Dave from EEVBlog Reviews the Red Pitaya
The Red Pitaya is a type of advanced digital acquisition device (DAQ) that is marketed mainly for use as a type of digital oscilloscope. But it has an on board programmable FPGA and through various downloadable apps can be used for many different applications, such as a spectrum analyzer, impedance analyzer, bode plotter, signal generator or even as a software defined radio.
Back in February we posted how Pavel Demin had created an SDR app for the Red Pitaya which allows it to be used with common SDR software such as SDR# and HDSDR. The Red Pitaya has an on board 14-bit ADC which when in SDR mode can receive signals from between 0 to 50 MHz with a bandwidth of up to 2.5 MHz.
Recently, Dave from the hugely popular electronics YouTube show EEVBlog reviewed the Red Pitaya. Whilst Dave doesn’t try out the SDR apps, he tests it out as an oscilloscope and also tests more of its default apps such as the spectrum analyzer.
Unfortunately in his review the Red Pitaya does not seem to live up to expectations. During operation Dave encounters problems with the WiFi connectivity, frequent problems with the web based apps crashing and freezing on him, and discovers that the provided apps are extremely rudimentary and provide very little functionality. He mentions that the device is probably more useful for people wanting to write their own customs apps for specific applications, but as an out of the box digital measurement tool it is not there yet.
I really hate to say this, but while Dave has observed the WIFI issue, if the Red Pitaya is on a hardwired Ethernet connection it runs PERFECT. I’ve run mine for a few DAYS on an Ethernet connection running JUST the app that was designed and deployed by Pavel. I’m not running the SDR app from the ‘Bazaar’. No kidding, this Red Pitaya is every bit as good as the Apache Labs ANAN-10E that I used to own running PowerSDR.
Dave – Try it again. The Red Pitaya is a marvelous SDR…I wouldn’t own two Red Pitatas and sold one of my HackRF SDRs AND my ANAN-10E if that wasn’t the case…
…And while the article mentions that Dave didn’t try the SDR feature, I’ve run the oscilloscope and the spectral display – again by a hard wired Ethernet connection using the apps off the Bazaar – and the apps run solid. There is a known issue with the WIFI that Red Pitaya is aware of, but there are people working it and making progress. For the money, you cannot pass up this versatile test instrument with an SDR extra perk..!
“hard wired Ethernet connection” if you watched the extended uncut version, Dave was unable to get the WiFi to work and all his tests were done with an Ethernet cable. It was probably not the best idea of Red Pitaya, to send one to David for review (at least until everything was a bit more polished). He did love the HW, though.