Your SDRDx is a great looking program but……for people who are not very Mac savvy, its a major problem to install the FTDI drivers, I spent a day trying and got nowhere My terminal msgs kept giving me errors and unknown directories etc. Checked my O/S version of Snow Leopard on my MacBook Air, I guess not knowing a Mac very well is my problem.
Can I suggest a big dummies quick start guide? Or some little custom install package that checks for drivers, fetch the required ones and loads them?
My big handicap is…..having worked with Windows all my life
The drivers are not my product, nor do I really have any kind of handle on them — I have just repeated what others have told me. Near as I can tell, if you install the server software, you don’t need to install drivers at all, but I could easily be wrong.
Basically, if you can run CuteSDr, you can run SDRDX. But… until you CAN run CuteSDR, you probably shouldn’t even *try* SdrDx as it is one heck of a lot more demanding on your system.
I’m afraid I just don’t have the time, knowledge or ability to troubleshoot driver installations, nor enough Mac driver knowledge to figure it all out. Remember, SdrDx isn’t developed as a mac program — it’s developed in Qt, which is a cross-platform engine that really isn’t tied to the mac in any particular way.
Just been playing with the Windows version 2.02Beta using W7/64 – all seems ok … except … I keep losing the frequency offset adjustment on my SDR-IQ.
The “sdr-fparms.sdr” file method doesn’t seem to work, and if I set up a trim using SpectraVue, even though SdrDx starts on target, I can get the program to lose the adjustment and set everything back to scratch ie the clock goes back to 66666667 and needs re-adjusting – by something as trivial as setting the span to 5KHz, demod mode to AM, then tuning up and back down by 1 KHz using the center frequency control.
Other than that, I think it’s all working, but as this is my first try at it, I’m a long way off the ‘ comfort zone ‘ yet. BTW, the Windows SDRxxServer works fine.
Of course, I accept that I could just be doing something silly, or missing something completely, but it doesn’t ‘ feel’ right.
Thanks for making the program available to non-Mac users !
Hmm. Well, one thing is that the mac, being unix, has the concept of a home directory. So, I keep the memory files there, and I look for the sdr-fparms.sdr, file there. under win7, I wonder where Qt thinks “home” is. The sdr-fparms.sdr file needs to be put there, whereever that turns out to be.
One way that may work to find out is, run the program, quit it, and search your machine for all sdr-fmem.sdm files. One will be in your folder with the app, the other… whereever “home” seems to be. That’s where you put the fparms file, too. Since this command is actually managed by the server, not SdrDx, it may take two application restarts before the change actually takes effect.
As for your comfort zone, that’ll take time. The design is different, but it is specifically intended to be both easy to operate and efficient, so the actual sport of using it isn’t crippled by blundering through menus or dialogs.
Runs ok with the Funcube thx… But the AM (I listen to Airnbands) sounds rearly low and basy (like i am in the bathroom /;0 I cant see anywhere to change that ?
Also the funcube setting wont work if you dont run 48000
Bassy: You probably have the filter on, click it off. Or on, then off. I listen to airbands here on AM, sounds fine, hence my assumption it’s the filter.
As for the 48000 limitation, yes, I described this several times in the documentation. You should read it.
#8 by Richard Thorpe on December 23, 2012 - 1:55 pm
Hi, just managed to get it to work on my iMac with mountain lion and the Afedri Sdr-Net. Great fun – nice job on this SW!
I’m running it through my router and as it turns out, my home network is practically flooded by the traffic, ie. wireless is out of the question. Still, using LAN cables it works fine.
Works fine on my wifi, consumes about 2 megabits of the 10 megabit bandwidth at 192 khz. You may be seeing errors and retries due to interference or weak signal; you can try changing channels on the wifi transmitter, sometimes that helps.
Although, as I am not familiar with afedri sdr net, that may also have something to do with it. I use SDR-XX server.
