Xuxiang Liu
1984
A personal blog for sharing technology and life.

Solve the problem of compling simulink-hackrf on MATLAB R2019a and R2021b

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Complie the simukink-hackrf in higher Matlab version.

In my previous blog i mentioned that in higher Matlab version (>R2016a) there is a problem about compling simulink-hackrf using mex. After reading this reply https://github.com/kit-cel/simulink-hackrf/issues/11 and the help document of mex, i find the way of compling the simulink-hackrf on Matlab R2019a and R2021b.

I also fork the original simulink-hackrf Github project. The forked project simulink-hackrf_xuxiang https://github.com/xuxiang-liu/simulink-hackrf_xuxiang is compatible for all Matlab versions and there is no extra installing or compling steps needed comparing to the original one. You can just follow my blog https://xuxiang-liu.github.io/2022/04/16/firstpost.html to process. And in the step 12, you only need one make command. I also hope to add more interesting features in this forked project.

The following records how to use mex to complie simulink-hackrf on higher Matlab version. If you want to use the original simulink-hackrf project, you could referto this.

Steps

Install MINGW

In higher Matlab version, we need to use Matlab Add-Ons to install the MINGW. This is much easier than installing in Matlab R2016a. Just click Adds-Ons and install it automatically

Generate new libhackrf.lib

You could refer to https://github.com/kit-cel/simulink-hackrf/issues/11 for more information about this step. The environment you need to prepare is the MSVC in VS2019. You could refer to this document for more information https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/all-4-vc-command-prompt-batch-files-eg-vcvars64bat/536112>. When MSVC is installed, open it in this path “…​\M​icrosoft Visual Studio​\2​019​\C​ommunity​\V​C​\A​uxiliary​\B​uild​\v​cvars64.bat”.

Then AustrianCodeWriter has given a complete description about how to generate libhackrf.lib based on MSVC environment.

  1. Call a new MSVC console (e.g. for “Visual Studio 2019”: Start a new command line window and call the batch-script from “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat”)

  2. Change directory to “deps\bin” and run:

    dumpbin /EXPORTS libhackrf.dll > libhackrf.exports

  3. Create a new file called “libhackrf.def” and insert the following lines:

LIBRARY “libhackrf.dll”

EXPORTS

hackrf_board_id_name

hackrf_xxx

For hackrf_xxx insert each “hackrf_” element from your previously created “libhackrf.exports” file

  1. In your MSVC console type the command: lib /def:libhackrf.def /machine:x64 /out:libhackrf.lib

After doing these steps, it will generate libhackrf.exp, libhackrf.exports, libhackrf.def and libhackrf.lib. Copy libhackrf.lib into simulink-hackrf-1.0/deps/bin.

Change make

Open the make file in Simulink-hackrf. Then find %% Cofiguration, change [‘-L’ HACKRF_LIB_DIR]; ’-lhackrf’ … to [‘-L’ HACKRF_LIB_DIR]; ’-l​lib​hackrf’…. Then run make.

Now everything is fine. You should be able to successfully complie it.