greatscottgadgets/yardstick

Yet Another Radio Dongle

YARD Stick One

This repository contains hardware designs and software for YARD Stick One, a sub-1 GHz wireless transceiver controlled by your computer.

Information on purchasing YARD Stick One: https://greatscottgadgets.com/yardstickone/

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Documentation

Documentation for YARD Stick One can be viewed on Read the Docs. The raw documenation files for YARD Stick One are in the docs folder in this repository and can be built locally by installing Sphinx Docs and running make html. Documentation changes can be submitted through pull request and suggestions can be made as GitHub issues.

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Getting Help

Before asking for help with YARD Stick One, check to see if your question is listed in the FAQ.

For assistance with YARD Stick One general use or development, please look at the issues on the GitHub project. This is the preferred place to ask questions so that others may locate the answer to your question in the future.

We invite you to join our community discussions on Discord. Note that while technical support requests are welcome here, we do not have support staff on duty at all times and your questions are not guaranteed to be answered. Be sure to also submit an issue on GitHub if you’ve found a bug or if you want to ensure that your request will be tracked and not overlooked.

GitHub issues on this repository that are labelled "technical support" by Great Scott Gadgets employees can expect a response time of two weeks. We currently do not have expected response times for other GitHub issues or pull requests for this repository.

yardstick's Issues

YARD Stick One Not Found

Hey there,

I cannot get my YS1 to work on Windows 11 or my Ubuntu 20.04 VM (VirtualBox). I have tried following all the documentation on here and the rfcat repository and every forum I could find.

Windows gives me some generic "Device not recognized/damaged" error message and just doesn't show up at all in Ubuntu. I got it to appear on Windows as a COM port when put it into bootloader mode by shorting pins 7 and 9 (all 3 LEDs did light up). However, I was still not able to do anything with it.

Back in Ubuntu I tried reloading firmware onto the device following this using both the methods described and had no luck. It kept giving me the "Dongle not found" error message when using "$ rfcat -r" or a message along the lines of "Device being used by something else like a manager." Sorry, I am not at my workbench to give you exact messages. But I have tried unplugging and replugging it dozens of times and nothing.

Next, I tried to downgrade my SDCC version from 3.8.0 to 3.5.0, but it could not be found in the repository.

Then tried installing the libusb-32 drivers using Zadig (along with the other drivers) with and without it in bootloader mode. No cigar.

I have scoured the internet and tried everything I could find on here and other forums with no success. I don't know if it is not compatible with my updated setup or what.

Thanks in advance.

Documentation needs instructions on updating the rfcat firmware

There don't seem to be any instructions for this at the moment, but this comment gives an example of how to do it:

atlas0fd00m/rfcat#101 (comment)

We'll need something that covers setting up the necessary tools, different operating systems, finding the latest release, etc.

This is needed for users encountering #16, as it seems there's still units out there with that problem.

YardStick One RX Gain

Hello,

I've been experimenting with the YardStick One and the RTL-SDR (RTL2832U & R820T2-Based Software Defined Radio)
dongle and I noticed that the YardStick One RX RF gain seems to be set too high; consequently, I'm frequently missing packets
with a strong signals. I can adjust the RTL-SDR dongle gain to receive most packets regardless of signal strengths.

How can I adjust the YardStick One RX gain via the RfCat firmware. I tried the change the TESTx and AGCCTRLx values; but,
I can't find values to allow reception and decoding of packets with strong signals.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Regards,

Alternating send & receive in parallel

I am planning to use rfcom with my home automation program, and plan to build an interface to MQTT. I would like the yardstick to be always listening for packets of interesting, but if my app wants to transmit something I would like it to transmit.

Can I run 2 python processes in parallel (one for tx one for rx)? If not, can I stop the rx process, tx my new packet, then restart an rx process? Is there a better way to do this?

Timeout waiting for USB response.

I get this error after a minute or so running rfpwn or brookforce
rflib.chipcon_usb.ChipconUsbTimeoutException: Timeout waiting for USB response.
Updated to latest Firmware rev: 0616 Compiler: SDCCv350

My rfcat output is garbled looks almost like HTML. This happened after I updated the firmware and RFcat.
I have looked countless days trying to resolve this I find little to nothing about this and no documentation on the greatscott website about this.

