Using Lime SDR Mini and SdrGlut to Decode ADS-B Messages

[Ryan Baird]

I am attempting to do the same thing that was done in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXhtdZZ25Y

I have the Lime SDR Mini connected to SdrGlut, but I am unsure of what settings (mode, antenna, etc.) to set. It appears that nothing is being picked up by my receiver. I do not know if this is because of incorrect settings or another problem. I also cannot find the Listen.x program used to pipe data from SdrGlut to Dump1090 anywhere online. If the link could be provided that would be appreciated. 

[Dale Ranta]

What system are you trying to run on ?

On some systems you need to build Listen.

Listen can be found in the Listen folder of -

https://github.com/righthalfplane/SdrGlut

One problem with the LimeMini is you to need to select the Antenna (LNAW) for it to work.

Other then that thing it should work as described the video.

[Ryan Baird]

I am trying to run on Ubuntu 18.04. I tried to build listen and got this message:

jm@jm-VirtualBox:~/Desktop/SdrGlut/Listen$ make -f makefile -j8
g++ -std=c++11 -O2  -I/usr/include  -I/opt/X11/include -Wall -DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-deprecated-declarations   -c -o main.o main.cpp
g++ -std=c++11 -O2  -I/usr/include  -I/opt/X11/include -Wall -DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-deprecated-declarations   -c -o Clisten.o Clisten.cpp
g++ -std=c++11 -O2  -I/usr/include  -I/opt/X11/include -Wall -DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-deprecated-declarations   -c -o cStack.o cStack.cpp
main.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’:
main.cpp:127:35: error: ‘class RtAudio’ has no member named ‘getDeviceIds’; did you mean ‘getDeviceInfo’?
  std::vector<unsigned int> id=dac.getDeviceIds();
                                   ^~~~~~~~~~~~
                                   getDeviceInfo
At global scope:
cc1plus: warning: unrecognized command line option ‘-Wno-return-type-c-linkage’
<builtin>: recipe for target 'main.o' failed
make: *** [main.o] Error 1
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

Is this the correct make file to build? I have RtAudio 5.1.0 installed and working correctly on my system. Do I need to add it to a path somewhere so SdrGlut knows where to find?

[Dale Ranta]

You are building using the old version of RTAUDIO - so you need 

to add  -DRTAUDIO_OLD  to the CXXFLAGS variable in the makefile.

[Ryan Baird]

I tried to build using the makefileOLD (which has -DRTAUDIO_OLD included in CXXFLAGS) and now I am getting this error:

jm@jm-VirtualBox:~/Documents/SdrGlut/Listen$ make -f makefileOLD -j4
g++ -std=c++11 -O2 -DRTAUDIO_OLD  -I/usr/include  -I/opt/X11/include -Wall -DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-deprecated-declarations   -c -o main.o main.cpp
g++ -std=c++11 -O2 -DRTAUDIO_OLD  -I/usr/include  -I/opt/X11/include -Wall -DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-deprecated-declarations   -c -o Clisten.o Clisten.cpp
g++ -std=c++11 -O2 -DRTAUDIO_OLD  -I/usr/include  -I/opt/X11/include -Wall -DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-deprecated-declarations   -c -o cStack.o cStack.cpp

main.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’:

main.cpp:130:24: warning: comparison between signed and unsigned integer expressions [-Wsign-compare]
  for(unsigned int n=0;n<deviceCount;++n){
                       ~^~~~~~~~~~~~

At global scope:
cc1plus: warning: unrecognized command line option ‘-Wno-return-type-c-linkage’

g++  -o listen.x  main.o Clisten.o cStack.o  -lrtaudio -lSoapySDR -lliquid
/usr/bin/ld: Clisten.o: undefined reference to symbol 'pthread_create@@GLIBC_2.2.5'
//lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0: error adding symbols: DSO missing from command line
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
makefileOLD:8: recipe for target 'fireball' failed
make: *** [fireball] Error 1

I tried adding -pthread to the CXXFLAGS in the make file as well but that did not work. Any idea what the problem is now? Apologies, I am new to doing stuff like this. 

[Dale Ranta]

Sorry for the trouble, it is hard to keep track of all of the variations of the libraries, I think that adding -lpthread to the line should do it.

g++  -o listen.x  main.o  Clisten.o cStack.o  -lrtaudio -lSoapySDR -lliquid -lpthread

[Ryan Baird]

My Listen is now piping data Dump1090 correctly, but I believe something is still not working. Whenever I start the program and connect my board only one window pops up not two. It also appears that no signals are being detected. I am not sure if this is a problem with the settings I have selected, if something is wrong with SdrGlut or if something is wrong with my board. I set the antenna type to LNAW like you said. I have attached a picture of what I see om my Linux screen. Is there anything you notice that is a problem? 

 

[Dale Ranta]

Running on a VirtualBox can sometimes be a problem. I can see some problems -

It did not pickup the name of the Lime device.

It is erroring on every attempt at reading a record.

On Window WSL, you need to specify which USB devices are being used 

in the virtual environment - do you need to do the same thing with VirtualBox ?

It looks like you are running some version of Ubuntu under VirtualBox - Which version ?

Try running SoapySDRUtil - what does it give you ?

