[Hackrf-dev] Updating CPLD and firmware broke my HackRF?

sck at nogas.org sck at nogas.org
Thu Sep 3 18:01:07 EDT 2015


Well, I retried this from a Linux machine and updated the firmware and
CPLD from
https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/releases/download/v2015.07.2/hackrf-2015.07.2.zip
on a GNURadio live host.

Still no ability to receive any signals. IS there a way to detect whether
my CPLD is whacked?

Scott


> Good morning all...
>
> Yes, I just joined the mailing list and normally I'd lurk for a while and
> absorb things but.... You see I have a problem...
>
> I have one of the Kickstarter HackRF units and have a portapack H1
> installed in the portapack metal case.
>
> Recently, I have been having issues that when I tuned to WFM stations the
> frequency was off significantly. I.E. in order to tune to 95.7 MHz  WFM I
> had to tune to 97.135 MHz to receive the station. I wasn't picking up
> anything near the 95.7 MHz frequency, and last month I stopped by the
> DefCon Portapack Demo Lab to try to see if there was something wrong with
> my hackrf or what. But, the crowd was quite overwhelming and then I could
> not get into the Wireless Village (due to the line for the talks), so
> missed out there as well. Bad luck for me.
>
> So, recently I was thinking that maybe I needed to upgrade my HackRF
> firmware and CPLD as described at
> https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/wiki/Updating-Firmware (and
> https://greatscottgadgets.com/sdr/5/ ) to make sure that something wasn't
> out of sync between the two... Seems simple enough, I've updated my
> firmware a bunch of times, but not my CPLD... Hmmm, that could be an
> issues since Michael Ossmann posted "With new firmware and old CPLD I
> would expect the spectrum to be inverted in some cases.  A fixed frequency
> offset would be puzzling unless it is a misinterpretation of inverted
> spectrum (which could be an easy mistake to make)." at
> https://pairlist9.pair.net/pipermail/hackrf-dev/2014-December/000921.html
> So, that does sounds promising!
>
> So, last night I downloaded the updated firmware 2015.07.2 from
> https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/releases/download/v2015.07.2/hackrf-2015.07.2.zip
> and installed that on my hackrf/portapack with the following commands on
> my Mac (using MacPorts)... [which I just re-did on a separate Mac this
> morning to document for this email]
>
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:~ skennedy6$ cd ~/Downloads/
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$ wget
> https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/releases/download/v2015.07.2/hackrf-2015.07.2.zip
>   --2015-09-02 11:10:47--
> https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/releases/download/v2015.07.2/hackrf-2015.07.2.zip
>   Resolving github.com (github.com)... 192.30.252.130
>   Connecting to github.com (github.com)|192.30.252.130|:443... connected.
>   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
>   Location:
> https://s3.amazonaws.com/github-cloud/releases/3681392/4671fc74-31f0-11e5-997e-57d6d1c54889.zip?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3Dhackrf-2015.07.2.zip&response-content-type=application/octet-stream&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAISTNZFOVBIJMK3TQ&Expires=1441221047&Signature=9%2BCm4dY2JwreBFOeE5HDKHchLk0%3D
> [following]
>   --2015-09-02 11:10:47--
> https://s3.amazonaws.com/github-cloud/releases/3681392/4671fc74-31f0-11e5-997e-57d6d1c54889.zip?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3Dhackrf-2015.07.2.zip&response-content-type=application/octet-stream&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAISTNZFOVBIJMK3TQ&Expires=1441221047&Signature=9%2BCm4dY2JwreBFOeE5HDKHchLk0%3D
>   Resolving s3.amazonaws.com (s3.amazonaws.com)... 54.231.66.104
>   Connecting to s3.amazonaws.com (s3.amazonaws.com)|54.231.66.104|:443...
> connected.
>   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
>   Length: 15831370 (15M) [application/octet-stream]
>   Saving to: ‘hackrf-2015.07.2.zip.1’
>
>   hackrf-2015.07.2.zip.1
> 100%[===========================================================================>]
>  15.10M   684KB/s   in 23s
>
>   2015-09-02 11:11:10 (677 KB/s) - ‘hackrf-2015.07.2.zip.1’ saved
> [15831370/15831370]
>
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$ unzip hackrf-2015.07.2.zip
>   Archive:  hackrf-2015.07.2.zip
>      creating: hackrf-2015.07.2/
>      creating: hackrf-2015.07.2/firmware-bin/
>         [... lines deleted for brevity...]