#11 by Soren - OZ1LQO on January 6, 2013 - 3:09 am
Hi, well I still have some networks experimenting to do with the Afedri SDR so we’ll see what happens. Yesterday was basically ‘first light’ on the unit.
Do you know the Afedri? Made by 4Z5LV, Alex (www.4z5lv.net). Really good stuff, the $250 brings you a long way compared to the semi-professional SDR’s out there. He’s really supportive and hosts a group on Yahoo as well.
Again, good job on the SdrDx, I use it on my 27″ iMac, it’s a real gem on that big screen
It happened on both CuteSDR and SdrDX , changes pitch of audio.
Runs ok with the Afedir SDR-net… But the AM sounds rearly low and bassy ( shifting pitch almost 1 octave. how it happen? maybe sampling rate problem?
Sounds like the Afedir server is doing an incomplete emulation of the RFSPACE server, because it works fine with RFSPACE products. So you need to refer this problem to the author of the server emulation.
SdrDx works just fine with AM.
If I were you, I’d try a sample rate on the Afedir that the RFSPACE products are known to support: 50, 100, 150 or 190 khz.
Ben,
Just wanted to say thanks for your wonderful SdrDx. I used to play
with old-school radio hardware (mostly longwave/LowFER stuff) as a break
from theory. A few weeks ago I saw something about SDR and soon ordered
the RFSPACE SDRIQ. I first got it running on my windows machine with Gqrx,
but I really wanted to use my MacBook Pro. It did take a bit of fiddling (i.e.,
actually reading the instructions) — I first overlooked SDR-xx Server, though
I’d installed the D2XX stuff. Now it seems to be running fine. My MacBook Pro
is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.6.8. Looking forward to many hours
of exploration. Thanks again.
-Patrick
Patrick, you are of course very welcome. It cheers me greatly to hear from people using the program successfully; also thank you for the system report.
I have the same, or similar Macbook pro; I just added a $100, 4:3 1280×1024 monitor (ACER, from Amazon) to it via a DVI-to-VGA adaptor, now I run both SdrDx and VFO Suite on the two screens, seems to take about 1/2 of each core. SdrDx really likes to run on 1280×1024, you get lots of waterfall and waveform room.
I tried out your latest beta (2.12q) wrt. to the feature of post attenuator metering (Afedri) and it works fine: Entering a calibrated -45dBm signal into the unit shows this exact peak value (independent of the gain settings) when deselecting post att. metering. I also confirmed that enabling this feat gives me the close-to correct value when at -1dB. So far so good.
One question remains: It would seem that your calculated gain offset, when the feat is disabled, also affects the waterfall/scope display, ie. the peak amplitude is offset and the noise floor drops down below, out of sight.
Ideally, the scope should stay the same whichever option is selected, as the C/N would be roughly the same – it’s simply just the peak level which is offset according to the gain selection.
Btw. I’m running it on my 4core iMac, it tolls 22% CPU power with the highest update rate and a 32K FFT. Not bad!
Pingback: SdrDx — OS X/Mac version of CuteSDR, new features « fyngyrz
#1 by Jack Chomley on April 9, 2012 - 6:01 pm
Quote
Hi Ben,
Your SDRDx is a great looking program but……for people who are not very Mac savvy, its a major problem to install the FTDI drivers, I spent a day trying and got nowhere
My terminal msgs kept giving me errors and unknown directories etc. Checked my O/S version of Snow Leopard on my MacBook Air, I guess not knowing a Mac very well is my problem.
Can I suggest a big dummies quick start guide? Or some little custom install package that checks for drivers, fetch the required ones and loads them?
My big handicap is…..having worked with Windows all my life
Cheers,
Jack.
#2 by admin on April 9, 2012 - 6:07 pm
Quote
Jack,
The drivers are not my product, nor do I really have any kind of handle on them — I have just repeated what others have told me. Near as I can tell, if you install the server software, you don’t need to install drivers at all, but I could easily be wrong.