SoapySDRUtil -i

SoapySDRUtil -f

[Ryan Baird]

I do have to specify which USB devices are being used in the environment and I am running Ubuntu 18. I got the following outputs:


jm@jm-VirtualBox:~$ SoapySDRUtil -i
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

Lib Version: v0.8.1-g8c6cb7c5
API Version: v0.8.200
ABI Version: v0.8-3
Install root: /usr/local
Search path:  /usr/local/lib/SoapySDR/modules0.8-3
Module found: /usr/local/lib/SoapySDR/modules0.8-3/libLMS7Support.so (17.12.0)
Module found: /usr/local/lib/SoapySDR/modules0.8-3/libuhdSupport.so  (0.4.1-1f7b6fa)
Available factories... lime, uhd
Available converters...
 -  CF32 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8, CU16, CU8]
 -  CS16 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8, CU16, CU8]
 -  CS32 -> [CS32]
 -   CS8 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8, CU16, CU8]
 -  CU16 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8]
 -   CU8 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8]
 -   F32 -> [F32, S16, S8, U16, U8]
 -   S16 -> [F32, S16, S8, U16, U8]
 -   S32 -> [S32]
 -    S8 -> [F32, S16, S8, U16, U8]
 -   U16 -> [F32, S16, S8]
 -    U8 -> [F32, S16, S8]

jm@jm-VirtualBox:~$ SoapySDRUtil --find
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

[ERROR] Error getting usb descriptor
[ERROR] failed to get serial number
[INFO] [UHD] linux; GNU C++ version 7.5.0; Boost_106501; UHD_3.11.0.HEAD-0-g13c32cef
Found device 0
  addr = 24607:1027
  driver = lime
  label =  [USB 3.0]
  media = USB 3.0
  module = uLimeSDR

[Dale Ranta]

"SoapySDRUtil --find" - output has errors and does not contain the usual stuff.

At this point rebuilding the libraries from scratch may help.

Are you using the newer version of the LimeSDR mini - version 2.0 ? - that needs the newer libraries.

I gave up on Ubuntu 18 some time ago. I am currently using Ubuntu 22.04.5 and Ubuntu 24.10.1.

I would switch to a newer version of Ubuntu and hope that that cures the problems.

The LimeSDR mini developers will not even consider trying to help with virtual environments

- just too many problems.

[Ryan Baird]

I am now running Ubuntu 22.04 on WSL and I believe SoapySDR is installed correctly now. Now when I start SdrGlut I can see that the device is working more than before but I am having trouble piping the data from Listen to dump1090... Here is what I see on my screen:

When I start the data pipe in a separate terminal this is the output I get:

$ ./SdrGlut/Listen/listen.x -binary | ./dump1090/dump1090 --ifile '-'
deviceCount 1 default output device 0 listen port 3700
device = 0 : maximum output  channels = 2 Device Name = PulseAudio
device = 0 : maximum output  channels = 2 Device Name = PulseAudio
ret 0
ret 0
ret 0
ret 0
ret 0
ret 0
ret 0
ret 0

ret 0

And when I go to send the data from SdrGlut I get this output (highlighted is the message I get when clicking send):

default_input=True
default_output=True
device_id=0
driver=audio
addr=24607:1027
driver=lime
label=LimeSDR Mini [USB 3.0] 1DA16BD6CD9546
media=USB 3.0
module=FT601
name=LimeSDR Mini
serial=1DA16BD6CD9546
modetype 0
modetype 0
modetype 0
receive channels 1 transmit channels 1
addr=24607:1027
driver=lime
label=LimeSDR Mini [USB 3.0] 1DA16BD6CD9546
media=USB 3.0
module=FT601
name=LimeSDR Mini
serial=1DA16BD6CD9546
device 0x55fa796e1fb0
receive channels 2 transmit channels 2
Hardware boardSerialNumber: 0x1da16bd6cd9546
Hardware firmwareVersion: 10
Hardware gatewareVersion: 2.6
Hardware hardwareVersion: 7
Hardware protocolVersion: 1
StreamFormats 0 CF32
StreamFormats 1 CS12
StreamFormats 2 CS16
key SAVE_CONFIG value  read  type 3 min 0 max 0 step 0
key LOAD_CONFIG value  read  type 3 min 0 max 0 step 0
key OVERSAMPLING value  read 0 type 1 min 0 max 0 step 0
rx->biasMode ''
rec key TSP_CONST value 16383 read 0
rec key CALIBRATE value  read -1.000000
rec key ENABLE_GFIR_LPF value  read -1.000000
rec key TSG_NCO value 4 read -1
stream key bufferLength value 0
stream key linkFormat value CS16
stream key skipCal value false
stream key alignPhase value false
MTU 2040
playRadio frequency 1.09e+09 channel 0
Device LimeSDR Mini [USB 3.0] 1DA16BD6CD9546 (0) samplerate 2000000 rx->size 100000 Bandwidth -1
ProcessSound start
k 0 SAVE_CONFIG  type 3
k 1 LOAD_CONFIG  type 3
k 2 OVERSAMPLING  type 1
Mode_Buttons 3
LimeSDR Mini [USB 3.0] 1DA16BD6CD9546 (0) count 1287 sound restarted error 0
name
TCP connect failed
Bad Address ()Already Running - Cannot Start New Transfer
Already Running - Cannot Start New Transfer
Already Running - Cannot Start New Transfer

The send window in your video does not look the same as mine, so I am wondering if some settings are wrong?

[Dale Ranta]

You need to input the "Net-Address" for listen.  Some thing like -

192.168.0.3:3700

3700 is the default port for listen. The first part is the IP address of you machine.