What i have Tried:
Switching from usb 2.0 to 3
Flashing the boot loader to latest version of the .hex file.
Try using a different computer like a desktop running ubuntu or mint. (I use this yardstick one on a RPI4 4GB by default)

I do not have another YS1 to test if it's just my dongle However before the firmware upgrade it used to be way worse with timeouts.

Stopped working after 1 week, 3 Led on solid

The dongle shows up using dmesg. Not shure what do try next.

Schematics as PDF

Can you please add a PDF version of the schematics and the PCB layout, so the interested can view them without having to download a whole CAD program?

Documentation is missing a User Guide / Getting Started

The firmware page points to rfcat but since YS1 already ships with firmware installed and relies on rfcat for host tools, I think a quick addition to point to the installation/usage section there could be useful.

Error update via USB port

Hi,

I am trying to update the yardstick one and I have this problem:

rfcat --bootloader --force

make installRfCatYS1CCBootloader


==RfCatYS1CCBootloader.hex building==
sdcc -Iinclude -DBUILD_VERSION=`../revision.sh` --xram-loc 0xF000  --code-loc 0x1400 appFHSSNIC.c chipcon_usb.rel chipcon_usbdebug.rel chipcon_dma.rel bootloader.rel cc1111rf.rel global.rel cc1111_aes.rel -DYARDSTICKONE -DCC1111 -DUSBDEVICE
packihx <appFHSSNIC.ihx >bins/RfCatYS1CCBootloader.hex
packihx: read 622 lines, wrote 1199: OK.
if [ ! -c /dev/RFCAT_BL_YS1 ] ; then ../rfcat --bootloader --force -S && sleep 1 ; fi ;
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "../rfcat", line 11, in <module>
    from rflib import *
  File "/home/ol4y4/rfcat/rflib/__init__.py", line 6, in <module>
    from builtins import str
ImportError: No module named builtins
make: *** [Makefile:378: installRfCatYS1CCBootloader] Error 1

USB Device malfunction

helllo world!
USB device connected has malfunctioned windows does not recognize"
_is the prompt upon connection of out-of-the-box ... as a novice, what can i do to rectify/ Ty

Yardstick not recognized by windows

Hello,

I have an issue conencting YardStick One to my pc Windows 10 computer, I purchased YardStick One in 2019 and it was hiding until now.
Now I wanted to play with it and somehow it is not recognized by windows, I tried updates and I guess I don't know how and where to get proper software to get it running

Thank you for your help in advance, Z123

YS1 stability.

Hello, I'm trying to find out a little more about the oscillator on the YS1, particularly with regards to its stability/ppm drift.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Matt

FAQ page is missing rfcat repository hyperlink

Compatible Enclosure

The Yardstick One was designed to fit P3A-260906U from New Age Enclosures. Drilling a hole for the SMA connector is required.

Is there a step by step procedure on how to upgrade the firmware on the yardstick one?

I have two yardstick ones, both seem to need their firmware upgraded, is there a step by step procedure to accomplish that task, for someone, who perhaps did not spend years behind a Linux Box...?

3.3V and GND short circuit

I went to the factory to produce PCBs and made SMT patches. The schematic and PCB drawings were downloaded from GITHUB. Unable to flash the firmware, after testing, found that 3.3V and GND are shorted. There is no short circuit in the empty pcb board. Does anyone have this problem?

LED 1 inactive, and errors

LED 1 is not active. This YardStick One I bought quit on me after a week. $130, and I'm peeved.

Output, no matter what I try:
Error in resetup():Exception('No Dongle Found. Please insert a RFCAT dongle.',)

I cannot solve this issue. There is nothing on the web describing my problem. I can't enter bootloader mode. This issue is prevalent no matter what computer I try it on. LED 2 and 3 light up, but not one. This doesn't make any sense, as LED 1 means "initialized" and 2 and 3 are regarding TX and RX being active. Can someone PLEASE help me?! I don't know where else to turn!

