USRP Hardware Driver (UHD) installation for labAlive

Use the following information to download all dependencies, connect your USRP-device with your PC and test the connection.

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Dependencies

The following programs are necessary to connect and use the USRP with your PC.

• The first program you need is the USRP Hardware Driver (UHD). You can find a lot of different versions of the UHD-binaries with the following link: UHD-binaries.

• If you work with Windows in some cases UHD will not work without the "libusb-1.0.dll". If an error message appears that the libusb-1.0.dll can not be found on your system you can download it here: libusb-1.0.dll.

  After downloading the libusb-1.0.dll you have to copy the dll file into the System32 folder. The path to the System32 folder should be C:\Windows\System32.

• You also have to copy the uhd.dll into the System32 folder. You can find the uhd.dll in C:\Program Files\UHD\bin.
• If you want to use the Tx samples - USRP (Example FM transmitter) you need to download the DLLuhd.dll too.

If you use the USRP N210 the minimum UHD-version is 3.8.0. It is recommended to use the 3.14.1.1-release version, because this UHD-version is tested with the labAlive experiments Tx and Rx samples from/to file - USRP | Tx samples - USRP (Example FM transmitter) | Rx samples - USRP.

If you want to use an other USRP-device, want to use an other UHD-version or just want some more information about how UHD works, use UHD-description and UHD-manual.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Highmesh.

Build the connection between the USRP and the Host-PC

After you've downloaded and installed all the dependencies mentioned above you need to change some networksettings of your PC.

The USRP is connected to the PC with a LAN-cable. The Ethernet-Adapter the USRP is connected to, needs a static IPv4-address.

The IP-address must be 192.168.10.XXX. You can choose any IP-address between 192.168.10.1 and 192.168.10.254 but don't use the 192.168.10.2 because this is the default IP-address of the USRP. It's recommended to use the 192.168.10.1

The subnetmask will be filled automatically.

Test the connection and the USRP

To test the connection between the USRP and the Host-PC you need the Windows-Terminal. You can open the Windows-Terminal by pressing the "Windows key" and "R" at the same time. The Execute-Window will open. Write "cmd" and press Enter.

• The first thing to check is the IP-address of the Ethernet-Adapter the USRP is connected to. Write "ipconfig" in the Windows-Terminal and press Enter. The IP-address you've chosen for the Ethernet-Adapter where the USRP is connected to should be listed like it is shown in the picture.

• Now you can check if your PC can find your USRP. Use the Windows-Terminal again and change the location. Go to the location where UHD is installed. It should be "...\Program Files\UHD\bin". Write "uhd_find_devices" and press enter to check if the USRP will be found. The USRP should be listed like it is shown in the picture below. You can find the IP-address of your USRP by using this command.

• Now you can check some more properties of your USRP. Stay in the Windows-Terminal in the "...\Program Files\UHD\bin" folder and write "uhd_usrp_probe" and press enter. This shows the firmware-version and the FPGA-version the USRP uses. It also shows the RX- and TX- frontend and the daughterboard.
• In this case we use the USRP N210 with the firmware-version 12.4 and the FPGA-version 11.1 and the USRP uses the UBX-40 daughterboard. You can see the frequency range of the RX- and TX- frontend from 10 MHz to 6 GHz. It also shows the gain range from 0 to 31.5, the bandwidth of 40 MHz and some more information.

Now you are ready to use the following experiments: Tx and Rx samples from/to file - USRP | Tx samples - USRP (Example FM transmitter) | Rx samples - USRP.

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