greatscottgadgets / greatscottgadgets/hackrf

Long term phase continuity for LOs

Open
#1,322 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement
Dominant language
C
Stars
8.1k
Forks
1.7k
Avg merge
15d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

What feature would you like to see and why?

As I doubt my request is technically plausible the post is mainly a question and possibly a feature request.

The problem I encountered with is as follows. I've got 2 HackRFOnes, synchronized in clocks, their reception being triggered by external source. I use standart utitility 'hackrf_transfer' to get signals from 2 boards. The boards are fed the same signal and show some random phase difference between signals, which is tolerable.
What torments me is that this phase difference varies between subsequent data receptions (i.e. 2 subsequent 'hackrf_transfer' launches).

I suspect the reason is that various LOs are turned off when hackrf_transfer finishes (thanks to energy saving improvements), and than start from random phases anew.
Could the LOs somehow please stay on? I think it could be a solution to the problem, because phase difference remains intact for very long times. Also, as I see from this diagram
https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf/assets/19487262/a163d1dc-4ed7-4563-b8ac-fbde058da146,
all LOs are derived from same clock source, so they should stay synchronized.

May be it could already be done via some hackrf_debug writing of 'power saving' registers?

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by examining the hackrf_transfer and hackrf_debug entry points, focusing on how reception ends and whether the power-saving registers are exposed. Done means establishing whether the LO state can be preserved across successive captures and documenting or implementing a feasible approach with reproducible phase behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
embedded-iot
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.