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RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:40 pm
by someYguy
Hi All,

Is it possible to select between the antenna ports of the RSP-2 via the driver's Device Control Panel? I'm thinking of buying an RSP-2 but I want to use it with an older version of SDRSharp, which does allow access to the device control panel. But if I cannot select antenna ports from there then that would be a deal breaker for me unfortunately :(. As always, thank you :)

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:04 pm
by 13dka
The EXTIO control panel has an antenna selector and all other RSP specific controls.

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 10:48 pm
by Mike2459
I use SDR# withe the RSP2. SDR# will frequently hang when selecting the HI-Z antenna port. Once a successful selection to the HI-Z port is made (which is rare) it works fine.

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 7:58 am
by g1hbe
Mike - I use SDRUno these days and that behaves the same. It will always seize up when moving from port 1 to Hi-z, but simply pressing the 'stop' button and then the 'play' button brings it back to life.

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:11 pm
by someYguy
Very good guys, thanks.

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:03 am
by sdrplay
When you say "always" freeze up, can you send me a screenshot showing the settings because I'm unable to reproduce this. Also, whether you have IF AGC enabled

Thanks and best regards,

SDRplay Support

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:10 am
by g1hbe
In my case it goes like this:

Start SDRUno from cold.
Press PLAY
Enter (say) 450 MHz and select Ant A.
Now press the 160m band button then select Hi-z.
This more often than not causes reception to stop and the waterfall just shows vertical lines.

Pressing STOP then PLAY corrects it and reception carries on.

The problem does not happen after Uno has been stopped and re-started, only straight after a new start-up.

EDIT. AGC is on. I've just been playing around with this, and it appears it happens when there are some very strong signals just outside the b/w of the waterfall. Most of my band-changing is from VHF down to the 160m band or to MW and I'm wondering if the strong signals around here (on 1458 KHz and 1377 KHz) are responsible. It certainly looks possible, as if I reduce the input to the RSP2 before changing bands it does not happen.

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:37 pm
by Mike2459
g1hbe: I have been able to reproduce this nasty issue in SDR# (where it is particularly bad) with all antennas disconnected from the RSP2. IMO, this is a serious compatibility issue that needs to be addressed ASAP.

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:48 pm
by sdrplay
What is the RF gain set to? Set it to min gain reduction (max gain) and see if it's still repeatable. I've been trying for a while now and can't reproduce it. I need to be able to reproduce it before I can see what needs fixing.

Best regards,

SDRplay Support

Re: RSP-2 antenna select via Device Control Panel?

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 7:22 am
by 13dka
Sorry I meant to report this a long time ago, when SDRUno still had a similar behavior, which was fixed later.

It seems an unlucky combination of antenna port selection and LNA GR (or the difference in possible GR settings between the SMA and HiZ ports) is not gracefully handled by the ExtIO.dll (also in SDR Console v3). The problem can be triggered by LNA GR at high (between 5 and 8) figures (it does not happen at LNA Gain <5), then selecting the HiZ input (which has only a GR range from 1-4).

[Steps to reproduce]

1. Select AntA or B

2. Set LNA GR to '8'

3. Change antenna input to Hi-Z -> data stream to the host application gets "frozen".

If the LNA GR value doesn't get manually changed to a value 1-4 (or an SMA input was selected), the device can't be restarted.