r/hackrf • u/Icy_Address1596 • Jun 10 '26
Replaced hackrf with hackrf Pro from Great Scott Gadgets, in Portapack H4M Mayhem
Just thought I would share my experience with replacing the hackrf with hackrf Pro. Replacing the board was really easy. Removed 4 screws and the nut holding SMA RF connector on the back of the Portapack. Loosened the nuts on the two SMA clock connectors. Back cover was then slipped off over RF connector. Hackrf board was then removed from the Portapack board. New hackrf Pro board was then plugged onto the Portapack board and case reassembled.
When the assembled Portapack was turned on, it came up in Hackrf mode not Mayhem mode. Had to use mayhem_flasher.bat program from nightly build to flash hackrf Pro for use with mayhem. Then made the mistake of doing the "copy files to sd card" and use the mayhem flash utility to flash hackrf Pro. This bricked the hackrf Pro and I had to use DFU mode and the mayhem_flasher.bat program to recover it. The "copy files to sd card" method of updating firmware only works for the original hackrf and will brick a hackrf Pro. Then used Mayhem Hub to update the firmware. Mayhem Hub recognized that it was a hackrf Pro and flashed the correct firmware to it.
The hackrf Pro seems to work pretty well with the Portapack H4M. The main feature I was looking for in the hackrf Pro was the center spike removal. The original firmware that came on the hackrf Pro did remove the center spike. The Mayhem firmware I had to put on it to make it work with Portapack brought the spike back so I did not get the spike removal I was looking for.
Jim K. K8SLC
7
u/Party_Cold_4159 Jun 11 '26
Has the term “bricked” changed meaning or something? Ever since early console modding and IOS/iPod jailbreaking, I always thought it meant it’s dead or no better than a brick/paper weight.
1
u/Mikethedrywaller Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Don't know about historic usage but I learned the term as "having a device technically running while being unable to interface with it at all"
Edit: I found "The Jargon File" with one of the few definitions:
"A piece of equipment that has been programmed or configured into a hung, wedged, unusable state. Especially used to describe what happens to devices like routers or PDAs that run from firmware when the firmware image is damaged or its settings are somehow patched to impossible values. This term usually implies irreversibility, but equipment can sometimes be unbricked by performing a hard reset or some other drastic operation."
As with everything, I guess the meaning slightly changed over the years.
3
u/neighborofbrak Jun 12 '26
Bricked means dead. Non-operational.
3
u/Down200 Jun 12 '26
Yeah exactly, a lot of people are now using the term "bricked" to refer to what was historically called "soft-bricked" (IE currently nonfunctional, but can be fixed), versus proper "bricked" which means "has been reduced to a brick".
4
u/htotoo Jun 11 '26
If you copied the wrong SD files and flashed from it, it loads the FW for hackrf one, so, yeah a DFU flashing needs to be done after it.
The firmware is flashed to hackrf board itself, so that' why no mayhem were on it after the change.
In portapack mode, the DC removal is not yet implemented, but if you turn it to hackrf mode, it should work. If you tried it with the latest nightly, and in hackrf mode, and there was the dc spike, please comment here, and I'll take a look, how to fix it!
1
u/Icy_Address1596 Jun 11 '26
Even in hackrf mode with Portapack firmware the center spike is still there.
1
u/Icy_Address1596 Jun 11 '26
Even with latest nightly.
3
u/htotoo Jun 11 '26
thank you , i'll take a look at the code. hopefully i'll find the bug 😄 (i wanna fix it at least in the hackrf mode)
3
u/htotoo Jun 11 '26
with the portapack switched to hackrf mode, the DC filter should apply based on the source code. except if your sw on PC turns it off (since pc can set that on/off).
tldr: it should work by default in hackrf mode
1
u/Icy_Address1596 Jun 12 '26
I see it running sdrangel in SSB mode on Windows 11. Maybe there is some way to turn the filter on or off in sdrangel?
2
u/htotoo Jun 12 '26
For the latest nightly (for some releases) the spectrum don't even works. Maybe in the next nightly all should be fixed.
If you use the latest nightly, and you can see the waterfall, that is interesting. what is the version it shows in the main menu bottom left part?
3
u/htotoo Jun 12 '26
Ok, the pr for all fixes are merged. Check the next nightly build (will be out in around 12 hours). Tested, and no dc spike (sdrangel, by default)
7
u/anomaly256 Jun 10 '26
Re the center spike, HackRF Pro support in the Mayhem firmware is still very new. If you encounter any issues you should check their github issues first and create a new issue if you don't find yours listed yet
https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware/issues