Teaser: VMA Simple Spectrum Analyzer for HackRF One

Hi,

As you know, I am a spectrum freak. There are two implementations already for the HackRF One:

• qspectrumanalyzer - works well under Linux, but crashes right away under Windows
• hackrf-spectrum-analyzer - works on Windows, but crasshes frequently when changing settings

Both are fairly limited in terms of functionality, but they show something impressive: the HackRF One is capabale to show a very high resolution spectrum over the whole supported frequency range (1MHz-6GHz). And the speed is incredible!

This motivated me to do a preliminary hack to see if the HackRF One could be used with my VMA Simple Spectrum Analyser software and the results are very promising:

Live spectrum (10MHz to 1000MHz)

Average Trace

Live, Min and Max Traces

Solid render of Live Trace

3D spectrum mode

The implementation is totally hacked and with errors:

• I am not reading out the data correctly and there is some unfixed bug, which is why there is a blank on the right side of the spectrum in the above images
• The frequency values are wrong
• The frequency range cannot be set, nor can any other setting, as I have not implemented the protocol, yet

However, all other measurement functionality works and speed is fantastic! This could be a dream come true.

But there is a LOT of work required to get this to work and sadly I won't be able to manage it by myself.

First things first - the TODO list:

• Better understand the hackrf_sweep protocol
• Implement correct start/end frequency setting
• Implement correct bin_width setting (FFT frequency resolution)
• Implement num_samples setting (number of samples per frequency)
• Implement interpretation of sweep output
• Implement way to change current start/end frequency and other parameters (*)

(*) This is the crucial part: as it is, the hackrf_sweep.exe needs to be stopped with CTRL+C and restarted with new settings. This is not ideal, as it causes a significant pause.

Worse than that, under Windows, every CTRL+C crashes the HackRF One and a resume requires to press the physical RESET button.

Instead of having a hackrf_sweep.exe tool running in a shell outputting the sweep data to the console (from where I am reading it right now), I would prefer a TCP/IP communication to receive the sweep data and to send any new setting.

Unfortunately this requires to change the C++ sources of the hackrf_tools, something I am not literate to do.

If you know how to program VC++ and are interested in this project, please contact me!

Regards,

Vitor