GnuRadio on Windows - failed!

[junglejet]

Hi Satcom,

thank you for the great review.
The dongle is in no way different than any other device.

For now the MLAT counter in the packet is set to a fixed value to prevent misuse. I could enable this counter but the resolution is only 500ns and I would need Bev's clearance for this.

Cheers
Andy

[satcom]

Hi Andy

Thanks for the clarification.

I should have one of the 820 T units within a few days , at that stage I'll be able to do more tests and then report back to Bev so that we can consider the raw data side of things....but certainly , as far as a basic sharing device , it seems to do very well

[IanH]

I'll have another attempt tomorrow (finished work for the week) but somewhere in all this testing I've managed to upset Win7 and Zadig.

It isn't seeing the dongle any more. Rebooted, etc. And I've tried running SDRSharp to confirm whether it is there - no success.

So time to move testing to another PC  - one of those that I keep "just in case" 

Ian

PS Need to order a R820 to get over the lack of interesting items on Amazon's Black Friday "sale". Shoes, makeup, kiddies toys, cookery books, jewellery - FAIL.

[junglejet]

You should be able to restore Windows to a point before the zadig installation and then start from scratch.

[satcom]

I have a similar situation here

The 4000E device is working fune , but the newer 820T arrived earlier so I stopped rtl1090
and PP disconnected the 4000E and conncted the 820 expecting all to work OK , but when rtl1090 was started , it could not find the new device error 12

I thought I would then try to reload zadig , but that too failed.

Going back to the 4000E , all works , so at least I can carry out more tests , but not at present on the newer 820T

[IanH]

Too many attempts at installation so not enough restore points to go back to the beginning. Gave up on that PC.

Created a new WinXP virtual machine. Zadig worked fine to install drivers. "rtl_test -t" confirmed working dongle.

Both Mike and I want to run a dongle remotely (in the loft) via a USB/Ethernet hub and not via a long length of coax. So that was the next test. Moved dongle to a USB port on hub. Installed hub control software on WinXP. RTL2832U dongle was shown on hub. Couldn't connect dongle to WinXP until I turned off the WinXP firewall as a temporary fix.

Once connected, RTL2832U appears in Device Manager on WinXP as a USB device. Also appeared in Zadig.

BUT running "rtl_test -t" showed "no supported devices". Not surprisingly RTL1090 gave a similar message.

I was having very similar results with Virtualbox running Ubuntu - the dongle was NOT being presented to the Linux software. I thought this was a lack of Linux drivers for the hub or the transfer of USB signals from Windows to Linux.

Just tried the same on a real Win7 PC with exactly the same results - RTL2832U is present as a USB device via the USB/ethernet hub and appears in device manager but RTL1090 and RTL_test don't see it.

Seems now that the dongle will not run across a USB/Ethernet hub. For me that is a show stopper and I will probably abandon further testing.

Suspect this device is only going to work connected directly to a PC.

Ian

[Anmer]

Thanks Ian, glad I'm not alone with the "dongle over Ethernet" issue.

I'll use a laptop upstairs as soon as I have some speare time and see how it compares to dedicated 1090 MHz receivers.

[junglejet]

a) Zadig installation is valid for one particular USB slot only. I have failed to install the driver for another slot, too. I can run both E4000 and R820T one after the other, but only in one and the same slot.

b) The device name in zadig is [Bulk-in interface 0]. This is the "libusb" driver. You can find it in System Device Manager as a separate device. If you see something like RTL2832U you have probably installed the TV drivers?

Andy

[satcom]

Thanks Andy...we must have a telepathic link....... I reckon as you were typing your last note I was actually going through the Zadig process again on both XP and VISTA...Bingo both now run the 820T , which is presently on test.

The jury is still out on raw data , the data is there but we are not sure at this stage if it is being contributed to successful Mlats.

I did a long test run for Bev earlier and he's going to have a look at the files later.
Great work....and at least falling foul of the zadig process has taught me to pay closer attention to the instructions 

[IanH]

In a different post in this section (to avoid diluting this thread) I mention sending  in sending network data from a Raspberry Pi.

The key is that the decoding software can receive data from the IP address running RTL_TCP.

Now if RTL1090 could have that added in, it would give another decoding option, particularly as the output from RTL1090 is more than a simple port 30003 output. 

Ian