Multiple RTL-SDR dongles 2.0.968

[Ralph Hoken]

Hello,

I'm attempting to get SparkSDR beta 2.0.968 to recognize multiple RTL dongles with no success, SDR++ sees them all just fine and SparkSDR is able to utilize a single one. Do I need to run multiple instances or have multiple copies of the driver? Thanks in advance. 

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi,

It should work but I've never tested it as I only have one. Does the second one appear at the top? Is there anything in the logfiles?

73 Alan M0NNB

[Ralph Hoken]

No, second one does not appear at the top, but it shows up in windows devices and it shows up in other SDR applications. Let me pull log files for you.

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi,

I vaguely remember reading something about being able to send a unique id to a rtl dongle and perhaps I assumed that's what people did with multiple rtls. I'll look at the code.  I ideally need to have some sort of unique id per radio so profiles can load up the correct radios per receiver.

73 Alan M0NNB 

[Ralph Hoken]

Okay, looking at the logs, it actually does see all the dongles but is assigning them all the same name. Not sure how to address this for the RTLSDRs, is there a hardware address I can modify somewhere?

On Friday, October 6, 2023 at 2:48:40 PM UTC-4 ahop...@googlemail.com wrote:

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

I'll have a look at this and see if there is a way to differentiate between them.  I've had very little feedback on rtl support (probably my fault for not advertising it)  so thanks very much for the report.  Just looked at the code and the usb serial number should be used to tell them apart, is the same serial logged if you have extended logging turned on?

73 Alan M0NNB

[David Taylor]

On 06/10/2023 20:41, 'ahop...@googlemail.com' via SparkSDR wrote:
> I'll have a look at this and see if there is a way to differentiate between
> them.  I've had very little feedback on rtl support (probably my fault for not
> advertising it)  so thanks very much for the report. Just looked at the code
> and the usb serial number should be used to tell them apart, is the same serial
> logged if you have extended logging turned on?
> 73 Alan M0NNB

Folks,

I've found that the easiest program for setting, and reading, the serial number
is Simon's SDR Console. It's 8 characters, so I use yyyymmdd date of purchase
- 20231007 for example.

https://www.sdr-radio.com/rtl-dongles => EEPROM

Other software can do this as well, of course.

73,
David GM8ARV
--
SatSignal Software - Quality software for you
Web: https://www.satsignal.eu
Email: david-...@blueyonder.co.uk
Twitter: @gm8arv

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi David,

thanks for that, can anyone confirm if spark does work with multiple dongles if there serial numbers are different?

73 Alan M0NNB

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

their

[David Taylor]

On 08/10/2023 09:41, 'ahop...@googlemail.com' via SparkSDR wrote:
> Hi David,
> thanks for that, can anyone confirm if spark does work with multiple dongles if
> there serial numbers are different?
> 73 Alan M0NNB

Yes, they do. I had both Radio 3 and Radio 4 coming from the audio at the same
time! Two Airspy HF+ Discovery work as well, although not tested for
simultaneous receive.

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi David and all,

thanks, I can cross that off the list. I'll look at adding a 'set serial' option when I get to the v4 job. I'll add something to the help about changing the serial number.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Ralph Hoken]

Sorry all, yea I found the guidance I needed from a friend who directed me to the built in rtl_eeprom utility that comes with the driver to set the serial numbers. Amazing what happens when you RTFM.

Thanks All

I don't know if you really need to add a 'set serial' option to sparkSDR, while it would be nice, I'm sure you have other priorities for the lift, ultimately this was a layer 8 error.