Getting Started With Red Pitaya Stemlab 125-10

Earlier this year, team Red Pitaya provide Stemlab 125-10 kits to students for their projects. And luckily I am one of them, so here is my review on getting started with red pitaya.

Red Pitaya Stemlab 125-10 is an effective replacement of big machinery with a wide application in academic, industries, research and HAM radio fields. One can not only use it as an instrument but also is a versatile development board and powerful tool.

The board involves strong performance such as remote accessibility with a WEB app user interface accessible through Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The mass storage device for the operating system is a micro-SD card.

Some Key Features Involves:

• Can be controlled remotely using LabVIEW, MATLAB, Python, or Scilab.
• Open software source code available.
• Works with a Linux or Windows PC.
• Credit-card sized RF signal acquisition & generation platform.
• Possibility of integration into own system/product.

Red Pitaya STEMlab 125-10 came nicely packed in a cardboard box containing the following components.

• Red Pitaya STEMlab 125-10 board
• Universal Power Adaptor (5V, 2A)
• SD card (16GB, class 10)
• Ethernet cable (1m)

MicroSD card came pre-installed with the Red Pitaya OS image, if you wish to update or install an older version of the OS then you can refer to this link.

The kit comes with the major part i.e. the STEMlab 125-10 board, power adaptor, and microSD card, but these are not enough to get started with red pitaya.

We need some additional accessories to get our hands on the device like oscilloscope probes, logic analyzer probes, BNC-SMA connectors, wireless dongle.

For connecting your board with pc, these steps are needed to be followed.

If your laptop does not come with an ethernet slot, then a USB to ethernet adaptor will work for you.

* It is recommended to buy BNC-SMA connectors and wireless dongle(for connecting red pitaya over wifi network) with your kit, as these are very hard to get from the market. I faced a lot of trouble getting both of these and it even took more than a month to get them in my country.

* There is a con that I faced with the device, it is only compatible with RTL8188cu wifi chipset, if your dongle has any other chipset then it would not get detected on the device. (Even RTL8188eu didn't work for me).

For additional protection of my device, I 3d printed an enclosure for the device. There are many designs available on the Thingiverse out of which I have printed from this link. It perfectly snap-fit on the device and is looking great.

You can also buy an acrylic or aluminium case from the red pitaya official website.

For using your device for the first time, connect an ethernet cable to your device and connect it to the router and connect your device(laptop, tablet, mobile) on the same network and enter the IP address mentioned on the device (sticker on the ethernet port) in your browser and Red pitaya user interface would open up.

After that choose the application which you need to use, I mostly use the Oscilloscope of this device.

For connecting your device wirelessly to your router, plug in the recommended WIFI adaptor in your Red pitaya USB port and connect an ethernet cable to your router, then using the Red pitaya GUI, select the system tab and select network settings and enter your wireless network details and reboot the Red pitaya.

After this, your device would successfully connect to your wireless router.

There are many pre-installed applications that can be used and more can be downloaded from the Red pitaya store.

(P.S. I have faced some latency issues on my device when using over wifi, Red pitaya website also recommends using the device over ethernet only.

I am also facing some issues using USB to ethernet adaptor, my red pitaya sometimes loses its connections, when I use the adaptor.)

I have only tested oscilloscope and signal generator features till now which works pretty accurately, I faced some latency issues while using over a wireless network.

In the first image, I have connected the oscilloscope to the internal signal generator of the device which works properly.

In the second image, I have measured a pulse rating signal generated by Arduino UNO, which is very accurately measured on the device.

I have not yet measured any highspeed signal with the device, I would update this instructable later after measuring.

If you would like to know more about any feature of Red pitaya then comment down below.