A wide frequency range (70 MHz to 6 GHz) and a user-programmable transceiver

The USRP B205mini-i is a flexible and compact platform that is ideal for both hobbyist and OEM applications. It is designed by Ettus Research™ and provides a wide frequency range (70 MHz to 6 GHz) and a user-programmable, industrial-grade Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX150 FPGA. USRPs are transceivers, meaning that they can both transmit and receive RF signals.

The RF front end uses the Analog Devices AD9364 RFIC transceiver with 56 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The board is bus-powered by a high-speed USB 3.0 connection for streaming data to the host computer. The USRP B205mini-i also includes connectors for GPIO, JTAG, and synchronization with a 10 MHz clock reference or PPS time reference input signal.

The hardware is conveniently accessible through the USRP Hardware Driver (UHD). UHD provides both a C/C++ and Python API and offers cross-platform support for multiple industry-standard development environments and frameworks, including RFNoC, GNU Radio, LabVIEW and Matlab/Simulink. And to ensure you have no restrictions on how you use UHD, it is available on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. UHD provides the necessary control used to transport user waveform samples to and from USRP hardware as well as control various parameters (e.g. sampling rate, center frequency, gains, etc) of the radio

More Information

Key Features

RF Capabilities

  •  1 TX, 1 RX
  • 70 MHz to 6 GHz Frequency Range
  • Up to 56 MHz instantaneous bandwidth

Specifications

Software

  •  USRP Hardware Driver 3.9.2 (or later)
  • GNU Radio

Synchronization

  •  10 MHz clock reference
  • PPS time reference

Applications

  •  AM/FM
  • Cellular Communication
  • TV Broadcast
  • IoT
  • GPS
  • WiFi
  • Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM)
  • Algorithm Exploration

Ideal for

  • Researchers
  • Hobbyists
  • Students and Professors
  • Industry professionals

Getting Started

The USRP B205mini-i has an online Getting Started Guide,  User Manual and Hardware Resources. There is a list of Applications and Case Studies, using a variety of Ettus hardware, available at: https://www.ettus.com/applications/. There is also a 10-minute video demonstrating how to build an FM receiver with a USRP and GNU radio available here. 

Benefits

The board is bus-powered by a USB 3.0 connection, which also provides simplified and high-speed communication to a host computer.  The powerful UHD software API reduces the learning curve and provides a quick start experience for both new and experienced users. Open-source GNU Radio provides a wide range of tools and algorithms that enable discovery and analysis of air interface protocols. Developers can work with familiar programming languages, including C/C++ and Python. The UHD Python API is available here.