pyhackrf

Motivation

All python bindings for hackrf are experimental at best, and the installation is quite quirky and weird. This is an attempt to change that.

Installation

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libusb-1.0-0-dev libfftw3-dev
pip install pyhackrf

Quick Example

To take samples and plot the power spectral density:

from hackrf import *
from pylab import *     # for plotting

with HackRF() as hrf:
	hrf.sample_rate = 20e6
	hrf.center_freq = 88.5e6

	samples = hackrf.read_samples(2e6)

	# use matplotlib to estimate and plot the PSD
	psd(samples, NFFT=1024, Fs=hackrf.sample_rate/1e6, Fc=hackrf.center_freq/1e6)
	xlabel('Frequency (MHz)')
	ylabel('Relative power (dB)')
	show()

More Example Use

To create a hackrf device:

from hackrf import *

hrf = HackRF()

If you have two HackRFs plugged in, you can open them with the device_index argument:

hackrf1 = HackRF(device_index = 0)
hackrf2 = HackRF(device_index = 1)

Callbacks

def my_callback(hackrf_transfer):
    c = hackrf_transfer.contents
    values = cast(c.buffer, POINTER(c_byte*c.buffer_length)).contents
    iq = bytes2iq(bytearray(values))

    return 0


# Start receiving...
hackrf.start_rx(my_callback)

# If you want to stop receiving...
hackrf.stop_rx()

Gains

There is a 14 dB amplifier at the front of the HackRF that you can turn on or off. The default is off.

The LNA gain setting applies to the IF signal. It can take values from 0 to 40 dB in 8 dB steps. The default value is 16 dB.

The VGA gain setting applies to the baseband signal. It can take values from 0 to 62 dB in 2 dB steps. The default value is 16 dB.

The LNA and VGA gains are set to the nearest step below the desired value. So if you try to set the LNA gain to 17-23 dB, the gain will be set to 16 dB. The same applies for the VGA gain; trying to set the gain to 27 dB will result in 26 dB.

# enable/disable the built-in amplifier:
hackrf.enable_amp()
hackrf.disable_amp()

# setting the LNA or VGA gains
hackrf.lna_gain = 8
hackrf.vga_gain = 22

# can also use setters or getters
hackrf.set_lna_gain(8)
hackrf.set_vga_gain(22)

Acknowledgements

For now most of the work is based on this. That is going to change, also this notice will be removed then.

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3 license.