SDRplay, SDR Console, running on a VM

[rhedges]

Hi All,

Here is my setup and experiences after messing around with the SDRplay for a couple of days. This is mostly based on the environment specifics not the actual receive performance of the SDRplay.

SDRplay (multiple rubber duck antennas)
NooElec RTL SDR USB Dongle (various wire antennas)
QNAP TS-453 Pro running QTS 4.2
VM is Windows 10 Home (4 vCores 2Ghz Celeron, 4GB Ram, 100GB Disk Space, single 1Gb Ethernet)
Verizon FIOS 25Mbs service
SDR Server 2.3 build 2242 (running on VM above)
SDR Console v2.3 build 2242 (running on Surface Pro 2 running Windows 10)

The set up mentioned above is what I'm hoping becomes the final configuration of the system. I have tried multiple other software such as HDSDR and SDR#.

I'll comment on the other software before moving on to the issues with the proposed set up. I couldn't get SD# to recognize the SDRplay (direct connected to the Surface Pro) at all. I think this has something to do with EXTIO and changes SDR# made to the way they connect to the SDR. I haven't dug into that yet since I plan to use SDR Console.

HDSDR worked perfectly with snappy performance. No issues found when it's directly connected to my Surface Pro using HDSDR.

In my proposed, server based set up I am experiencing low client side performance with the SDRplay/SDR Console Server setup. Before I move on to the specifics of the performance issue I should mention that using the RTL SDR Dongle with SDR Console Server works flawlessly. It runs for days streaming at roughly 500kbps. That being said, using the SDRplay as the RX in this set up, the performance is very laggy on the client. I'm not sure what the issue is other than the Mirics driver isn't completely happy being run an a VM or I need to make a settings adjustment somewhere that will increase performance. Running the SDRplay locally to the Surface Pro with SDR Console works as expected. Snappy performance and all the features worked as advertised.

I really want to figure out what causes the performance hit when running the SDRplay/SDR Console on a VM so that I can run a server for others to connect to.

Thanks,
Rob
KC8YNI

[rhedges]

I don't normally make it a habit of replying to my own posts, but I just wanted to follow up on this. I got the SDRplay working on a VM with SDR Console. The solution was pretty simple. Even though I have the SDRplay connected to a USB 2.0 port on the QNAP (it also has USB 3.0 ports), I had to uncheck an option in the VM settings to allow USB 3.0 devices to be used with the VM. After I unchecked that option and fired up the VM everything was working perfectly. It's been running for hours now without a hiccup.

On a side note, running the SDRplay at anything below 2Mhz sample rate with one client connected via wireless (server is hardwired) seems to work the server side processor at about 30% - 50%. I average about 500kbps on the client. Anything above a 2Mhz sample rate starts to really eat into the processor and slow down the bitrate resulting in poor audio quality.

Now on to getting the antenna situation squared away.

[hooklight]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for this interesting post of a few months ago. And very relevent to me, as I'm about to purchase a QNAP NAS and an SDRplay with the intention of using them both in the way you described.

I've got my eye on the TS-253A NAS, which has only USB 3 ports. So before I plunge ahead, I'd like to ascertain whether I can pass through the SDRPlay to a QTS VM via one of the NAS's USB3 ports. Would you know whether this is possible?

I've posted this question in more generic terms on the QNAP support forum - http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=199&t=118717, but I thought it might make sense to ask you too.

Thanks, David.

[vr_driver]

Oh gosh. I've just discovered I can run Windows VMs on my QNAP Nas (yeah, I'm a bit slow)... BUT... that it can accept different USB devices to the VM.
This post helped confirmed this to me. So now... off I play!
I'll be playing with an external pager decoder, (POCSAG) rather than SDR, but it's still all the same RF. Mine will just make life easier to decode the stream as I'll get to use it straight in to my windows application. That'll save on power bill from running a Win8 box 24/7!!
How did you go long term, is your project still going?