Hi all,
I have a FiFi-SDR device that is working well with other apps, but I would like to test it with PhantomSDRPlus.
However, there is no driver for FiFi-SDR (that is a device that outputs IQ data via an integrated USB sound card (ADC).
According to the documentation, "since late 2013, the FiFi-SDR provides an USB audio device with 192 kHz sampling rate" (and that is my situation).
(https://dh1tw.de/img/2011/04/fifi-sdr-schematic.jpg)
Some informations about FiFi-SDR could still be found here (https://web.archive.org/web/20160823191240/http://o28.sischa.net/fifisdr/trac) and in this link (https://web.archive.org/web/20141221020213/http://www.df3dcb.de/FiFi-SDR_FA1110.pdf) .
So, if anybody knows how to use FiFi-SDR with PhantomSDRPlus, please help me with that information!
Thank you and my best regards,
Val
Did you try to pipe the output via APLAY into the spectrumserver?
bas@workstation:~$ aplay -h
Usage: aplay [OPTION]... [FILE]...
-h, --help help
--version print current version
-l, --list-devices list all soundcards and digital audio devices
-L, --list-pcms list device names
-D, --device=NAME select PCM by name
-q, --quiet quiet mode
-t, --file-type TYPE file type (voc, wav, raw or au)
-c, --channels=# channels
-f, --format=FORMAT sample format (case insensitive)
-r, --rate=# sample rate
-d, --duration=# interrupt after # seconds
-s, --samples=# interrupt after # samples per channel
-M, --mmap mmap stream
-N, --nonblock nonblocking mode
-F, --period-time=# distance between interrupts is # microseconds
-B, --buffer-time=# buffer duration is # microseconds
--period-size=# distance between interrupts is # frames
--buffer-size=# buffer duration is # frames
-A, --avail-min=# min available space for wakeup is # microseconds
-R, --start-delay=# delay for automatic PCM start is # microseconds
(relative to buffer size if <= 0)
-T, --stop-delay=# delay for automatic PCM stop is # microseconds from xrun
-v, --verbose show PCM structure and setup (accumulative)
-V, --vumeter=TYPE enable VU meter (TYPE: mono or stereo)
-I, --separate-channels one file for each channel
-i, --interactive allow interactive operation from stdin
-m, --chmap=ch1,ch2,.. Give the channel map to override or follow
--disable-resample disable automatic rate resample
--disable-channels disable automatic channel conversions
--disable-format disable automatic format conversions
--disable-softvol disable software volume control (softvol)
--test-position test ring buffer position
--test-coef=# test coefficient for ring buffer position (default 8)
expression for validation is: coef * (buffer_size / 2)
--test-nowait do not wait for ring buffer - eats whole CPU
--max-file-time=# start another output file when the old file has recorded
for this many seconds
--process-id-file write the process ID here
--use-strftime apply the strftime facility to the output file name
--dump-hw-params dump hw_params of the device
--fatal-errors treat all errors as fatal
Ondersteunde geluidsindelingen zijn: S8 U8 S16_LE S16_BE U16_LE U16_BE S24_LE S24_BE U24_LE U24_BE S32_LE S32_BE U32_LE U32_BE FLOAT_LE FLOAT_BE FLOAT64_LE FLOAT64_BE IEC958_SUBFRAME_LE IEC958_SUBFRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM S20_LE S20_BE U20_LE U20_BE SPECIAL S24_3LE S24_3BE U24_3LE U24_3BE S20_3LE S20_3BE U20_3LE U20_3BE S18_3LE S18_3BE U18_3LE U18_3BE G723_24 G723_24_1B G723_40 G723_40_1B DSD_U8 DSD_U16_LE DSD_U32_LE DSD_U16_BE DSD_U32_BE
Sommigen van deze zijn mogelijk niet beschikbaar op bepaalde hardware
The available format shortcuts are:
-f cd (16 bit little endian, 44100, stereo)
-f cdr (16 bit big endian, 44100, stereo)
-f dat (16 bit little endian, 48000, stereo)
Because it's raw-IO data that we pipe into the spectrumserver. You should be able to do it that way.
Else use Soapy.
I do not have one to test. Hopefully it helps. You just need a player like aplay to produce the samples to the spectrumserver.
Dear Bas,
Thanks for the answer. I am not a skilled Linux user, sorry!
Please take me a little bit easy :)
You said:
>> Did you try to pipe the output via APLAY into the spectrumserver?
Well, how to do that ?
From man aplay, I saw that there are two apps: "aplay" and "arecord".
From your answer, I imagine that I have to take (capture) somehow the I/Q output of the FiFi-SDR and to pass it (through the linux pipe) to spectrumserver.
But I can't understand if I have to use aplay or arecord. Simply, I don't have enough experience.
Would you like to speculate a little bit to help me ?
I learned how to use aplay to play a WAV file into my LG monitor, using the HDMI channel:
aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
[...]
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
aplay -D hw:1,3 mus2.wav
Playing WAVE 'mus2.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
So, until here at least I tested a simple form of using aplay to play a WAV file into the HDMI sound device (hw:1,3) .
However, at FiFi-SDR, the situation is a bit different.
There is no device listed from FiFi-SDR when I use "aplay -l" to list them!
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: D1 [Xonar D1], device 0: Multichannel [Multichannel]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: D1 [Xonar D1], device 1: Digital [Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
However, when I run the "arecord -l" command, I see the following FiFi-SDR devices:
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
[...]
card 3: FiFiSDR [FiFi-SDR], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: FiFiSDR [FiFi-SDR], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
So, can you guide me a little ?
Thanks a lot !
73 de Val
Hello,
Well, after long struggling, I managed to start PhantomSDRPlus to use the FiFi-SDR device.
However, it seems that I have a lot to work to bring it in a normal mode.
Until now, here is the line that helps me:
arecord -D hw:3,0 -f S16_LE -c 2 -r 192000 | ./build/spectrumserver --config config-fifisdr2.toml
Where config-fifisdr2.toml has the following content (without the first sections):
[input]
sps=192000 # Input Sample Rate
#
fft_size=32768 # medium
fft_threads=4
brightness_offset=-2
#frequency=7096000
signal="iq" # real or iq
accelerator="none"
audio_sps=12000 # 12000 needed for FT8 decoding!
smeter_offset=-10
[input.driver]
name="stdin" # Driver name
format="s16" # Sample format: u8, s8, u16, s16, u32, s32, f32, f64
[input.defaults]
frequency=7020000 # Default frequency to show user
modulation="LSB" # Default modulation
Well, it works, but there are some issues.
I will return tomorrow to post about those problems, in the hope that some of you will try to help to resolve them. Remember how is to be ... beginner !
73 de Val
Yeah I meant arecord, sorry for that, I never use those.
Nice to hear you got it working.
You may need this bit of software to program the FiFi:
https://github.com/openwebrx/rockprog-linux