Workshop/Gnuradio

Workshop

• The workshop will be held in Bitlair
• The date for this workshop is still unknown, keep a eye on this page for more information.

Requirements

• Laptop running linux (debian or ubuntu preferred)
  • If you are running OSX you can try this guide https://github.com/titanous/homebrew-gnuradio
    • I will be creating a new guide just for osx but for now see my notes at the bottom
  • If you do not have a laptop running debian or ubuntu you can run this in a vmware image this does not work as wel as running it directly on the hardware but it works.
• One of the supported RTL SDR's (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370696722384)
• Some knowledge about linux and how to compile software.

Install guide

• This is still a work in progress

rtl_sdr

aptitude -y install build-essential git cmake libusb-1.0-0-dev
mkdir gnuradio_workshop
cd gnuradio_workshop
git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git
cd rtl-sdr
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make
sudo make install
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/librtlsdr.pc /usr/share/pkgconfig/librtlsdr.pc

Gnuradio

git clone git://gnuradio.org/gnuradio
cd gnuradio
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make
sudo make install

gr-osmosdr and gr-baz

gr-osmosdr

cd .. (back to the gnuradio directory)
git clone git://git.osmocom.org/gr-osmosdr.git
cd gr-osmosdr/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make
sudo make install

gr-baz

cd ../../
svn checkout -q http://svn.spench.net/main/gr-baz/
autoreconf -i -f
./configure
make -e
sudo make install

Notes

Running as an unprivileged user

The rtl-sdr project comes with udev rules, so you can access the device as a regular user. To install the udev rules:

~$ cd src/rtl-sdr/
~/src/rtl-sdr$ sudo cp rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
~/src/rtl-sdr$ sudo service udev restart
Stopping the hotplug events dispatcher: udevd.
Starting the hotplug events dispatcher: udevd.

Now if you eject and re-insert your USB stick, udev should set the correct permissions.

~/src/rtl-sdr$ sudo tail /var/log/messages
Apr 13 13:18:58 shack kernel: [5790984.804027] usb 2-2: new high speed USB device number 24 using ehci_hcd
Apr 13 13:18:58 shack kernel: [5790984.947679] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0ccd, idProduct=00b3
Apr 13 13:18:58 shack kernel: [5790984.947687] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Apr 13 13:18:58 shack kernel: [5790984.947691] usb 2-2: Product: DAB Stick
Apr 13 13:18:58 shack kernel: [5790984.947695] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: NOXON
Apr 13 13:18:58 shack kernel: [5790984.947698] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 0
~/src/rtl-sdr$ grep -B2 '0ccd.*00b3' /proc/bus/usb/devices | grep Dev
T:  Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 24 Spd=480  MxCh= 0
~/src/rtl-sdr$ ls -al /dev/bus/usb/002/024
crw-rw-rwT 1 root root 189, 151 Apr 13 13:18 /dev/bus/usb/002/024

Issues with GL under osx

add to ~/.gnuradio/config.conf

[wxgui]
style=nogl

Link resources

• http://mikikg.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/prepravka-dvb-t-usb-prijemnika-sa-rtl2832u-za-hf-0-28mhz/
  • http://mikikg.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/rtl2832u-dc-mods.pdf
• http://mikikg.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/feriti-za-sirokopojasnu-hf-primenu-iz-lan-modula/
• http://dekar.wc3edit.net/

Credits

• Maze http://pd0mz.nl/2012/04/13/rtl2832u-chipset-makes-a-cheap-software-defined-radio-part-2/