the same way. That's exactly what I did, and the files downloaded, but I couldn't read either. However, I just drilled down another level and clicked on the "Raw" button, which allows for download, and it worked fine. Thanks.

 

[matt-KD0LVH]

Hmm, I see I'm having a similar problem. After I download a file I'm getting the message "not a PDF file or PDF corrupted" upon load. This is from Fox It Reader 6.2 which can load a whole lot of stuff.

Problem files for me:
https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/blob/master/doc/hardware/hackrf-one-assembly.pdf
https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/blob/master/doc/hardware/hackrf-one-schematic.pdf
https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/blob/master/doc/hardware/jawbreaker-assembly.pdf
https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/blob/master/doc/hardware/jawbreaker-schematic.pdf

 

[KC1UA]

Those are the same ones I had an issue with when right clicking. Each one for me downloaded with a filesize of 30K. However, if you left click on the file, you'll drill down one more level. At that point, click the Raw button to the right of the filename and it should produce a download box. Once downloaded it works fine.

That said, there isn't much data that is "end-user helpful" which brings me back to my original point. From what I've experienced with the BladeRF though it always gets worked out, but those who don't have the plug-n-play luck that Mancow had might experience some frustration. There is a mailing list that should prove helpful; I joined it today and it seems quite active.

HackRF-dev Info Page

 

[DeweyOxberger]

I'm rapidly running out of ideas. There are a few websites that talk about hackrf-tools, modifying SDRSharp by dropping in dlls and such but the sites are not for HackRF One (maybe the instructions are out of date). The dlls are much older than the current version of SDRSharp (it seems to have newer version of the same dlls in it). As I drop the dlls into the directory I get a problem with "1 device found but it is in use".

I'm wondering; does it work with a stock SDRSharp install for anyone?

 

[MileHighAko]

I'm wondering; does it work with a stock SDRSharp install for anyone?

Sorry to hear that you're having problems.



Yes, the stock install of sdrsharp is working fine for many of us. Do you have a different PC you can try it on? There is no need to drop in different dll's or any of that.



I recommend cleaning off all installs of sdrsharp and remove existing drivers associated with hackrf, then start over. Install sdrsharp, run zadig, etc. Try different ports.



I have two hackrf ones and use them across three different PCs. I keep my sdrsharp folder on a cloud drive so I can share my settings across machines. The sdrsharp folder is 100% stock. The only thing I have had to do is run zadig on each machine, for each different USB port that I use.

 

[MileHighAko]

Did you have to install the hackrf_tools? The default SDRSharp seems to have the dlls for hackrf. When I tried to install hackrf_tools last night it killed SDRSharp.



I did try to adjust the gain but the sliders are disabled.

Just read this reply again. Wanted to point out that the sliders are disabled until you activate the device. Click the play button then adjust the sliders. Move the first gain slider about 3/4 (24db) and the VGA gain to around 16, and see how that works.

 

[DeweyOxberger]

Thanks for the help. I got it working. The sliders being disabled until you start threw me off. The real issue is the antenna coil was shorted. Nicely zeroed the input. I fixed the coil and it works great.

 

[Flatliner]

Damn. I was just about to suggest that you post me your unit for "further investigation", which, coincidentally, may have concluded the very moment that mine had arrived.

However, I'll leave my offer on the table just in case.

 

[DeweyOxberger]

I was thinking I need a good scope to help out with the debug. So if you have one of those new Tek MDO4000 series I could borrow it for a bit. The spectrum analyzer will help for sure.