Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

For real battery usage tests, using Pali's bme-replacement seems appropriate. It even makes normal hildon battery meters up-to-date while in hostmode (not to mention possibility of getting more accurate data via bq27x00_battery sysfs entries).

/Estel

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Checking in to say it works.

Had to reboot after first install before libusb would work properly. rtl_fm worked but I never got any audio out of aplay. Might be a root user issue, dunno. Ran at about 80% CPU usage.

Had some trouble with some libboost deps for gqrx, couldn't find the newest version with apt-get so I just grabbed them straight off the repos. The UI/FFT runs very smoothly if you disable any and all demodulation. I managed to run that for maybe an hour before my battery went completely flat. The screen did turn off so it might only be half an hour of good running time. I did have to run it as root to get it to use the rtl dongle properly.

gqrx did peg CPU usage at 100% the whole time but the phone was surprisingly responsive the whole time. The main interface isn't too bad either on the N900 (If you keep samples <1.024MSps). I'd say it's one of the better applications out there for mobile SDR FFT viewing (better than SDR Touch or ghsphr or whatever it is).

Here's a screenshot for good measure:
http://i.imgur.com/XDJiyrq.png

edit: Sound works fine. Silent mode was on. :o

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Thank you for the nice report and for the screenshot.
I have just added in the first post a list of the packages required to run this tools.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

for running sth as root, consider run-standalone.sh
The battery usage for hostmode is maximum 200mA/3.7V*5V = 270mA, on top of anything the N900 uses for itself. Not that much actually. A battery could support this for 5h, of course less with the additional load for N900 SoC, display, etc

/j

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

For the apt-get line you have I think liborc and numpy have different names in the repos. I think its liborc-0.4-0 and python-numpy.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Anyone feel like compiling dsd? gcc and ld are jacked up on my N900 and I can't even compile basic stuff.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Fixed. Thanks!

I have just verified that building this software and the required mbelib is not a problem at all.
But... considering the encodings managed by this application, i don't think that it would be useful in any way to share this application for ham radio or experimental purposes.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Fair enough. Guess I'll bite the bullet and setup scratchbox.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Do you like NOAA images?

Here you can find atpdec and wxapt for the N900:
http://ge.tt/2QpmiMs

(wxapt is untested)

An example to decode a wav(recorded from a Noaa transmission):
------------------------------------------------------------


$ wget http://www.damside.freeserve.co.uk/miniNOAA.zip
$ unzip miniNOAA.zip
$ atpdec ./miniNOAA8.wav
$ ls *.png
miniNOAA8-1.png
$ gqview miniNOAA8-1.png

... :D


# If you want you could try other examples:
$ wget http://websterling.com/tsro/apt/sample.mp3

# atpdec wants 1 channel and rate 11025: (here we select the right channel -1)
lame --decode sample.mp3 && sox sample.mp3.wav -c1 -r 11025 sample.wav
# or: mpg123 -w sample.wav -r 11025 -1 ./sample.mp3
$ atpdec ./sample.wav


# A few examples to receive NOAA images:
http://websterling.com/tsro/apt/
http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/gnu-...qrx-and-rtlsdr

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Found this, $10 for a tiny USB SDR. Just install this GNuradio and you can go!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINI-FM-DAB-...item19e216f0ab
seems a perfect size to hang on your keys or leave plugged into your USB pigtail adapter.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

glad this is workin soooo great, just asking, what about gettin dvb-t compliant video broadcast?

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

There is another thread where DVB was working with overclocking, this is using the software defined radio drivers.

BTW here is a HF downconverter for about $35. http://www.ebay.com/itm/HF-Converter...item2a324944ad

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

I just ordered the $10 SDR/DVB dongle upthread. I think that with two PCBs stacked you could actually jam this inside a Neo900 with a Mugen cover though it would need a hole for an antenna connector. Glad I bought 3 covers when they were cheap!

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

It'll fit easily if you don't have doubled up batteries. It'll take some work if you have a big battery.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Hi,

first of all thanks to xes for the nice work, the N900 broadband receiver with a cheap dvb dongle is a great thing.


Receiving narrow and wide FM signals is no problem with rtl_fm and aplay but gqrx output is:

"error while loading shared libraries: gnuradio-audio-3.6.2.so.0.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"


A second problem is the link to
multimon-ng_20130910_N900_Xes.tar.gz
I am not able to download. My fault or is the file down ?


Please help me to use this best N900 project ever :)


best regards

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

It seems that the multimon-ng download link has some problem... I will upload that again.
Until that you can use the mirror provided by joerg_rw:
http://maemo.cloud-7.de/maemo5/opt/r...900_Xes.tar.gz

Talking about the gqrx missing lib, you shoud add to /etc/ld.so.conf the path "/opt/gnuradio/lib" or create the symbolic links of the gnuradio libs into /usr/lib.
Doing this, gqrx will be able to use the gnuradio libs.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Thank you !

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

It works ! Thank you again.

The gqrx GUI doesn't fit into the screen and it seems that the cpu load is to heavy to work seamlessly but wtf it works on N900 !

I also tried multimon-ng, there is no error, I think it works but I have no possibility to test a signal today.

Even if rtl_fm is the only continuous part I'm very lucky :)

My dongle is a "Terratec ran T-Stick+", not mentioned at the most manuals, but it works with rtl-sdr on N900, raspberry PI, Debian, Win sdr#, ... bought at "Conrad" store (20€, there are cheaper dongles but if you can't wait it's ok)

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

You can customize gqrx disabling a few toolbar...

I should try to build the new version 2.3.0.
It has some kind of optimization for small screens:
https://github.com/csete/gqrx/blob/master/news.txt

...But i'm not so sure it will build succesfully.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

http://2011.ruxcon.org.au/assets/Pre...rldWithSDR.pdf - nice presentation (althought almost 3yo) about sdr usage ideas ;)

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

BTW I verified setup with XES who says...

