RX888 MKII

[Andrew Cowan]

All,

Does SparkSDR support the RX888 MKII as just ordered one.

Great software 

Thanks

Andrew GM0UDL

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Andrew,

there is receive support using extio drivers and more recent versions of Spark on windows, if you search the group someone did have some success I think.  The last couple of releases did not include the driver to do this as it was being falsely identified as a virus.  The drivers can be copied from the drivers folder of slightly older 2.0.9xx versions.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Andrew Cowan]

Alan

 

Had a look back not too much on the subject.

Found driver  https://github.com/ik1xpv/ExtIO_sddc/releases/download/v1.1/ExtIO_sddc_v1.1RC1.zip

No luck with SparkSDR but installed the DLL’s into HDSDR and that works and shows ExtIO with RX888mkII.

Just wondered if there is anyone out there that has this working.

 

Andrew

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Andrew,

sorry this is a bit messy at the moment. There are two sets of drivers required:-

1. the extio drivers you downloaded, the spark help describes where to put them.

2. the spark interface to the extio drivers, these go in the drivers directory of spark, these can be found in earlier 2.0.9xx releases on this group.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Andrew Cowan]

Alan

No problem these units are very favoured by the Wsprdaemon crew so testing it with some beta software at the moment.

So demanding us users great work from yourself.

Andrew

[Mike Donnachie]

Any word of supporting the RX888 ?

Regards

Mike

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Mike,

I believe it already works using extio drivers on windows.  Currently the latest versions of spark don't contain the 
needed drivers directory, this needs to be copied from earlier 2.0.9xx versions, this was because they were causing too many false virus positive warnings.  There is a section in help about extio usage.  I'll make a link to just these files.

73 Alan M0NNB

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

https://www.sparksdr.com/download/sparkextiodrivers.zip

[AndyZ K1RA]

Mike

  I looked back at my old emails and notes and I had my RX-888 mkii working back on Oct. 13&14 of 2022 with version 2.0.915 as posted here in the forum, but for some reason those posts were deleted.  At that time it would run for about 30 minutes and then lock up.  I was able to run 10 virtual receivers decoding FT8, though I was unable to play any audio from the virtual receivers.  Here is a screen shot I'd posted back then

https://photos.app.goo.gl/T8RpGYo3uhif2Gsb7

  I just tried running it with the latest 2.0.975 version with the ExtIO driver option enabled in SparkSDR along with ExtIO_SDDC.dll version 1.30RC1 copied to the ExtIO_32bit folder as listed in the SparkSDR Help file. I found this to be much less reliable than my attempts a year ago.  It only runs for about 5 seconds and even then it takes several tries at clicking the Gui button in SparkSDR until the ExtIO_SDDC configuration window appears.  Then I have to crank the RF gain up to +0 and IF gain to at least +20, then click the Apply button next to Sample rate.  I was only able to get a single receiver to run.  I copied audio from WWV on 10 MHz as well as viewed 30 MHz of bandwidth in the waterfall.  You'll notice that the IQ value in the lower right of the ExtIO_SDDC window will read 32 Mbps while the system runs, but then I found soon after the window will disappear and SparkSDR stops receiving.  Hitting the Power button next to ExtIO_SDDC allows going thru the process again, but with the same results.

  I turned on Debug Logging and checked the errorlogs folder, but there was nothing of any value listed as to why the system performed the way it did.  Here is a screenshot of my latest attempt.

BTW, I ran my RX-888 with HDSDR and the same ExtIO without any problems.

73

andyz - K1RA