LimeSDR can send and receive UMTS, LTE, GSM, LoRa, Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID, and Digital Broadcasting, to name but a few.
While most SDRs have remained in the domain of RF and protocol experts, LimeSDR is usable by anyone familiar with the idea of an app store – it’s the first SDR to integrate with Snappy Ubuntu Core. This means you can easily download new LimeSDR apps from developers around the world. If you’re a developer yourself, you can share and/or sell your LimeSDR apps through Snappy Ubuntu Core as well.
The LimeSDR platform gives system developers, inventors, and even students an intelligent and flexible device for manipulating wireless signals, so they can learn, experiment, and develop products and applications.
From Radio Astronomy to Personal Telcos
Here are just some of the applications that are possible with the LimeSDR:
- Radio astronomy
- RADAR
- 2G to 4G cellular basestation
- Media streaming
- IoT gateway
- HAM radio
- Wireless keyboard and mice emulation and detection
- Tire pressure monitoring systems
- Aviation transponders
- Utility meters
- Drone command and control
- Test and measurement
- Many more…
With state-of-the-art technical specs, fully open hardware and toolchain, and integration with Snappy Ubuntu Core’s app distribution platform, LimeSDR is limited only by our collective imagination.
Features & Specifications
- RF Transceiver: Lime Microsystems LMS7002M MIMO FPRF (Datasheet)
- FPGA: Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23 – also compatible with EP4CE30F23
- Memory: 256 MBytes DDR2 SDRAM
- USB 3.0 controller: Cypress USB 3.0 CYUSB3014-BZXC
- Oscillator: Rakon RPT7050A @30.72MHz (Datasheet)
- Continuous frequency range: 100 kHz – 3.8 GHz
- Bandwidth: 61.44 MHz
- RF connection: 10 U.FL connectors (6 RX, 4 TX)
- Power Output (CW): up to 10 dBm
- Multiplexing: 2×2 MIMO
- Power: micro USB connector or optional external power supply
- Status indicators: programmable LEDs
- Dimensions: 100 mm x 60 mm
Free and Open Source
Over the last three years, we’ve worked on numerous open source projects, all made available through Myriad-RF. This is no different, open source is central to LimeSDR:
- Board schematics: Altium project files available under CC BY 3.0 licence.
- Board layout: Altium project files available under CC BY 3.0 licence.
- Manufacturing: Gerbers, drill, and pick & place files are also available under CC BY 3.0 licence.
- FPGA: Altera Quartus project available under CC BY 3.0 licence.
- Host connectivity: Cypress FX3 USB 3.0 controller firmware sources available under Apache 2.0 licence.
- Host software: driver and GUI sources available under Apache 2.0 licence.
- Programming toolchain packages: GNU Radio, Pothos, SoapySDR, UHD.
- Documentation: transceiver datasheets are NDA-free.
Downloadable apps: Snappy Ubuntu Core, licensing up to app developers.
