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Soapy SDR plugin for RTL-SDR

The Soapy RTL-SDR project provides a plugin module to use the RTL-SDR dongle within the SoapySDR API and software that supports SoapySDR.

SoapyRTLSDR table of contents

• Installers
• Dependencies
• Building Soapy RTL-SDR
• Detecting the RTL-SDR

Installers

Pre-built installers for various systems are available through the Pothos SDR environment.

• https://github.com/pothosware/PothosCore/wiki/Downloads

Dependencies

• Install librtl-sdr - http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
• Install SoapySDR: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/wiki

Or install rtl-sdr packages on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr librtlsdr-dev

Building Soapy RTL-SDR

The CMake build system will locate librtl-sdr and SoapySDR development files on your system. The plugin module will be built and installed into the SoapySDR modules directories.

git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR.git
cd SoapyRTLSDR
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Detecting the RTL-SDR

Use the SoapySDRUtil application to see if SoapySDR can detect your device. In this example, lets use the --probe option to print information about the RTL-SDR:

$ SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=rtlsdr"
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

Probe device driver=rtlsdr
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner

----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=RTLSDR
  hardware=R820T
  origin=https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR
  rtl=0

----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
  Timestamps: NO
  Other Settings:
     * Direct Sampling - RTL-SDR Direct Sampling Mode
       [key=direct_samp, default=0, type=string, options=(0, 1, 2)]
     * Offset Tune - RTL-SDR Offset Tuning Mode
       [key=offset_tune, default=false, type=bool]
     * I/Q Swap - RTL-SDR I/Q Swap Mode
       [key=iq_swap, default=false, type=bool]
     * Digital AGC - RTL-SDR digital AGC Mode
       [key=digital_agc, default=false, type=bool]

----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: YES
  Supports AGC: YES
  Stream formats: CS8, CS16, CF32
  Native format: CS8 [full-scale=128]
  Stream args:
     * Buffer Size - Number of bytes per buffer, multiples of 512 only.
       [key=bufflen, units=bytes, default=262144, type=int]
     * Ring buffers - Number of buffers in the ring.
       [key=buffers, units=buffers, default=15, type=int]
     * Async buffers - Number of async usb buffers (advanced).
       [key=asyncBuffs, units=buffers, default=0, type=int]
  Antennas: RX
  Full gain range: [0, 49.6] dB
    TUNER gain range: [0, 49.6] dB
  Full freq range: [23.999, 1764] MHz
    RF freq range: [24, 1764] MHz
    CORR freq range: [-0.001, 0.001] MHz
  Sample rates: 0.25, 1.024, 1.536, 1.792, 1.92, 2.048, 2.16, 2.56, 2.88, 3.2 MSps