HackRF OSX Install. This will walk you through getting HackRF to work on OSX. It is really just an adaptation of the awesome collection of Homebrew recipes from Titanous for getting GNU Radio running on OSX. Dec 04, 2019 RF Hack using SDR Dongle Radio Frequency plays a vital role in IoT(Internet of Things), in devices like vehicle monitoring, remote control, wireless data transmissions, garage Openers, etc. Want to understand the basics of RF or other types of frequencies.
Dealing with a hardware+software platform born under linux can be a real pain for people not used to it so I will try to make things easier for them explaining what I did to make that great HackRF One hardware working under Windows. I am still not too good in those kind of subjects so I will try to explain things the same way I understood them; if you find incongruences please feel free to correct me and I will update this post giving credits to contributors.
WHAT IS HackRF One
It is a platform with open hardware and software created by by Michael Ossmann specific for radio frequencies analysis; this is at the moment the only hardware able to scan the widest range of RF signas starting from 30MHz to 6GHz !! (another hardware that is going to be released this year is Airspy but its range will be from 24MHz to 1.7GHz - there are other very cheap usb dvb dongles able to do that kind of analysis but they are not natively built for that kind of stuff and are really limited compared to HackRF One).
Using an hardware device called Ham-It-Up RF converter (picture below) the HackRF One can also explore the LF and MF frequencies range so the full range is extended from 300kHz to 6GHz !!!
This device is the succesor of the Jawbreaker hardware and its manufacturing was possible thanks to a specific kickstarter campaign.
HARDWARE SPECIFCATIONS
Frequency Range: 10MHz - 6GHz (kickstarter campaign says 'from 30MHz' while acutal official site says 'from 10MHz') [from 300kHz to 6GHz if you add an Ham It Up RF Converter hardware] - the range practically starts from the upper part of LF (Low Frequency) band to the lower part of SHF (Super High Frequency) band.
- Bandwidth: the maximum bandwidth of HackRF is 20 MHz (about 10 times the bandwidth of TV tuner dongles); that means that HackRF could be used for high speed digital radio applications such as LTE or 802.11g. Bandwidht is the maximum range of frequencies 'explorable' at the same time: this means that you can 'see' or better 'listen' to a range of frequencies 20MHz-wide; here is a practical example: if you set HackRF One to 20 MHz bandwidth and you center the frequency to 97MHz your bandwidht will be approximatively from 87 to 107MHz (that is almost the full radio FM spectrum from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz (with some exceptions such as Japan FM broadcast range that is form 76 to 90MHz) !):
the peaks above represent radio broadcasting stations.
So everything in the range of the bandwidth you are listening to is recordable -> so it can save up to 20 million samples per second !
- Included Antenna Specs: it is called ANT500, it is telescopic, and it is designed for operations from 75 MHz to 1 GHz (this means that that if you want to reach the non-supported frequencies you need to buy/build your own antenna):
- half-duplex transceiver: it means that it can transmit or receive but can't do both at the same time. However, full-duplex operation is possible if you use two HackRF devices.
- SMA female antenna connector
- SMA female clock input and output for synchronization
- compatible with GNU Radio, SDR# (also called SDRSharp), and more: picture above is taken with SDR#
- software-configurable RX and TX gain and baseband filter
- software-controlled antenna port power (50 mA at 3.3 V)
- convenient buttons for programming
- internal pin headers for expansion
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0: (Male Type A <---> Male Micro B cable-connectors)
- Same cable USB-powered: one cable-only to connect and to powering-up
- open source hardware
- opens ource software
- 8-bit quadrature samples (8-bit I and 8-bit Q): I don't know what it is, if someone can explain it I will be grateful !
WHAT IS SDR
(taken directly from the kickstarter campaing page):
SDR is the application of Digital Signal Processing to radio waveforms. It is similar to the software-based digital audio techniques that became popular a couple of decades ago. Just as a sound card in a computer digitizes audio waveforms, a software radio peripheral digitizes radio waveforms. It's like a very fast sound card with the speaker and microphone replaced by an antenna. A single software radio platform can be used to implement virtually any wireless technology (Bluetooth, ZigBee, cellular technologies, FM radio, etc.).
HOW TO USE HackRF One WITH SDR# SOFTWARE
- Download the following file: sdr-install.zip from SDR# page (it needs an internet connection to download necessay files)
- Once downloaded unzip it, launch 'install.bat' and wait for the program to download the necessay files
Hackrf One Mac Os
- now connect HackRF One to an USB port and execute zadig.exe to install Windows Drivers; if the new USB devices is not shown go to 'Options' and select 'List All Devices' (see picture below);
- now choose 'WinUSB (v6.x.xxxx.xxxxx)' and press 'Install WCID Driver' button:
Usually under Windows HackRF will work with ONE USB PORT AND THIS ONE ONLY !!! So try all USB ports before saying 'hardware not found by SDRSharp!'
- now you can execute SDRSharp.exe (it is in the same zadig.exe folder) and SDRSharp will open up:
Here are the basics:
1
- 1st of all click on the 'gear' icon and set the device as 'Jawbraker' (A)
- then set the sampling rate: the more it is the wider the band will be with zoom set to 0 (B)
- then set the LNA gain according to your receiving signal (see further) (C)
2
- now set the kind of radio you want to listen to (WFM is the 'normal radio' band)
3
- now set the 'step size': this represents the 'accuracy' of the vertical red line while you move it through the frequencies; it is the same thing that happens when you press the 'forward' button of yoru radio-car-system if the automatic station scan is disabled, it goes 'a step further' and the width of this step is represented by this 'step size' value: the smaller it is the more precise it will be (smaller values should be used when you are inspecting a narrow band range)
4
- now set the resolution: this is the resolution of the peaks you can see in the upper part of the Spectrum Analyzer: the higher it is the more the processor will work: setting it above 65535 can cause system performance slow down.
NOW YOU CAN PRESS THE 'PLAY BUTTON' to make the software analyzing HackRF One sniffed traffic:
Double-click on any peak to tune to that frequency and listen to it !
Hackrf Macbook Pro
The Spectrum Analyzer represents a graphic peak-view of the band of the frequencies you are exploring; higher peaks means that something is broadcasting over that frequency. [X = Frequency ; Y = Amplitude]
(peaks can be automatically marked setting the option 'Mark Peaks' you can see in the lower-right corner of the previous picture)
Hackrf One Mac
The Waterfall represents a graphic 'cascade' representation of the signals across the frequency range you are investigating, usually 'coded' with a specific color which indicates signal amplitude or strength displayed over time (more recent are at the top of the waterfall, older ones are at the bottom).
If your waterfall doesn't seems to have any broadcast signal try to increment the LNA gain in the settings.
ZOOM: with this slider you can narrow or make wider the graphic band your are seeing
CONTRAST: it changes the color of the waterfall 'silent' background and of the waterfall 'hot lines' (I prefere the 'silent' background to be blue and the 'broadcasting frequencies' to be orange/red as you can see in the watefall picture above).
RANGE: it narrows or widen the 'Y coordinate' (amplitude) in the 'Spectrum Analyzer' graphic
OFFSET: it moves up and down the 'Y coordinate' (amplitude) in the 'Spectrum Analyzer' graphic
Here is a sum-up of the various available frequencies:
Please note that most of them have many sub-ranges !
Here are some GREAT SDR with HackRF tutorials by Michael Ossmann, the author of HackRF !
Next part will be installing the HackRF environment and compiling it under Windows !
Last edited by asper (2014-10-01 08:44:50)