Basically, if you can run CuteSDr, you can run SDRDX. But… until you CAN run CuteSDR, you probably shouldn’t even *try* SdrDx as it is one heck of a lot more demanding on your system.
I’m afraid I just don’t have the time, knowledge or ability to troubleshoot driver installations, nor enough Mac driver knowledge to figure it all out. Remember, SdrDx isn’t developed as a mac program — it’s developed in Qt, which is a cross-platform engine that really isn’t tied to the mac in any particular way.
Sorry about that.
–Ben
AA7AS
#3 by Pete Barrow on April 21, 2012 - 3:04 pm
Quote
G’Day Ben,
Just been playing with the Windows version 2.02Beta using W7/64 – all seems ok … except … I keep losing the frequency offset adjustment on my SDR-IQ.
The “sdr-fparms.sdr” file method doesn’t seem to work, and if I set up a trim using SpectraVue, even though SdrDx starts on target, I can get the program to lose the adjustment and set everything back to scratch ie the clock goes back to 66666667 and needs re-adjusting – by something as trivial as setting the span to 5KHz, demod mode to AM, then tuning up and back down by 1 KHz using the center frequency control.
Other than that, I think it’s all working, but as this is my first try at it, I’m a long way off the ‘ comfort zone ‘ yet. BTW, the Windows SDRxxServer works fine.
Of course, I accept that I could just be doing something silly, or missing something completely, but it doesn’t ‘ feel’ right.
Thanks for making the program available to non-Mac users !
Cheers,
Pete
#4 by admin on April 21, 2012 - 3:17 pm
Quote
Hi, Pete.
Hmm. Well, one thing is that the mac, being unix, has the concept of a home directory. So, I keep the memory files there, and I look for the sdr-fparms.sdr, file there. under win7, I wonder where Qt thinks “home” is. The sdr-fparms.sdr file needs to be put there, whereever that turns out to be.
One way that may work to find out is, run the program, quit it, and search your machine for all sdr-fmem.sdm files. One will be in your folder with the app, the other… whereever “home” seems to be. That’s where you put the fparms file, too. Since this command is actually managed by the server, not SdrDx, it may take two application restarts before the change actually takes effect.
As for your comfort zone, that’ll take time. The design is different, but it is specifically intended to be both easy to operate and efficient, so the actual sport of using it isn’t crippled by blundering through menus or dialogs.
See if that helps, let me know yea or nay.
–Ben
#5 by Pete Barrow on April 22, 2012 - 2:34 am
Quote
Hi Ben,
Magic !!! It did the trick 1st time – for anyone else who needs to know, it’s found in this location – C:\Users\ … upshot is, it runs under Win7/64.
Now off to play with my new toy !
Many Thanks,
Pete
#6 by Derek on May 28, 2012 - 11:10 pm
Quote
Runs ok with the Funcube thx… But the AM (I listen to Airnbands) sounds rearly low and basy (like i am in the bathroom /;0 I cant see anywhere to change that ?
Also the funcube setting wont work if you dont run 48000
Thank you
#7 by admin on May 29, 2012 - 1:52 am
Quote
Bassy: You probably have the filter on, click it off. Or on, then off. I listen to airbands here on AM, sounds fine, hence my assumption it’s the filter.
As for the 48000 limitation, yes, I described this several times in the documentation. You should read it.
#8 by Richard Thorpe on December 23, 2012 - 1:55 pm
Quote
Will your software work with Apache SDR radios
#9 by Soren - OZ1LQO on January 5, 2013 - 1:42 pm
Quote
Hi, just managed to get it to work on my iMac with mountain lion and the Afedri Sdr-Net. Great fun – nice job on this SW!
I’m running it through my router and as it turns out, my home network is practically flooded by the traffic, ie. wireless is out of the question. Still, using LAN cables it works fine.
