Trying Multiband FT8 Decoders with Radioberry-2

[Yado-san]

Hi All, 

I am very impressed that a multi-band decoder can be achieved with my hand made small radio "Radioberry-2".  (^^)/  

Yesterday, I found that SparkSDR works if I set Locale to en(English) in RaspberryPi4. 

SparkSDR crashes on RPi, if Locale set to ja(Japanese) or ko(Korean) or zn(Chinese) or ??

I've also tried the ft8 decoder in Radioberry-2, but I'm not getting any decoding results.

(Radioberry-2.x/tree/master/SBC/rpi-4/decoders/ft8)

I will try to find out if I made a mistake.

Tnx!

Yado-san

jg1twp

[pa3gsb]

Hi Yado-san

Thanks for sharing this.  Your radio looks nice and also good to hear it is working.

I have done in the beginning of this year FT8 decoding on 8 channels (CL025 fpga). using the 4K sampling rate per channel.

The RPI and the lower sample rates works, at least for me, fine.

Some info: https://groups.google.com/g/radioberry/c/DwKudsh9UMc

Have fun

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op woensdag 28 april 2021 om 17:19:23 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan, All

Thank you for your infomation, and a nice perfomance radio!

I have tried FT8 decoding on 4 channels (CL016).

And I got the following message.

   "Could not sent commando to radioberry device."

Sorry, Do you know what my mistake is?

$ sudo ./recording-ft8

 

  Radioberry gateware version 72-5.

  RB-Command = 01 Command = 04  command_data = 006BF6AC

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.RB-Command = 01 Command = 00  command_data =   00000000

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.RB-Command = 01 Command = 06  command_data = 009AAF9C

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.RB-Command = 01 Command = 08  command_data = 00D6C66C

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.RB-Command = 01 Command = 0A  command_data = 0141962C

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.RB-Command = 01 Command = 14  command_data = 0000005F

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.RB-Command = 01 Command = 00  command_data = 00000018

  Could not sent commando to radioberry device.

  FT8-recording process... 

  FT8 recording timer started. 

  ...........................................................

  FT8 recording done, now writing to c2 files.... 

  FT8 recordings written to c2 files. Ready for decoding.

  ...........................................................

  FT8 recording done, now writing to c2 files.... 

  FT8 recordings written to c2 files. Ready for decoding.

  ...........................................................

  FT8 recording done, now writing to c2 files.... 

  FT8 recordings written to c2 files. Ready for decoding.

I set the firmware:  -radioberry_cl016_4000 radioberry using Cyclone CL016 (6 receivers)

Copied from:

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/tree/master/gateware/variants/radioberry_cl016_4000/build/radioberry.rbf

  $ sudo systemctl stop radioberry

  $ sudo modprobe -r radioberry

  $ sudo cp radioberry.rbf /lib/firmware

  $ sudo modprobe radioberry 

I modified recording-ft8.c  and built for CL016.  Is this correct?

  $ vi recording-ft8.c

  /*

          FT8 Recorder.

          Johan Maas PA3GSB

  */

  #include <string.h>

  #include <stdio.h>

  #include <stdlib.h>

     :

  #include "radioberry_ioctl.h"

  // NRX defines the number of channels. CL025 users can select 8 and CL016 can select 4 channels

  // #define NRX 8

  #define NRX 4      //  changed, 8 to 4

  // FT8 Frequencies

  // u_int32_t freqArray[8] = {1841500, 3574500, 5358500, 7075500, 10137500,  14075500, 18101500,  21075500  };

  u_int32_t freqArray[4] = {7075500, 10137500,  14075500, 21075500  };    // changed, 8 to 4

     :

------

2021年4月29日木曜日 16:57:51 UTC+9 pa3gsb:

[pa3gsb]

Yado-san,

I have not updated the radioberry_ioctl.h file after the firmware update.... 

please copy radioberry_ioctl.h from 

https://github.com/pa3gsb/Radioberry-2.x/tree/master/SBC/rpi-4/device_driver/driver

to :

https://github.com/pa3gsb/Radioberry-2.x/tree/master/SBC/rpi-4/decoders/ft8

I think that will the problem, please give it a try.

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op donderdag 29 april 2021 om 17:03:23 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan,

Thanks for  quick response. 

Radioberry FT8 Decoder is starting to work fine. (^^)/

Tnx!

Yado-san

Jg1twp

2021年4月30日金曜日 4:44:28 UTC+9 pa3gsb:

[pa3gsb]

Yado-san

Nice work.... not seen others....

Yes i see you are logging:

I will advise you strongly to use a virtual file system:

Instead of writing to SD card i think it is better to write to virtual file system! Making such virtual file system look at: https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Setting_up_a_RAM_drive_on_Raspberry_Pi Works great for me!

Have fun.

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op vrijdag 30 april 2021 om 05:01:32 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan,

Wow, I also checked the Radioberry FT8 Decoder on the "PSK Reporter Statistics" page.

And, I'm going to use a virtual filesystem. I read the README file.

Sorry, There's one Issue I have.

When multi bands set up, there seems to be no FT8 decoding report for the first band.

