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RTL-SDR (RTL2832U) and software defined radio news and projects. Also featuring Airspy, HackRF, FCD, SDRplay and more.
Over the last few months we’d constantly heard hints that the Airspy team was working on a miniaturized version of their popular Airspy SDR. Today the Airspy Mini has been released for preorder.
The Airspy Minihas similar high performance specifications to the Airspy R2, but comes ina USB dongle sized enclosure andonly costs $99 USD – half the price of the $199 USD Airspy R2. The only difference in specification appears to be that the Airspy Minihas 6 MHz ofspurious free bandwidth, versus9 MHz in the Airspy R2, and that it lacks the external clock input and some of the expansion headers whicharemainly useful only for advanced experimenters. The other features including its 24 – 1800 MHz operation, 12-bit ADC and 0.5 PPM TCXO all remain the same. The Airspy team also write that the Mini still supports a 20 MSPS mode for ADS-B decoding with the ADSBSpy decoder, which should placeits ADS-B decoding performance at an identical level to the Airspy R2, which is very good.
To receive the HF frequencies the Airspy team are also releasing an Airspy Mini + SpyVerter bundle which will cost $149 USD. The SpyVerter is an upconverter designed to work with Airspy products, but has also been found to workwell with the RTL-SDR.
At theseprices the Airspy Mini competes heavily with the $149 USD SDRplay RSP which is a similarly speccedSDR. In a previous review on this blog that compared the SDRplay RSP and Airspy R2 we found that the Airspy generally performed better in the presence of strong signals.
In the future we hope to review the Airspy Mini and check to see if its performance is similar to theAirspy R2. If its RX performance isat least the same as the R2, then it probably will be the best value SDR for those wanting to upgrade from an RTL-SDR.
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Related posts:
- Airspy Mini Christmas Sale – $80 USD
- SDRplay and Airspy Sales Active Now
- Leif SM5BSZ’s Testing of the Airspy Mini
- Airspy HF+ Discovery Now Available for Preorder + Brief Initial Review
- Big Airspy Sale for US Customers: $149 Airspy R2, $99 Airspy Mini, $39 Spyverter
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Robert
2 years ago
#221720
Thanks for help, The switch was in the wrong position,
I think Airspy mini works OK, my laptop recognizes this device as AIRSPY,
I was listening to FM band.
Thank you,
Best Regards
Reply
Robert
2 years ago
#221672
waste of money
It needs drivers, it’s not plug-and-play receiver for $99, waste of money,
it doesn’t work.
Reply
Billy
Reply toRobert
2 years ago
#221678
And what SDR would you recommend that does not need drivers ?
I have a genuine Airspy mini, R2 and HF+ and all have worked perfectly for me under Linux and Windows for a number of years without any issues.
If it is broken, maybe contact the reseller where you bought it and get it replaced.
Reply
Robert
Reply toBilly
2 years ago
#221692
Thanks, you are lucky guy,
I bought my Airspy mini in China, ITEAD website.
I tried to install driver using information on https://airspy.com/quickstart/
and also software zadig.
My laptop recognizes this device as LPC,
software airspy host tools left information:
airspy_lib_version: 1.0.10
airspy_open board 1 failed: AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND
Bad driver or device is broken?
Best regards
Reply
Billy
Reply toRobert
2 years ago
#221693
I’ve upgraded the firmware on mine a few times (and messed up and was able to get back to working). If you are seeing a LPC device that probably means that the switch inside the device is in the wrong position. There are two positions for switch:
Pos 2-3 Boot SPIFI(Flash) <- normal boot
Pos 1-2 Boot USB0(DFU) <- boot from a ROM in the MCU
Position 1-2 should only ever be needed if there was a power loss while upgrading the firmware or if the flash was blank and needed to be installed in the factory. It would be a disaster recovery mode or what I would call a brick recovery mode. A lot has to be wrong before you every need to use that mode.
My guess is that during shipping it was thrown about with enough force that the switch moved from position 2-3 (normal) to 1-2 (DFU mode), you could open the cover (while disconnected from the computer) and check if that switch is in the wrong position, if it is in the wrong position just move it back and everything should just work when you power it up.
(ref: https://github.com/airspy/airspyone_firmware/wiki/Windows-how-to-flash-airspy-firmware )
( This image shows switch at the bottom of the image in the correct position https://twitter.com/rf_hacking/status/1327604812603662336 )
You should not need to flash any firmware, just move the switch back if it is in the wrong position.
