Home

Soapy SDR plugin for RTL-SDR

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

SoapyRTLSDR table of contents

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

Installers

• This is a new module, no installers are available yet

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
linux; GNU C++ version 4.8.2; Boost_105400; UHD_003.008.004-0-unknown

[DEBUG] RTL-SDR Devices: 1
[DEBUG] Device #0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
[DEBUG]         Manufacturer: Realtek, Product Name: RTL2838UHIDIR, Serial: 00000001
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
[DEBUG]          Tuner type: Rafael Micro R820T
[DEBUG] Found RTL-SDR Device using device index parameter 'rtl' = 0
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR opening device 0
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR Using buffer length 16384
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR Using 16 buffers
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR direct sampling mode 0
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR I/Q swap: No
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR offset_tune mode: No
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR PPM: 0
[DEBUG] RTL-SDR Tuner type: Rafael Micro R820T

----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=RTLSDR
  hardware=RTLSDR
  _help=SoapyRTLSDR Driver
 Address:        https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR
 Buffer Size     [bufflen]: default 16384
 Buffer Count    [buffers]: default 16
 Direct Sampling [direct_samp]: 0 = Off, 1 = I ADC, 2 = Q ADC
 Offset Tuning   [offset_tune]: 0 = Off, 1 = On
 Swap I/Q        [iq_swap]: 0 = Off, 1 = On
 Freq Correction [corr]: Default 0 (parts per million)

  buflen=16384
  corr=0
  direct_samp=0
  iq_swap=0
  num_buffers=16
  offset_tune=0
  rtl=0

----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
  Timestamps: NO

----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: YES
  Antennas: RX
  Full gain range: [0, 49.6] dB
    TUNER gain range: [0, 49.6] dB
  Full freq range: [27, 1764] MHz
    RF freq range: [27, 1764] MHz
  Sample rates: [0.25, 3.2] MHz