USRP1, B100 and B200 installation notes¶

This documentation explains how to install an USRP device operated through USB interface (ex.: USRP1, B100, B200...). In the following, we assume that a Debian based operating system has been successfully installed along with UHD and GNURadio (see for example Debian Wheezy 7 installation guidelines and UHD and GNURadio installation).

System integration¶

First of all, it is necessary to make udev aware of USRP devices.

sudo cp /usr/local/lib/uhd/utils/uhd-usrp.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Hardware detection and firmware update¶

Power/connect the USRP device and try to detect it.

uhd_find_devices

Then, inspect the hardware configuration of the transceiver.

uhd_usrp_probe

Eventually, the last instruction will ask for a firmware update.

sudo /usr/local/lib/uhd/utils/uhd_images_downloader.py

Performances assessment¶

You can perform a rate benchmarking.

/usr/local/lib/uhd/examples/benchmark_rate --duration 20 --rx_rate <wanted-rate>     # Reception test
/usr/local/lib/uhd/examples/benchmark_rate --duration 20 --tx_rate <wanted-rate>     # Transmission test

where <wanted-rate> should be less than 8 MS/s for USB 2.0 and 61.44 MS/s for USB 3.0.

If OOOOOO... or UUUUUUU... appears on the standard output, it means that incoming samples (from the computer to the USRP) are dropped or outgoing samples (from the USRP to the computer) are not provided at expected rate. This defect can result from various causes: lack of CPU-time of the computer, overloaded interface... See "this page": for detailed explanation.