LimeSDR SDR transceiver for $ 249

There is a fundraising for an open source SDR project called LimeSDR .
This project is attractive at an inexpensive cost of $ 249 for its technical specifications:

• frequency range: 100 kHz - 3.8 GHz
• frequency band: 61.44 MHz
• 12-bit ADC with Fd = 160 MHz and 12-bit DAC with Fd = 640 MHz
• 2 transmission channels and 2 reception channels (2x2 MIMO)
• FPGA: Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23
• memory: 2 Gbps DDR2
• USB 3.0 interface for PC communication

It is interesting to note that the cost of only some components is $ 305.

Block diagram of the device:


The platform is based on Lime Microsystems LMS7002M radio chip, which contains LNA, receiver and transmitter mixers, receiver and transmitter filters, receiver gain control circuit, transmitter power control circuit, ADC and DAC.
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For digital signal processing, the Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23 FPGA is used, which contains 39,600 logic elements, 1134 KBytes of memory and 116 hardware multipliers. For high-speed data transfer, use a USB 3.0 controller Cypress CYUSB3014.

The table compares LimeSDR with other SDR platforms.

	Hackrf one	Ettus b200	Ettus B210	BladeRF	RTL-SDR	LimeSDR
Frequency range	1MHz-6GHz	70MHz-6GHz	70MHz-6GHz	300MHz-3.8GHz	22MHz-2.2GHz	100kHz-3.8GHz
Frequency band	20MHz	61.44MHz	61.44MHz	40MHz	3.2 MHz	61.44MHz
Bit ADC / DAC	8 bit	12 bits	12 bits	12 bits	8 bit	12 bits
Sampling frequency	20MHz	61.44MHz	61.44MHz	40MHz	3.2 MHz	61.44MHz (Limited by USB 3.0 speed)
The number of channels to transmit	one	one	2	one	0	2
Number of receiving channels	one	one	2	one	one	2
Operation mode	half duplex	duplex	duplex	duplex	only reception	duplex
Interface	USB 2.0	USB 3.0	USB 3.0	USB 3.0	USB 2.0	USB 3.0
FPGA Capacity	64 cells CPLD	75k	100k	40k (115k)	-	40k
Radio chip	MAX5864, MAX2837, RFFC5072	AD9364	AD9361	LMS6002M	RTL2832U	LMS7002M
Source Code Availability	Complete	Only scheme and software	Only scheme and software	Only scheme and software	-	Complete
Frequency stability reference oscillator	± 20ppm	± 2ppm	± 2ppm	± 1ppm	?	± 1ppm initial, ± 4ppm stable
Radiated power	-10dBm + (15dBm @ 2.4GHz)	10dBm +	10dBm +	6dBm	-	0 to 10dBm (depending on frequency)
Price	$ 299	686 $	$ 1119	$ 420 ($ 650)	~ 10 $	$ 299 ($ ​​249 limited edition)

Below are the possible uses of the board:

• Reception and transmission of signals of various wireless standards: GSM, UMTS, LTE, Wi-Fi, WiMax, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Tetra, LoRa
• DVB digital broadcast reception
• aircraft tracking via ADS-B
• vessel tracking via AIS
• listening to the negotiations of various dispatching services: air, ambulance, police, firefighters and rescuers
• listening to the radio
• Decoding navigation messages systems: GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo
• receiving signals from various satellites, for example, receiving meteorological images
• spectral analysis
• various types of radar (passive, active, XRD)
• study of wireless data transmission protocols
• direction finding of radio sources
• studying radio using Matlab and LabView

The platform is fully open , the project of the scheme of the device and the printed circuit board, the source code of the programs FPGA, microcontroller and client for the PC are available.

Plugins for GNU Radio, Pothos, SoapySDR and UHD are already available for PCs.

Since the project uses a BladeRF-like element base, it can easily transfer existing projects, such as: GSM base station, LTE base station , ADS-B decoder , various software panoramic receivers CW-SSB-WFM-FMRDS-AM , plugins to Matlab and LabView.

For $ 799, you can order a version with a PCI Express interface.

The planned delivery time for ready-made devices is November 30, 2016.