[Hackrf-dev] Virtualization Journey and Benchmarks Update, Firmware flashing and Windows usage, ANT500 testing update

[Sohil Shah]

Have been waiting for the latest version of the Pentoo Live CD to release.
In the meanwhile I have made some progress on using the HackRF in a
virtualized environment.

Machine Configuration
Lenovo T430 2349JCQ running Windows 7 Professional
Virtual Environment: VirtualBox works | VmWare does not

Using the directions as mentioned by Mike in his Video Series I was able to
successfully run the Hackrf Transfer utility.

On the USB 2.0 port I got good performance till 10MSPS. I was able to see
20MiB transferred per second. Set it any higher and it will cutoff to 20MiB
approx.

On the USB 3.0 port I got the HackRF to work till 16MSPS. Getting a steady
32MiB. Set it any higher and it wont go above 32MiB.

Both cases the CPU usage on the host was below 18% -25% on an i7 chip(see
specs above). Note I had a whole bunch of other chrome windows open on the
host at the same time. I am assuming this means the process of moving
samples into the Virtual environment does not have a very high penalty. I
think 16 MSPS is more than enough for most applications.

I have not been able to get results for the HackRF with any other software
in Pentoo 2014 rc3 live cd as GQRX seems to be broken and the FM example on
the Wiki does not work properly(I hear squeaky audio).


I was also able to update the firmware on the HackRF from the Virtual
Environment without any issues. Does not seem to be any packet loss over
virtualized USB at least in case of low I/O utilization as firmware
transfer. The only thing that was different was that the program outputted
something like 'the Jawbreaker has been updated' as opposed to the result
as shown in the video series 'hackrf one has been updated'. I am assuming
this is because of using an older version of the HackRF tools. The Clock
Updater thing also worked properly with the LED's flashing as mentioned in
the example.

My question is does using the older version of Hackrf tools available with
the Pentoo live CD 2014 RC3 make any difference to the firmware and the
clock update results internally? On the face of it I have tested the HackRF
on Windows with SDR console and it works fine after the firmware update
(SDR# has never worked). The other bug that required us to type eselect
lapack set 1 in Pentoo is also gone after the update.

The other question is can we reflash the firmware a couple of times using
the same update ram_to_rom bin file without any issues? I was not sure if
it was flashed properly because of the difference in output to what was
shown in the video series so I redid the 2 updates again, just want to
ensure that it does not affect the HackRF in anyway.

Mike I also tried using the hackrf with another antenna as per your advice,
the issue I was having earlier with bad FM quality was not an ANT500 or
HackRF issue but an issue with SDR console defaulting to use 48Khz
bandwidth for FM. Once I changed it to 250KHz it worked fine.


BTW Mike loving the video series, keep up the good work. I am trying to
make it to Toorcon this year, so hopefully will get a chance to meet you in
person.


-- 

Sohil Shah.

Nothing is Impossible, Never Undermine the Potential of the Human Spirit =
My Life's Motto!!
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Steve Jobs
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nine.pairlist.net/pipermail/hackrf-dev/attachments/20140913/09ddb95a/attachment.html>