"Well, it's very easy... Unpack all in /opt/ , add the gnuradio and rtl_sdr libs folder in /etc/ld.so.conf or symlink them into /usr/lib. ...Done and ready to go! "

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Power consumption comparison of different rtl2832 DVB-T keys:

http://funcubedongle.pbworks.com/w/page/65555471/Power

http://blog.palosaari.fi/2013/06/nak...-rtl2832u.html

...it seems that the E4000 is the best choice when used with the N900

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

is it possible to monitor bus waiting times as explained here? http://www.windytan.com/2013/11/deco...-bus-stop.html

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Sure!! Outside there are many things you can decode with a rtl2832 key!
For example, weather stations, door remotes, wireless alarms...

Look here:
https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

News:
libusb1 is available in extras repo and also rtl-sdr built from latest git version 0.5.3.2 should be available soon:
http://maemo.org/packages/package_in...-5b01-1maemo6/

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Hell yeah! Thank you very much.

Now, you may consider adding "[Annoucement]" to thread title.Either way, I hope it gains attention that it deserves.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Xes, I finally fought with apt and have it all installed, now I am getting aplay errors of all things. Since I have the deb installed and it is in /usr/bin I edited the line from the optified example on your first post.Any chance you will be packaging gqrx?
I wish I had a handle on the technical side of Linux like I do with analog components; I wouldn't ever bother you again. I think I need to go make a yaggi and once I figure this out see if I can pull down some weather satellite feeds.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Tried again like this
Looks like everything was fine on the lame side but I got a segmentation fault.
in lsmod I have rtc_core rtc_twl4030 loaded
I am not sure how to get rtl_fm to give a more verbose fail.

Off topic but I was surfing around in the repos and saw you have uploaded hamlib, what other things for hams do you have on the repos, for seme reason I had to hand load things like libusb1, not searchable via my app manager.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

@biketool
please check again using new syntax "-M fm" instead "-N".
rtl-sdr version available in extras-testing uses new syntax (as you can see from your error message)

First post updated.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Tried your above, even
causes a segmentation fault...


Oh S#!t ran as root and......
well not quite but closer; rtl_fm is going though
Good news its that a double scud battery seems to support enough amps for this USB dongle.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Blam!
This worked and made a good recording from FM radio, well with the short antenna the RX is not great, I think the receiver is not very sensitive and FM radio is pretty far out on its RX capability. A bit better with the 70cm amateur band though seems like it is receiving the sound quiet compared to static volume.
Did you compile Gqrx for the N900? For me having a radio head is easier on my brain than counting decimal places :)
Still not sure what I was doing wrong in aplay as live RX is more useful to me than a mp3 file.

for reference I am using one of these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-USB-DVB...item566184a239

Xes, you F$#@%$#ing rock!
SDR for my N900 is super sweet!

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

So I though I would try dropping gqrx into /usr/bin it fails when it doesn't find libgnuradio-audio-3.6.5.1.so.0.0.0

even though I have:

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Did you add "/home/user/MyDocs/N900 SDR/N900 SDR/gnuradio/lib" to LD search path? Or tried LD_PRELOAD="all-stuffs-from-/home/user/MyDocs/N900 SDR/N900 SDR/gnuradio/lib-one-by-one" /usr/bin/gqrx ?

edit: alternatively, if you feel brave, you may try linking all files from /home/user/MyDocs/N900 SDR/N900 SDR/gnuradio/lib to /usr/lib for example (I wouldn't recommend copying them, as they are probably too big to fit there).

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Wow... I just really looked at the path ofthose libs above and realized the files are not in any way installed with the rtl-sdr package but were in /home/user from my previous attempt to hand install the various files

Also USB mode works better than HEN for this application and is also right there to use, just use 'host mode with boost'.

ordering some of these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DVB-T-RF-Coa...3D291162357864
so that I can chop the end off and have a few cut wire antennas which trave better than the mag mount which seems more appropriate for in a car.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

I figured out the problem with aplay, just mover the files in home/user/.pulse to $.old

sadly I get no sound output when I run this though it appears everything s running correctly.
BTW why does rtl_fm need to be run as root to avoid segfault?

(edit)
The missing option fm (or wbfm, am, usb, lsb, raw) after -M fixes the modulation setting, AM and sideband work too!! SDR, Eff Yea!! I need to get/make an upconverter for HF bands. On FM broadcast radio in rural areas the -g (gain) set to 20 really helped me a gain of 50 barely brings in some air band signals .

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

btw, it is much easier for my brain to fix the decimal in rtl_fm to call the 430175000 entry 430.175M the M meaning mega or Mhz which chops six decimal places off, we don't commonly talk in hertz we talk megahertz/Mhz in the range that the RTL-SDR works in.

I ordered a larger SDR dongle for about $6 delivered to see if my sensitivity issues were just related to my tiny dongle which I bought to accompany my N900.

It seems that MCX male has become the standard antenna connector port on many of the DVB-T dongles we are using for SDR with the rest using a RF coaxial connector.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

This is sort of off topic but I am curious, is anyone else having trouble installing the files Xes has made available? I can only install them by finding the .deb, downloading it, and installing it with dpkg. I wonder how many other cool apps are not showing up for some reason. I am able to view other files available on extras, extras-dev, and extras-testing.

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Maybe "hidden" in HAM? not in "user" group (or somesuch)?

Re: SDR gnuradio RTL-SDR x N900
 

Is there a thread addressing this? I just don't know where to begin research.

Wow, cool addition for my N900. Let's see how it compares to my old Philips radio from the '40s. :)