I got all  "ft8_n_freq_date.c2" files, but no decoding results for "ft8_0_freq_date.c2" in "decodes_date_time.txt" file.

Is it a problem with my recording-ft8.c settings? 

1) recording-ft8.c  -> No decode results only 10MHz

// NRX defines the number of channels.

#define NRX 4

// FT8 Frequencies 

u_int32_t freqArray[4] = {10137500,  14075500, 21075500, 28075500  };

2) recording-ft8.c  -> No decode results only 7MHz

// NRX defines the number of channels.

#define NRX 5

// FT8 Frequencies 

u_int32_t freqArray[5] = {7075500, 10137500,  14075500, 21075500, 28075500  };

NRX 6 also..

Tnx.

Yado-san

Jg1twp

2021年4月30日金曜日 16:10:20 UTC+9 pa3gsb:

[Radioberry]

Yado-san,

Nice to see your decodes...

As said i did the experiment some months ago. I thought i had decodes on all channels.

I did also add some zmq interface to gnu radio.... to check the receiver channel.

If you are interested and willing to investigate the problem , i can try to find the code for the connection to gnu radio or make a small setup to keep your going...

some questions:

- is de c2 file of the channel the same size?

- is manual decoding also not providing in decodes?

At this moment i like to focus on the juice board... as said if you like to analyse the root cause.. let me know.

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op vrijdag 30 april 2021 om 11:48:30 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan,

OK! Sorry, It's my problem.

I will try again from the beginning.

Today I have decoded 4 bands except freq[0]. and made sure that the decoding of each band was correct.

>  is de c2 file of the channel the same size?

Yes, .c2 files are all same size.

$ ls -rlt  ./recordings

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1920008 Apr 30 17:34 ft8_0_3574500_210430_0833.c2

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1920008 Apr 30 17:34 ft8_1_7075500_210430_0833.c2

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1920008 Apr 30 17:34 ft8_2_10137500_210430_0833.c2

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1920008 Apr 30 17:34 ft8_3_14075500_210430_0833.c2

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1920008 Apr 30 17:34 ft8_4_21075500_210430_0833.c2

>  is manual decoding also not providing in decodes?

Yes, ft8_0_xxx.c2 is not providing in decodes.

$ ./decode-ft8.sh

$ ls -lrt

-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi     283 Apr 30 16:40 decode-ft8.sh

-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 1920008 Apr 30 17:23 ft8_0_3574500_210430_0821.c2

-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi       0 Apr 30 17:23 decodes_210430_0823.txt

VY Tnx!

Yado-san

Jg1twp

2021年5月1日土曜日 20:48:04 UTC+9 Radioberry:

[pa3gsb]

Hi Yado-san

Thanks for your reply.

>> OK! Sorry, It's my problem.

No need for sorry . the problem is there.... there must be something wrong  I think it is not a setup problem.... there is obviously something wrong with the rx0 channel.....

I indicated that iam not directly wanted to look into the cause of the problem...i prefer now to focus on the development of the radioberry juice board.... but if you are willing to search for the problem... i can provide you with some setup code as indicated in my previous response.

Hope this helps.

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op zaterdag 1 mei 2021 om 15:25:03 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan,

Thanks for your message!

I'd like to find out my mistakes first...

I am sure that I have made a mistake.

I don't think it's possible to use the same code and have different behavior.

If it still doesn't work, I would like to ask you to provide the tool(setup code).

Tnx!

Yado-san

jg1twp

2021年5月1日土曜日 23:07:42 UTC+9 pa3gsb:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan,

- I think it is not a setup problem.... there is obviously something wrong with the rx0 channel.....

You were right. I had the same problem in my reinstalled Radioberry2.

 and I had wrongly understood that you had already confirmed it worked.

Attached my experiments report.:

 Please refer to the "2. Debug" for details.

 (inclided an installation procedure, a protocol table and some tips.  for my reminder.)

Experiment:

To avoid problems with the RPi4 environment, I did a clean install from the OS.

I investigated this problem by changing the NRX value and RXn commands in 'recording-ft8.c'.

Result:

It's not only RX1 problem, RX2 or RX3... can be the problem.

Consideration:

This does not seem to be a hardware problem with the RX hardware.

This problem is probably caused by the protocol, such as the procedure for sending the RXn command. 

(or a problem with the CL016 gateware, related to the spi protocol.??)

Tnx.

Yado-san

jg1twp

2021年5月2日日曜日 10:14:40 UTC+9 Yado-san:

[pa3gsb]

Yado-san

Nice work.

It forms indeed a nice setup... even with my minimal setup i even reached the top list.

  

I will look later into the issue.

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op zondag 9 mei 2021 om 17:27:45 UTC+2 schreef Yado-san:

[Yado-san]

Hi Johan,

Yes, the Radioberry FT8 decoder is working well.

 I can see HF propagation in any time! ( on 40m,20m,15m,10m now)

ps.

 the RTL picture I attached was from Rpi3.

I think Top-RTL would be composed of multiple identical DDCs..

Tnx!

Yado-san

jg1twp

2021年5月11日火曜日 1:16:10 UTC+9 pa3gsb: