ADALM-PLUTO (new DATV SDR)

[g0mjw]

Thanks Charles,

Excellent work.

A few teething issues - its crash happy (e.g. on changing mode) but eventually I managed to get DVB-S2 working. I think all the problems testing below are more Minitiouner than Express .

I could not initially get low SR to work, I started with DVB-S on 2m and 70cm, no joy. DVB-S works well at 1MS/s with the MER getting increasingly worse at 70cm and 2m.

DVB-S2 worked on 23cm at 333kS with a 21dB MER. It won't lock on 2m. Is this Pluto or is in Minitiouner? They are connected together with a cable levels are OK. I think Minitiouner as I'm increasingly worried by the poor Serit performance on 2m compared to my Sharp and a converter. I wonder if its Pluto harmonics or it could be indicative of the IQ filtering perhaps. Pity there is no option to use Pluto as a DVB-S receiver yet.

Seems to be a logic problem in 32APSK, it resolutely won't change from 2/3 unless I go via 16APSK and back. Anyway, its marginal on 23cm 2MS. So is 16APSK. 8 APSK is good. Phase noise maybe.

This board won't allow any more attachments so I can't show any images.

[G4GUO]

I have only looked at it on a spectrum analyser and done some tests with my Satlink
(which won't go below 600 KS/s). Below 521 KS/s it is using the FPGA to do interpolation
as the chip itself won't sample below 521K.

As far as the modes crashing are concerned. It does that when I don't want it to
but when I start trying to debug it the little bugger won't crash. I suspect a
timing issue I may add semaphore protection around my libiio (pluto) function calls.

Crashes at startup can occur if you have the wrong IP address or have FMCOMMS
selected. The Lime option is not coded yet although I now have an abstraction
layer in the code that will allow new radios to be added.

When I get my Hides RX dongle back next week I will test the DVB-T mode.
2 MHz looks fine but 4M drops out.

It currently has a very poor transport stream because of the latency in the bit pipe.
libiio needs to be given very large buffers and it has broken the way I do the
NULL stuffing. It will need a total re-think I believe.

- Charles

[pabr]

Pity there is no option to use Pluto as a DVB-S receiver yet.

Sorry about that - My Pluto was delivered on the day before I left for holiday

The easy route is to write a libiio command-line tool with the same functionality as "rtl_sdr" (open device, configure freq and sample rate, write samples to stdout). Then presumably you can use leandvb.

Afterward the plan is to move RRC filtering and/or timing recovery and/or Viterbi on-board the Pluto. Add a USB-Ethernet or Wifi adapter and you might be able to multicast MPEG TS to any network-connected media player or smart TV, or stream HamTV to a TS merger over the Internet, all without involving a PC.

[G4GUO]

Link removed see newer version further down thread.

Fixed a few bugs, the rest are going to take a bit longer to do but it should provide something for all the
new Pluto owners to try out on Monday when their toys arrive.

- Charles

[M0SKM]

Pluto arrived just after 9:30 this morning; good service again from Digikey.

Pictures transmitted on 437/2Ms/s across the shack. Much fun to follow.

Thanks Charles.

Steve

[ON1AVO]

Charles,

My early findings, only DVB-S tested:
- Lowest TX freq.: 70 MHz, 69 MHz software crash
- SR: 530Ks to 3,5Ms (PC: i5-5300U)
- Carrier Only: no CW but modulated carrier
- Touch TX slider => output activated, but still Standby symbol
- After opening one of the tabs, except SI Tables & Help, and push OK to leave this tab,this generates a short full power CW signal on the TX frequency
- Starting DATV Express: already an output with the last settings and Standby symbol

Freddy

[G4GUO]

I have not figured out how to mute the transmitter yet, that is why it comes on at full power.

I definitely can transmit at 48 MHz, although the signal is very low (probably due to coupling capacitors).

- Charles

[G4GUO]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8oi6x1xpnt1dw ... 1.zip?dl=0

Hopefully this won't crash as often and will mute the transmitter correctly.

- Charles

[f1faq]

Charles,

I opened my Pluto received yesterday
Surprise the chip is an ADF9363, not ADF9364
So not able to extend the frequency range as per 9363 data sheet...
Do you confirm ?
73's - Christian
F1FAQ

[G4GUO]

They are all AD9363s and should work if you follow the software mod details.

We are speculating that AD9363s are AD9364s that did not meet the full performance
when tested and were downgraded.

The mod is reversible

- Charles