NI-292x vs N210 driver

[cochenob]

Recently purchased a N210 radio from Ettus. 

Should I be using the NI-292x fw and FPGA image, or the options for the N210?

I'm not sure what gets shipped from Ettus, but I seemed to be able to communicate with the radio right out of the box without running the Config Utility.  Though, the results seemed to be displaying a little choppy (I used one of NI's shipped Rx examples to test).

On a whim...I loaded the NI-292x fw and FPGA image on my N210....and this also seems to work...and eliminated the 'glitches' I was seeing when I operated it right out of the box.

In any case...I'm realizing that I have no idea what's really going on with respect to the driver.  Should I be using the NI-292x fw/images or the N210 images?  Does it matter?  I'm guessing 'yes', since it looks like there are fw/FPGA images for different Ettus radios (N200, USRP2, different revisions, etc.).

Could someone explain how all this works?  Thanks!

---

Brandon

[m0mik]

Hi Brandon,

If you intend to use LabVIEW you should use the NI releases of the FPGA and Firmware images along with their own host pc driver.  The LabVIEW host software and firmware/fpga images are customised versions of the Ettus UHD specifically for use with LabVIEW and should be used side by side and not in a half LabVIEW, half Ettus UHD configuration or you will experience 'glitches'.

Regards,

Mike

--
Mike Jameson M0MIK BSc MIET
Email: mike@scanoo.com
Web: http://scanoo.com

[cochenob]

This is what I thought.  

If for some reason I wanted to use the UHD say with GNU radio....it seems then that I could still use the NI utility....load in one of the UHD drivers...and be on my way.  Right?

Now that I think about it...what exactly is different in the NI driver?  All we're doing is passing Ethernet packets back and forth between the PC and the USRP.  I guess maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that I I was able to have some functionality with what was likely the N210 UHD driver initially installed.

---

Brandon

[ErikL]

The NI USRP Driver version 1.2 uses the UHD build 003.004.004.  Several firmware images are installed with the NI USRP Driver.  You should choose the firmware image that matches not only the model number but also the revision of your N210 hardware.  The revision number can be found on the back of the N210 on the same sticker as the serial number.

Once the right firmware is installed you should be able to communicate with the 292x or N210 with the same software/driver calls.

Erik

[yasmine.hassan]

Dear Erik

Does this mean that I can use NI utility to communicate with thr device using GNU radio as my programming language??

[USBarnes]

yasmine.hassan,

The NI Utility is a firmware updater and does not interact with the GNU programming language. If you have questions related to the GNU programming language, please contact the link below for support.

Sign up here for the GNU Radio mailing list to receive information on updates, current topics, code sharing and more:

https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio

[yasmine.hassan]

Thanks, but by FW updater , you mean it updates the FW on the driver or on the device itself??

[USBarnes]

FW on the device itself.

[psisterhen]

GnuRadio/UHD can safely co-exist on the same system with LabVIEW/NI-USRP.  However, keep in mind that NI-USRP expects specific versions of the firmware and FPGA images to be on the device.  The compatible images are found in <Program Files>\National Instruments\NI-USRP\images.

If you update to newer or older images for use with GnuRadio/UHD, the NI-USRP driver may no longer work with your device (until you restore the correct images, which can always be done using the NI-USRP Configuration Utility).