Does not connect To Computer

Only LED 2 and 3 On Out the Factory, The Yard stick One does not come up when I type “lsusb”. When I jump pin 7 and 9 to get to the boot loader it pops up but I can’t seem to flash it beaus it just dosent connect properly. It could be DOA

How to test the hardware

I have produced several YARD Stick One, but I cannot test the hardware.
Like Ubertooth, does YARD have assembly test firmware?

Yardstick one not getting detected, leds orange and red are dim stable when plugged in to any os

I had started updating the firmware of the yardstick one, but unexpectedly the update got failed with some error after that, I'm not able to detect the yardstick one in my different operating systems. If I plug it in, it will be stable with dim LEDs red and orange.
please help me out of this and define a proper way for updating the firmware.

Device might be DOA?

My wife bought a YARD Stick One for me for Christmas, and things have been busy. I don't use Linux much at home, and it looked like getting it working under Windows or Mac was going to be problematic, so it's been shelved for a good 7-8 months.

I finally installed Kali on an older laptop, got RFCat installed, but it tells me there's no dongle attached. Upon checking dmesg, I see:

"new full-speed USB device number -n- using ehci-pci" followed by "device not accepting address -n-, error -32" and finally "unable to enumerate USB device" with an occasional "attempt power cycle" message in between them. This happens regardless the USB port I try to use.

On my main desktop (running OpenBSD 6.9), the only thing that shows up in dmesg is "uhub5: device problem, disabling port -n-" and typical behavior for a device that's not supported by the kernel (such as the HackRF One) is 'ugen0 at uhub5 port 1 "Great Scott Gadgets HackRF One" ...' so it's unusual to have no device show up at all, just getting a port error.

The 3-pin IC nearest LED2 on my YARD Stick One (a voltage regulator, maybe?) gets untouchably hot after about 30 seconds of being plugged in. Examining the product under a magnifier, it seems to be properly constructed, with no solder bridges or obvious component damage (scorch marks, cracked IC packages, etc). This is the first time I have tried to use it at all. I hadn't plugged it in to any computer before yesterday.

I did jumper pins 7 and 9 on P1 to see if enabling bootloader mode makes any difference. It does not change the behavior on my Kali Linux laptop.

Ideas?

Documentation needs FAQ on Windows 10 "Invalid Configuration Descriptor" error.

Symptom:

Yardstick One shows up in the Windows 10 Device Manager as an "Unknown USB Device", with the error "Invalid Configuration Descriptor".

Cause:

The error message is accurate; there is an off-by-one error in the configuration descriptor returned by older firmware - specifically any version before this rfcat commit atlas0fd00m/rfcat@b2a10d8.

Solution:

Update the firmware to the latest release.

Device not found after a Python exception

When an exception is thrown in a Python program, the error: "Error in resetup():USBTimeoutError(110, 'Operation timed out') appears on a subsequent invocation and the YS1 must be unplugged and reinserted.
OS: Recent Kali on 64-bit Intel. Using Python code, Git from 22-04-2022

trouble configuring YS1 with Rfcat

So yea, Im pretty new to linux but I just had a buddy of mine help me install RFCAT and when the time came to plug in my ys1 and get them paired up, my windows 10 laptop said that the device is not recognized and is malfunctioning and the ys1 had 0 LED's lighting up. I tried many things to get it working finally after a while i put it bootloader mode and my laptop finally was recognizing the device as "yard stick one bootloader".

So i got back to trying to flash it and I just cannot get the Rfcat software to recognize the ys1. I try and flash the YS1 in bootloader mode with the correct command for flashing it (cant remember exactly what that command is) and all i get back is "no dongle found" message. So I thought YS1 was broken/faulty so i order a new one and I go to plug the new YS1 in for the very first time and yet again, no LED's and the message saying that its unrecognized and malfunctioning. I tried this on my pc too and same problem.

PLZ HELP! Thx.

[question] regarding flashing

First of all thank you for your awesome projects.
Currently i am building yardstick one by hand, manufactured pcb hand soldered components. The question is how about flashing the bare CC1111.

I only see mansions to GoodFET as a programer, but can I just use any jtag interface for it? Or does GoodFET uses some custom logic while flashing CC1111?

I understand that once I will have boot loader I will be able to install rfcat directly thru usb. But I am a bit lost on initial boot loader upload to CC1111 without GoodFET :)

Thank you