Radioberry amplifier config failed message

[Marc Brown]

Hello!

This week, I assembled my shiny new Radioberry from a kit with 5" touchscreen, Raspberry Pi 4B, and Radioberry 2.0 beta 5. To this, I've added an AURSINC preamp (V2). I'm running Raspberry Pi OS (bookworm) with all updates. Built the Radioberry software using the current master branch as of Monday evening. It's working nicely as a receiver as evidenced by a lovely waterfall in the latest release of piHPSDR and the dulcet tones of FT-8 on 20 meters when I attach a speaker to the Pi.

With all that said, the Radioberry software doesn't "find" the preamp. It's attached (of course) and I'm applying the amount of power that the docs for the board tell me to (8.4v). When running "sudo radioberry" from a terminal, I see the dreaded info that the amp config failed. I verified continuity on all 20 pins running between the RB and the preamp. I've pasted in the results of "modinfo radioberry" and "sudo radioberry". Please let me know what other diagnostics I can provide. Hope you're able to help! 

Thanks, Marc

pi@radioberry:~ $ modinfo radioberry

filename:       /lib/modules/6.12.62+rpt-rpi-v8/kernel/drivers/sdr/radioberry.ko

version:        4.02

license:        GPL

description:    Radioberry SDR device driver. (rpi-4)

author:         Johan Maas - pa3...@gmail.com

srcversion:     068677817B2081DAAB945EF

alias:          of:N*T*Csdr,radioberryC*

alias:          of:N*T*Csdr,radioberry

depends:        

name:           radioberry

vermagic:       6.12.62+rpt-rpi-v8 SMP preempt mod_unload modversions aarch64

pi@radioberry:~ $ sudo radioberry

====================================================================

====================================================================

Radioberry V2.0

Supports 4 receivers and 1 transmitter.

Build version: 2025.10.25

Have fun Johan PA3GSB

Report requests or bugs to <pa3...@gmail.com>.

====================================================================

====================================================================

Radioberry gateware version 73-3.

No Alex, N2ADR or generic filters interface board connected to radioberry

MCP 4662 not present; Change of Bias Setting is not possible

Radioberry amplifier config failed; only a problem if amplifier is installed. 

Radioberry, Starting packet rx part. 

Radioberry, Starting packet control part. 

Radioberry, Starting packet tx part. 

[pa3gsb]

Hi Marc,

I do not know this board;  if it contains a i2c chip for setting up the bias of the fets.?

Please use in a command window : sudo i2cdetect -y 1  to see which devices are connected.

https://github.com/pa3gsb/Radioberry-2.x/wiki/Radioberry-preamp

Let us know about your findings.

73 Johan

PA3GSB

Op donderdag 26 februari 2026 om 03:45:16 UTC+1 schreef ma...@cyber-browns.us:

[Paulh002]

The board does not have i2c componets to manage bias or current measurement.

If you want to use the  AURSINC  preamp, you have to adapt the firmware code.

Remove the checks for i2c

I have adapted the SoapyRadioberry driver for this 

https://github.com/paulh002/SoapyRadioberry

73,

Paul

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[Marc Brown]

Johan, thanks for your reply. The i2c interface shows nothing connected, which sounds like the expected result given Paul's reply.

Paul, Thanks for YOUR reply as well. Is your repo a replacement for the "stock" radioberry software or a driver that gets added to it? I suppose it doesn't matter either way, just looking to know what I'm getting into before I do my next git clone and build, LOL. I'm grateful to have a potential solution to the issue.

Thanks,

Marc

[Marc Brown]

Answered my own question but I'm unclear on what exactly to do. The readme for the SoapyRadioberry repo has the following instructions (at the end of this message). Following the first set, through "sudo make install" I'm good with. However, when we get to the second part ("To install correct radioberry drivers for this SoapySDR library"), I'm getting tripped up. I don't know what <,sub folder> to go to to find a radioberry directory. I don't know if something went wrong because I didn't turn off the Pi's GUI (if so, I can try again) or if I'm just not smart enough for this little project.

git clone <>
cd <sub folder>
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j4
sudo make install

To install correct radioberry drivers for this SoapySDR library:
cd <sub folder>
cd radioberry
./install.sh

[AL7AK]

It is simply the folder you created to clone into in line one <>     Like "radioberryproject" or whatever you want.

[Marc Brown]

Well then, I definitely had something go wrong because there was no "radioberry" directory under that. Dangit.