Another possibility would be that the flash chip is faulty, but the odds of that are relatively low. I'd check the switch first, if the switch is in the right location already then I would contact the reseller and get it replaced.
Reply
Claudio Re
5 years ago
#129563
I confirm that the Bias Tee is set On with the flag on the AIRSPY software . Click on the arrow before the line on the left top of the screen : SOURCE AIRSPY , and you will see the box with the setting .
Claudio Re
Reply
Kevin McCormick
7 years ago
#80864
I am really disappointed I have not received mine yet. I just contacted the seller to see what happened.
Trevor
7 years ago
#80841
After playing with my mini for a few hours last night I retract my initial assessment that it is the same performance as previous Airspys. For example, while analyzing the local 4G band at 930MHz I found a strong birdie with sidbands right in the middle of the 4G band with the Mini. The old Airspy one does not have this birdie. I could not get rid of it by changing the gain controls. It was not possible for me to take a waterfall of 4G band activity with the Mini, I had to revert to doing it with the Airspy One.
Reply
XP is not supported!
Reply toTrevor
7 years ago
#80843
http://airspy.com/quickstart/ says clearly:
Installation on Windows Server or Windows XP:
Please don’t. They are not supported.
So, I just wait for a review from someone who is using it like intended and not using some f*cked up driver from a internet-graveyard…
Reply
Trevor
7 years ago
#80836
My Mini arrived from ITEAD. The Airspy USB driver for Windows XP does not work properly with the Mini. If the Mini is plugged in right after boot it is not recognized. But if my normal Airspy One is plugged in first, then it is recognized and works. Plugging the Mini after the Airspy One allows the Mini to be recognized by XP and work. But if you plug the mini in before the fullsize Airspy then neither of them works.
Are there any alternative Airspy USB drivers floating around the web? I have v6.1.7600.16385 but it looks as though the old Airspy One Serial number is embedded in the driver… Strange…
Reply
Trevor
Reply toTrevor
7 years ago
#80837
I reinstalled both the full size and mini Airspy with ZADIG and everything is working well. The mini has less spurious responses visible, and at least the performance of my Airspy-one. I put a washer and nut on the SMA connector, to make sure it was connecting well to the aluminum case. I am a happy camper, thanks for the new device, Design Team!
Reply
Marty
Reply toTrevor
7 years ago
#80838
Windows XP – RIP April 8th 2014.
Please do everyone on the Internet a favour and bury the corpse. Which is now, with 99% certainty, if it is on the Internet part of some giant botnet you are merely the person who is providing free electricity and network bandwidth to some hacker so that they can spread spam, launch Denial Of Service attacks and add new bots to their botnet.
XP is dead move on.
Reply
Trevor
Reply toMarty
7 years ago
#80840
Dear Marty,
I am a security professional. I have given conference lectures on securing computers and networks. I use a copy of Windows XP that I have spent 15 years securing. It has never been penetrated. Windows 10 has completely open doors, and a recent Windows 7 MS update propagated a UEFI backdoor. Please keep this discussion on topics you know something about.
Reply
Marty
Reply toTrevor
7 years ago
#80842
I pity your idiocy but good luck in your ignorance.
Reply
Matteo
7 years ago
#80830
Does anybody know if it’s possible to use the software Spectrum Spy with the Airspy Mini?
Reply
Marty
Reply toMatteo
7 years ago
#80831
I asked and yes it works on the mini, as well as the other tools that work on the R2:
SDR# – intuitive application for Software Defined Radio
ADSB Spy – High Performance ADSB Decoder
Spectrum Spy – Spectrum Analyzer
Astro Spy – Radio Astronomy Utility for Hydrogen Line Spectroscopy
Reply
Anonymouse
7 years ago
#80810
This makes perfect sense, thank you!
Reply
Anonymouse
Reply toAnonymouse
7 years ago
#80811
Actually, this is a reply to Marty, don’t know what went wrong here… 😉
Reply
Keith
7 years ago
#80807
What does “compatible” with Raspberry pi and others mean? It does not meet the minimum stated specs. Will this run on a Raspberry pi?
Reply
Marty
Reply toKeith
7 years ago
#80809
If you look at the data on their website it supports 6MSPs and 3MSPS which will probably work better on hardware with an overloaded single real USB 2.0 port that has a 5 port USB hub and a 10/100 USB NIC plugged into it.
Reply
Keith
Reply toMarty
7 years ago
#80814
That does not answer the question. Their website says it is compatible. In what way?
Reply
Marty
Reply toKeith
7 years ago
#80815
The RPi has one real USB 2.0 port that can in theory handle 40MB/sec. But it has a 5 port USB hub plugged into it has a 10/100 Mbit/sec (12.5MB/sec) USB NIC plugged into the hub. So if the NIC was in use there would probably be about 20MB to 35MB of spare capacity in the single real USB 2.0 port available depending upon the level of network traffic on the NIC. Now if you plugged in a keyboard and a mouse. you would probably loose another MB/sec to that.
An Airspy running at 10MSPS, 12 bits samples, I+Q channel, uncompressed (no packing) would generate 40MB/sec going across a USB 2.0 bus it would basically mean that no other hardware could use the USB 2.0 bus and if any other device did try to use the USB bus data would be lost.
The Airspy mini running at 6MSPS, 12 bits samples, I+Q channel, uncompressed (no packing) would generate 24MB/sec there is about 16MB/sec spare capacity on the single real USB 2.0 port in a raspberry Pi. Enough spare capacity that a 10/100Mbit/sec (12.5MB/sec) NIC should work and maybe a keyboard and mouse.
The Airspy mini running at 3MSPS, 12 bits samples, I+Q channel, uncompressed (no packing) would generate 12MB/sec there is about 26MB/sec spare capacity on the single real USB 2.0 port in a raspberry Pi. Enough spare capacity that a 10/100Mbit/sec (12.5MB/sec) NIC should work and maybe a keyboard and mouse.
Now does it make sense ?
Reply
Marty
Reply toMarty
7 years ago
#80816
28MB/sec (not 26) I wish i could edit my posts.
Reply
Keith
Reply toMarty
7 years ago
#80817
Thanks for that clarification. What I really need to know is will airspy mini work on the rPI model B as a remote spectrum server? Is there software doing so?
Reply
Marty
Reply toKeith
7 years ago
#80818
Lets look at the amount of data that would need to flow in real time.
6MSPS will generate 24MB/sec
3MSPS will generate 12MB/sec
The very most that you can in theory squeeze through a 100Mbit/sec NIC, once you factor in 4% overhead TCP/IP packet headers*, is 11.46MiB/sec.
Notice any problem with using RPi hardware for anything that requires moving large amounts of data about ?
* MTU of TCP/IP packets is usually 1514 bytes, TCP/IP header can vairy depending on option from anywhere between 20-60 bytes. So 1.32% to 3.96% headder overhead on each packet, it is always best assume the worst.
Reply
Marty
Reply toMarty
7 years ago
#80819
Now if you did all the processing of the data on the RPi2B/RPi3 (RPiB probably does not have enough processing power, unless the heavy lifting was offloaded to the GPU, maybe) and you just streamed demodulated audio then maybe openwebrx ?
Reply
Marty
Reply toMarty
7 years ago
#80820
Yep RPiB is too weak
https://github.com/simonyiszk/openwebrx/wiki/Setting-up-OpenWebRX-on-a-Raspberry-Pi-2
Reply
Anonymouse
7 years ago
#80801
Does anybody know what the switch at the side is for?
Reply
Dex
Reply toAnonymouse
7 years ago
#80805
My sugestion: Bias-Tee ON/OFF switch but is it only idea 😉
Reply
Anonymouse
Reply toDex
7 years ago
#80812
I think this is done in the hardware settings of SDR#.
Reply
Marty
Reply toAnonymouse
7 years ago
#80808
My guess would be that swotch is to put the mini Airspy into DFU mode.
There is a P5 jumper on a normal Airspy R2 (and the older R0)
P5
Pos 2-3 Boot SPIFI(Flash)
Pos 1-2 Boot USB0(DFU)
My guess is that this switch does the same fuction as that jumper.
So it’s default position is 2-3, but if a firmware upgrade failed (power outage or whatever) then you could flick that switch (1-2), boot up the device from USB (with the right software) instead of from its internal storage and get it back into a working state without having to unscrew the covers.
Reply
Mario
7 years ago
#80800
Wow, with all the new SDR radios coming out these days, one can suffer from option paralysis as to which one to purchase, but I am not complaining, I love it! Thank you for the great posting.
Reply
