Answering most frequently asked questions about a carrier board design for XTRX
- Max height from carrier PCB includes XTRX components in C.S.
It depends of the connector type of carrier board, but not XTRX.
In according to miniPCIe standard, thickness of the component layer on the bottom side of the XTRX board itself is 1mm maximum.
We use 1.55 mm gap connector MM60-52B1-G1-R850 with stand off NT1R3000, so thermal pad (gap filler) to carrier PCB would be ~0.8mm like H48-6G-50-10-0.8-1A. - Do you use USB2 port on the miniPCIe slot?
No. We use PCIe lane(s) to communicate. - How do you download bitstream into FPGA?
We’re planing to implement software re-flashing to make update procedure seamless for users. Right now this function is not ready yet, so we’re using JTAG (see pinout for spring contacts at the XTXR Connectors Pinout). When software re-flashing is implemented, JTAG will only be needed for FPGA development. - Do you need I2C bus connection? If yes which I2C address is being used?
We don’t use I2C - Do you use WLAN LEDs?
Yes. All LEDs are connected to the FPGA and can be configured in software. - Do you use PCIe-WAKE# signal?
No - Do you need 39,41 pins? We may need them for our own purpose.
We use these pins for the second PCIe lane. The XTRX board has 0-ohm resistor on the second lane, so you can disable it by unsoldering these resistors. - Do you use 1.5V? if yes do you need some 3.3V -> 1.5V sequence?
We don’t use 1.5V. - Do you use 3.3VAUX? if yes do you need some 3.3V → 3.3VAUX sequence?
We don’t use 3.3VAUX. - Which reserved pins do you use for RF clock synchronization? Is it possible to synchronize XTRX from external 10MHz clock or 1pps? If yes, which pin numbers are used?
Yes, you can use 1PPSI_GPIO1 for 1PPS in and MHZ_IN for input reference clock. 10MHz to 52MHz reference clock frequencies should work fine (we need to test frequencies >32MHz to be 100% sure, but we expect them to work).
June 12, 2018 at 9:43 am
Can we NC pin3/19 ? in my point of view, RF clock synchronization have been done by FBGA . AS we know,
data exchange between FBGA and PC by PCIE lane.
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June 12, 2018 at 8:25 pm
First of all, I want to point to the latest pinout document (https://github.com/xtrx-sdr/xtrx-docs/raw/master/XTRX_rev4_connectors_pinout_r4_20180115.pdf)
Pin3 [1PPSI_GPIO1(1N)] and Pin19[MHZ_IN] are used to synchronize multiple XTRX boards with the same clock and time. For single board configuration, it’s ok to NC
Pin19 can also be used as an external clock source.
Pin3 is possible to use as a PPS source from external GPS device.
TL;DR: It’s OK to NC. Each non-standard function pin is Ok to NC.
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June 12, 2018 at 10:32 am
how many curent comsume by 3.3V ?
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June 12, 2018 at 8:29 pm
It’s highly depended on a use case (SISO/MIMO, Sample Rate, TX/RX/Both, LO frequency, decimation, etc.). We don’t have detailed measurements so far. In most cases, total power consumption should be < 2.5W
We’ll publish a detailed measurement when we have them
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May 7, 2019 at 2:13 pm
I’m confused by this: Tuning Range: 30 MHz – 3.8 GHz
Rx/Tx Range:
10 MHz – 3.7 GHz
100 kHz – 3.8 GHz with signal level degradation
Question:
Will the XTRX act as a receiver in the HF 10 to 30 MHz range? Thanks.
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July 22, 2019 at 10:10 am
Yes, but with quite a bit of attenuation. Please refer to this post for more details: https://www.crowdsupply.com/fairwaves/xtrx/updates/rf-performance-in-the-hf-band
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May 21, 2019 at 2:11 pm
My laptop has only one mPCIe lane (one Tx one Rx) , can i still acheive 120Msps bandwidth in receive mode only ? I would like to replace my mPcie wifi miniboard with XTRX.
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July 22, 2019 at 10:09 am
Unfortunately no. You do need two PCIe lanes to achieve 120 MSPS
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