SDR Play image work with RTL USB dongle ?

[NeilP]

Before I waste any more time can the SDRPlay image and the software on it be used to 'drive' /receive radio off of an RTL USB Dongle or is the software on it tailored just for the RSP devices?

I have 3 USB sticks here, all work flawlessly on Windows or Mac with SDR# but so far after 8 hours tinkering and following tutorials never got the USB even recognised by the SDR Play installed stuff

Before I waste another day, should it work or is it stuff on it specific to RSP devices?

[Paul]

I believe that the SDRuno EXTIO version should work for you.
However, I think that you will find that it may lack some of the features of the "complete" version, which is a fantastic programme, but I may be wrong.
I don't know whether you are aware, but I believe that a scanning version of SDRuno should be in the next update.
Used for V/L/HF the RSP plus uno is absolutely the bees knees!

[NeilP]

Thanks
My plan had been to have a play with SDR, then get an RSP2, but 2 weeks ago I had motorbike accident in Czech Republic. Motorbike still there, I spent a week in hospital there, then flown home, week in hospital at home. Going toncost £1800 probably to get the bike back...Insurance won’t cover it.. small print ! So buying new toys not on the cards

Any one have an old version RSP - they’ll sell me for £20 .

[NeilP]

Been searching all morning and can only see SDRuno of any version available for Windows, not yet found anything for a Raspberry Pi

[Paul]

Sorry about your misfortune, but you have at least survived to tell the tale.
This video illustrates the setting up of SDRuno on a raspberry Pi.
Personally, I use an elderly much-modified dell laptop and windows 10 for this purpose.
Although a conviced iMac user and a linux dabbler, I believe this provides the best option (less complicated and perfectly satisfactory.
But good luck with your endeavours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvcbnoaYnL8

[NeilP]

Hi, thanks for the video link
I’ll take a look in a moment

I had hoped to run on a Pi really to have a lower power use system.

I was given an old Mac Pro Tower machine that I could potentially use, a 2,1 Twin Processor machine, with about 28g RAM. Think I previously had it running Linux Mint.

Anything above Win XP is new to me. I moved to Mac in 08, with the Twin 3.0ghz Mac Pro, 3,1 and never bought another Windows machine. Only have Win10 now on an acerbic laptop i was given as it is dead on the charger side..

Might try with the older Mac Pro 2,1 but that will then be three small server sized machines I have running at home 24/7... the other two being NAS4Free boxes, one a bsckup server and the other running as DNLA /Plex media box.

I’ll keep tinkering with the RPi for now, to keep searching for the lower power use option

[NeilP]

Just looked at the video, maybe you linked to the wrong one, that only showed using an RSP 1 with the Pi.

Using the SDR image as per the video, and using Cubic is all fine. Trouble starts when getting to select the device in Cubic... it is not found.

I’ll have a dig around YouTube and see what else I can find

[NeilP]

I found these two, but looking on the phone not easy
Will leave the links for future reference

https://youtu.be/1pr319FvOwI
https://youtu.be/mBU7eSviy_0

[NeilP]

Ok, so here is the latest.

Never yet managed to get any of my RTL dongles to work with the SDRPlay Image.

Was trying to use the instructions as mentioned in video no.1 in my previous reply.

I could get to the point where ‘rtl_test-t’ showed success, so drivers installed. But the Cubic SDR never detected the dongle.

Even getting GQRX installed failed. This was on a clean image of the SDRPlay Distro

Yet, following same instructions on a clean write of the latest Radpberian Stretch image, installing drivers and GQRX, it all worked first time.

Like the ssh changes, guess there are other changes made to the SDR Play images that are causing issues

What ever the reason, got a working setup now with GQRX and RTL stick

Still can’t get the CubicSDR app package to run though