Best 73
Soren
#10 by admin on January 5, 2013 - 5:03 pm
Quote
Hi Soren,
Works fine on my wifi, consumes about 2 megabits of the 10 megabit bandwidth at 192 khz. You may be seeing errors and retries due to interference or weak signal; you can try changing channels on the wifi transmitter, sometimes that helps.
Although, as I am not familiar with afedri sdr net, that may also have something to do with it. I use SDR-XX server.
#11 by Soren - OZ1LQO on January 6, 2013 - 3:09 am
Quote
Hi, well I still have some networks experimenting to do with the Afedri SDR so we’ll see what happens. Yesterday was basically ‘first light’ on the unit.
Do you know the Afedri? Made by 4Z5LV, Alex (www.4z5lv.net). Really good stuff, the $250 brings you a long way compared to the semi-professional SDR’s out there. He’s really supportive and hosts a group on Yahoo as well.
Again, good job on the SdrDx, I use it on my 27″ iMac, it’s a real gem on that big screen
cheers
#12 by abhi on February 23, 2013 - 9:17 am
Quote
It happened on both CuteSDR and SdrDX , changes pitch of audio.
Runs ok with the Afedir SDR-net… But the AM sounds rearly low and bassy ( shifting pitch almost 1 octave. how it happen? maybe sampling rate problem?
abhi
#13 by admin on February 23, 2013 - 12:25 pm
Quote
Sounds like the Afedir server is doing an incomplete emulation of the RFSPACE server, because it works fine with RFSPACE products. So you need to refer this problem to the author of the server emulation.
SdrDx works just fine with AM.
If I were you, I’d try a sample rate on the Afedir that the RFSPACE products are known to support: 50, 100, 150 or 190 khz.
#14 by Patrick Harrington on February 24, 2013 - 10:25 am
Quote
Ben,
Just wanted to say thanks for your wonderful SdrDx. I used to play
with old-school radio hardware (mostly longwave/LowFER stuff) as a break
from theory. A few weeks ago I saw something about SDR and soon ordered
the RFSPACE SDRIQ. I first got it running on my windows machine with Gqrx,
but I really wanted to use my MacBook Pro. It did take a bit of fiddling (i.e.,
actually reading the instructions) — I first overlooked SDR-xx Server, though
I’d installed the D2XX stuff. Now it seems to be running fine. My MacBook Pro
is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.6.8. Looking forward to many hours
of exploration. Thanks again.
-Patrick
#15 by admin on February 24, 2013 - 11:04 am
Quote
Patrick, you are of course very welcome. It cheers me greatly to hear from people using the program successfully; also thank you for the system report.
I have the same, or similar Macbook pro; I just added a $100, 4:3 1280×1024 monitor (ACER, from Amazon) to it via a DVI-to-VGA adaptor, now I run both SdrDx and VFO Suite on the two screens, seems to take about 1/2 of each core. SdrDx really likes to run on 1280×1024, you get lots of waterfall and waveform room.
#16 by Soren - OZ1LQO on May 10, 2013 - 2:35 am
Quote
Hi Ben,
I tried out your latest beta (2.12q) wrt. to the feature of post attenuator metering (Afedri) and it works fine: Entering a calibrated -45dBm signal into the unit shows this exact peak value (independent of the gain settings) when deselecting post att. metering. I also confirmed that enabling this feat gives me the close-to correct value when at -1dB. So far so good.
One question remains: It would seem that your calculated gain offset, when the feat is disabled, also affects the waterfall/scope display, ie. the peak amplitude is offset and the noise floor drops down below, out of sight.
Ideally, the scope should stay the same whichever option is selected, as the C/N would be roughly the same – it’s simply just the peak level which is offset according to the gain selection.
Btw. I’m running it on my 4core iMac, it tolls 22% CPU power with the highest update rate and a 32K FFT. Not bad!
cheers and best 73
Søren, OZ1LQO