r/RTLSDR • u/namanyayg • 5d ago

Software Turn a WiFi 7 router into a 320Msps software defined radio receiver

https://github.com/h0m3us3r/w1700k-sdr
199 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

16

u/LowFlowIO 5d ago

Holy shit. Where do I buy this hardware though?

6

u/3ric15 5d ago

Amazon

1

u/LowFlowIO 5d ago

Probably not my localized Amazon then, nothing showed up.

1

u/3ric15 5d ago

Looks like they are no longer available. It was on Amazon yesterday

11

u/AmazingELF74 4d ago

I can't find this router for sale anywhere. I'm excited for all the new SDR firmwares that are coming out. I've been wanting to make a spectrum analyzer would show me a waterfall with SSIDs overlaid on the different bands.

7

u/scottimusprimus 5d ago

Wow, this is incredible! Thanks for sharing it here.

6

u/amy-schumer-tampon 5d ago edited 5d ago

5.8g sdr would be extremely useful for me. my drone VTX use that frequency and it would help me optimize it.
NVM the rooter cost an arm. may as well get a proper sdr like the HackRF

2

u/shoegazingpineapple 5d ago

There is a 5g sdr with espc5 also a 5.8 analog receiver using it

1

u/JacobA89 4d ago

Im already doing this. Have RF pro from open-source SDR is reasonable priced. Angel SDR or GRU radio will demodulate fpv video.

3

u/gorkish 5d ago

This is awesome. Can the frontend do direct sampling or is it always mixed

1

u/erlendse 5d ago

Probably always mixed, unless you find some way to mess with the hardware.

There is no need for them to do direct sampling!

4

u/elmarkodotorg 5d ago

I assume you could use this with an up/down converter to get insane bandwidth on more usable parts of the RF spectrum?

2

u/erlendse 5d ago

Like the architecture of hackrf?

It's more a question about who builds a device with that first.

1

u/elmarkodotorg 5d ago

Must admit I own two but am completely unfamiliar with their architecture. I only bought them to do S-band satellite without needing a downconverter to do it.

1

u/erlendse 5d ago

Yep, internal down-converter or a very very expensive ADC!

Quite much all of them, would be nice to see exceptions even I have little hope of so.

3

u/ckoval7 5d ago

There's a device called moRFeus which does exactly this. I have on on my shelf, I may have to get one of these routers.

1

u/argoneum 4d ago

Entire 0-30MHz spectrum from 5 different antennas, for phase correlation, polarization experiments and whatnot. Or some serious radioastronomy. Or solar bursts monitoring. Or… 😀

3

u/MeanAccountant9005 5d ago

I think you'd run into trouble with the ADC dynamic range before the 10GbE bottleneck, but I haven't seen anyone test that yet. 320 Msps is wild for something that was sitting on Amazon yesterday though.

2

u/christianbro 4d ago

I wish the day I could turn my phone's modem with its 4 antennas and transreceiver capabilities across many bands as a SDR

1

u/sonny-boy-rhapsody 5d ago

Packing half the chunks from 32 to 28 bits per complex sample gets the IQ payload down to 9.6 Gb/s at 320 Msps. That's tight on 10GbE. Has anyone tested a weak wanted signal beside a strong blocker at fixed gain? The sample format alone doesn't tell us how much dynamic range is usable.

1

u/TheRealBeltet 5d ago

It says 14bits on the GitHub page? So that's 2x14bits? It also says that a X710 works(probably because that's what tested?) Anyway. Very impressive and would bought one if they were available. Would be really cool to be able to sample at 320MSPS.

2

u/sonny-boy-rhapsody 5d ago

Yes, 14 bits each for I and Q. They're stored as a 32-bit pair with four spare bits. Packing removes those spare bits losslessly, but only half the chunks are packed, so the stream averages 30 bits per complex sample. The X710 with a copper SFP+ module is one working setup; other NICs would still need checking at the sustained rate.

1

u/kc2syk K2CR 4d ago

If it's 28 bits per sample, why not pack 8 samples into 7 32-bit values? 28*8 = 32*7

2

u/sonny-boy-rhapsody 4d ago

Yes, that's how the packed chunks work: the eighth I/Q pair is split across the spare bits of the other seven 32-bit words. Only half the chunks are packed, though; the rest stay raw. So the packed chunks are 28 bits per pair, and the mixed stream averages 30. I'm not sure why the current schedule only packs half.

1

u/olliegw 5d ago

All you'd need to do is build an up/down converter and then you'd probably be able to monitor the entirety of VHF with it

I wouldn't want to know how big the I/Q files at 320msps are though

1

u/argoneum 4d ago edited 4d ago

Assuming 16b int samples and IQ recordings, around:

1.19GiB/s (1.28GB/s)

71.5GiB (76.8GB) per minute

4292GiB (4608GB) per hour

100.6TiB (110.6TB) per 24h

Floats are 2-4x bigger, and packed 14 bits around 14% smaller but unwieldy.