Airspy R2 series and Mini firmware update

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
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Received an email from our friends at Airspy. Hope I an not stepping on any toes posting this here:

Dear Airspy owners,

So, with the COVID19 confinement less wasted time in the commute, I revisited Silicon Labs’ ClockBuilder software for the Si5351C, and after a few days of testing, I decided to write my own. This development will be very useful for our next radios, but it can also benefit the existing owners of the Airspy R2 units, so here we are!

Technically, this update further improves the phase noise by using the internal PLLs, counters and feedback loops of the Si5351 in a more optimized way for our use than what ClockBuilder can offer. Furthermore, the 25 MHz TCXO signal is now routed directly to the R820T/2 tuner which eliminates the noise contribution from the Si5351’s PLL altogether. The clock feeding the ADC was improved by using one PLL in integer mode with a fancy cycle counting ratio. Now that the tuner is using a 25MHz clock instead of 20MHZ, the potential spurs will be more spaced. The drive level of the clocks was reduced so the spur characteristics were also improved. More details in the code.

The Airspy R2 series were already privileged for their high dynamic range and low phase noise. Now these parameters just got better with a simple firmware update.

Check the firmware download in the product page: Airspy R2 - airspy.com

Enjoy!

The Airspy Team

I ran the update on my R2, and working on a remote mini install via command line.

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Bear in mind though that the mini doesn’t use the si5351 clock generator chip so although the firmware works with the mini it doesn’t deliver the phase noise improvement you get when using the firmware with an R2 (or R0).

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Prog mentioned an update in a post today

I will do the update when I have some time.

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Is there anywhere a tuto to know how to upgrade it ?
Thanks.

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It’s all detailed in github.

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This is the R2

Found AirSpy board 1
Board ID Number: 0 (AIRSPY)
Firmware Version: AirSpy NOS v1.0.0-rc10-6-g4008185 2020-05-08

Update without problems.
Might this affect settings for airspy_adsb?

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Thanks ! Update is done ;+)

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No. It’s not expected to change the settings.

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Update done on my R2, thank you!

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Airspy r2 firmware ```
For flashing under
ssh on buster 64bit pi4
i can only find windows flash
many thanks
john

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