>     inflating: hackrf-2015.07.2/hardware/bubblegum/bubblegum.net
>     inflating: hackrf-2015.07.2/COPYING
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$ cd hackrf-2015.07.2
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:hackrf-2015.07.2 skennedy6$ sudo port upgrade hackrf
>   --->  Scanning binaries for linking errors
>   --->  No broken files found.
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:hackrf-2015.07.2 skennedy6$ cd firmware-bin
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:firmware-bin skennedy6$ hackrf_spiflash -w
> hackrf_one_usb_rom_to_ram.bin
>   File size 20452 bytes.
>   Erasing SPI flash.
>   Writing 20452 bytes at 0x000000.
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:firmware-bin skennedy6$ hackrf_info
>   Found HackRF board 0:
>   USB descriptor string: 0000000000000000457863c82f773c1f
>   Board ID Number: 2 (HackRF One)
>   Firmware Version: 2015.07.2
>   Part ID Number: 0xa000cb3c 0x00514f48
>   Serial Number: 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x457863c8 0x2f773c1f
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:firmware-bin skennedy6$
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:firmware-bin skennedy6$ cd ..
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:hackrf-2015.07.2 skennedy6$ hackrf_cpldjtag -x
> firmware/cpld/sgpio_if/default.xsvf
>   File size 37629 bytes.
>   LED1/2/3 blinking means CPLD program success.
>   LED3/RED steady means error.
>   Wait message 'Write finished' or in case of LED3/RED steady, Power
> OFF/Disconnect the HackRF.
>   Write finished.
>   Please Power OFF/Disconnect the HackRF.
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:hackrf-2015.07.2 skennedy6$ hackrf_info
>   Found HackRF board 0:
>   USB descriptor string: 0000000000000000457863c82f773c1f
>   Board ID Number: 2 (HackRF One)
>   Firmware Version: 2015.07.2
>   Part ID Number: 0xa000cb3c 0x00514f48
>   Serial Number: 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x457863c8 0x2f773c1f
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:~ skennedy6$
>
> And when I tried using the GRC source file (which worked previously) from
> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rrobotics/hackrf-tests/master/fm_radio/fm_radio_rx.grc
> I could not pick up ANY FM broadcast signals... [which I normally can]
>
> So, let me install the most recent build of the portapack firmware and see
> if I can visualize any signals at all using the new SPEC mode (Which ROCKS
> by the way!!!).
>
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:~ skennedy6$ cd ~/Downloads/
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$ wget
> https://portapack-h1-builds.s3.amazonaws.com/sharebrained/portapack-hackrf/16/16.1/firmware/portapack-h1-firmware-c4de9c4.tar.bz2
>   --2015-09-02 08:58:57--
> https://portapack-h1-builds.s3.amazonaws.com/sharebrained/portapack-hackrf/16/16.1/firmware/portapack-h1-firmware-c4de9c4.tar.bz2
>   Resolving portapack-h1-builds.s3.amazonaws.com
> (portapack-h1-builds.s3.amazonaws.com)... 54.231.176.17
>   Connecting to portapack-h1-builds.s3.amazonaws.com
> (portapack-h1-builds.s3.amazonaws.com)|54.231.176.17|:443... connected.
>   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
>   Length: 96205 (94K) [application/octet-stream]
>   Saving to: ‘portapack-h1-firmware-c4de9c4.tar.bz2’
>
>   portapack-h1-firmware-c4de9
> 100%[===========================================>]  93.95K   496KB/s
> in 0.2s
>
>   2015-09-02 08:58:58 (496 KB/s) - ‘portapack-h1-firmware-c4de9c4.tar.bz2’
> saved [96205/96205]
>
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$ tar -xBpvf
> portapack-h1-firmware-c4de9c4.tar.bz2
>   x portapack-h1-firmware.bin
>   x hackrf_one_usb_ram.dfu
>   x LICENSE
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$ hackrf_spiflash -w
> portapack-h1-firmware.bin
>   File size 342856 bytes.
>   Erasing SPI flash.
>   Writing 342856 bytes at 0x000000.
>   SDGL1288ad0ce-Biko:Downloads skennedy6$
>
> But I still don't see any signals on the display at all and I've set the
> portapack in the right frequency range to hear at least 10 FM broadcast
> stations between 92.5 and 102.5 here in San Diego. In fact, I tried, 95,
> 97, and 100 MHz and saw the same lack of anything. [small images of
> portapack display attached to email]
>
> So... Any ideas on what to try?
>
> Scott_______________________________________________
> HackRF-dev mailing list
> HackRF-dev at greatscottgadgets.com
> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/hackrf-dev
>




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