USRP 2940R connection problem via Ethernet

[engineerRf]

Hello,

I have a problem connecting my USRP 2940R with Dell Optiplex PCs via Ethernet (two tested, also different network cards).

The USRP utility only shows a x300 device, no communication with LabView possible.

Time before I used the same device with a Dell Precision M6400 Laptop and it worked fine.

Here the USRP utility shows the correct USRP 2940R (40 MHZ BW)/rev8.

The USRP is connected via a SFP GLC-T Rj45 module directly to the Ethernet port of the computer.

An USRP 2920 from a colleague worked with all computers without problems.

I tried to analyze the network communication between the USRP and the computers with Wire Shark.

There I saw that, at the Laptop which worked, the USRP utility sends a DCERPC paket to the device and then has an RTCP paket dialog. All other network communication (ARP, UDP, IP) with the device seems to be the same on all machines.

Any idea or hint is much appreciated. Thanks in advance

[Salah_I]

Hello engineerRf,

Can you be more precise on how you configured the connection with the 2 laptops ?

• Is the MXI link connected ?
• Which port are you using (Port 0/1) ?
• How did you configured your network card ?

What is the output of the uhd_find_device executable ?

Which image is loaded on the USRP ? (HG or XG ? This information can be found with uhd_find_device)

Regards

[engineerRf]

Hello Salah_I,

Can you be more precise on how you configured the connection with the 2 laptops ?

I used one laptop (Dell Precision) which worked fine and tested 2 Dell Optiplex Desktops, which show the problem.

• Is the MXI link connected ?

No, only the SFP over Ethernet with the PC

• Which port are you using (Port 0/1) ?

Port 0

• How did you configured your network card ?

Static IP address 10.0.31.4, Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 (USRP has 10.0.31.5)

I also used the standard addresses 192.168.10.1 (USRP 192.168.10.2) with no different behaviour

What is the output of the uhd_find_device executable ?

Which image is loaded on the USRP ? (HG or XG ? This information can be found with uhd_find_device)

Output on Dell Optiplex Desktop (with problem)

Win32; Microsoft Visual C++ version 14.0; Boost_105500; UHD_003.010.003.HEAD-0-g
d9643b9d
--------------------------------------------------
-- UHD Device 0
--------------------------------------------------
Device Address:
    type: x300
    addr: 10.0.31.5
    fpga: HG
    name:
    serial: 30B33F7
    product: X310

Output on Dell Precision Laptop (working)

 --------------------------------------------------
-- UHD Device 0
--------------------------------------------------
Device Address:
    type: x300
    addr: 10.0.31.5
    fpga: HGS
    name:
    serial: 30B33F7
    product: X310

Regards

[Salah_I]

Hello engineerRf,

Strange thing that the fpga image identified is not the same with the 2 PCs.

HG image, and HGS images are kind of the same images, as they fulfill the same aim, but HGS is older.

I took a look at the source code of uhd_find_devices and it seems that the responses sent by the USRP are then interpreted by the UHD drivers and printed out on the terminal.

Are the NI-USRP drivers installed the same on the 2 computers ?

You can check it with NI Package Manager (it will not be shown on NI-MAX) in the "Installed" section.

Maybe you should try to install the latest version of NI-USRP on your Dell computer, and reimage the FPGA through MAX (or "NI USRP Configuration Utilities")

You can find them in "C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\NI-USRP\images".

Then you should write on your USRP the "usrp_x300_fpga_HG.lvbitx".

Regards,

[Salah_I]

Hey,

I totally forgot that you were using only the ethernet link and not the MXIe.

As far as I know, image loading with NI-MAX or NI-USRP Configuration Utilities only works with the MXIe link.

You should probably use the utilities that are in the NI-USRP folder I gave you before.

You will found the procedure here : https://files.ettus.com/manual/page_usrp_x3x0.html#x3x0_flash

Something else I forgot to ask :

- Which example on LabVIEW did you try, in order to communicate with the USRP ?

- What was the error thrown by LabVIEW ?

Regards,

[engineerRf]

Hello Salah_I,

Strange thing that the fpga image identified is not the same with the 2 PCs.

Are the NI-USRP drivers installed the same on the 2 computers ?

There are 2 different versions installed.

On the laptop (HGS output), which works, is LabView 2015 installed.

On the desktop (HG output), which shows the problem, the newest 2018 version and driver are installed.

But this seems not to be the problem, because I also tested the USRP on a colleagues desktop, which also has LabView 2015, and had the same failure.

Furthermore an USRP 2920 device is running fine on all these machines.

- Which example on LabVIEW did you try, in order to communicate with the USRP ?

niUSRP EX FSK Rx.vi

- What was the error thrown by LabVIEW ?

On the first run it shows

On further runs it shows

I further checked the communication with the uhd_usrp_probe tool, which showed this output:

C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI-USRP\utilities>uhd_usrp_probe --args ad
dr=10.0.31.5
Win32; Microsoft Visual C++ version 14.0; Boost_105500; UHD_003.010.003.HEAD-0-g
d9643b9d

-- X300 initialization sequence...
-- Determining maximum frame size...
UHD Error:
    RuntimeError: System send MTU size is less than the minimum required by the
IP protocol.
Setup basic communication...

UHD Error:
    x300 fw communication failure #1
    EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out

UHD Error:
    x300 fw communication failure #2
    EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out

UHD Error:
    x300 fw communication failure #3
    EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out

UHD Error:
    x300 fw communication failure #1
    EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out

UHD Error:
    x300 fw communication failure #2
    EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out

UHD Error:
    x300 fw communication failure #3
    EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out
Error: EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw communication failure #3
EnvironmentError: IOError: x300 fw peek32 - reply timed out

This leads me to the suspicion that there is a basic communication problem over the Ethernet connection (framesize etc.).

I fear to brick the device, if I reimage it with this connection.

Regards

[Salah_I]

Hello engineerRf,

The LabVIEW version here is not relevant, we should maybe more focus on the NI-USRP driver version.

As the communication to the USRP is managed by the driver, this could explain this behavior.

I know that some images are not working with some drivers versions.

I still recommend you to install the same driver version as your laptop on your desktop computer if it is not the case.

Regards

[engineerRf · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I finally solved the issue.

There were two problems, which showed nearly the same symptoms.

- First I updated the firmware image of the USRP compatible to the driver version of my desktop PC.

- Second, the SFP modul that I used in the USRP had a problem to communicate reliable with the dedicated network card in my PC. I changed this card.

Thanks for your support

[Salah_I]

Hey, thank you for your last answer !

Could you please mark the topic as resolved, it will help other users for the future !

Best regards.