DotNetSupport

.NET bindings for SoapySDR

If you've stumbled upon this page, this is referring to in-progress development, and the information within can change at any point before release.

See this branch.

The .NET bindings for SoapySDR give the user access to the full SoapySDR functionality in C#. There are some differences between the C++ API and the .NET API, primarily to better match C# coding conventions and take advantage of native .NET capabilities to provide convenient extensions to the API. These changes will be explained below, and full .NET API documentation is available (TODO: link when uploaded) here.

There is currently no planned Mono support, as CMake only natively supports C# on Windows with MSVC.

Dependencies

The following dependencies are needed to build SoapySDR's .NET bindings. Links to prebuilt installers within.

• MSVC toolkit 1920+ / Visual Studio 16+
• CMake (3.8)+: necessary for native C# support
• SWIG: used to bridge C++ and C#

Changes for .NET API

Device class properties

Per C# API convention, trivial SoapySDR::Device getters and setters are exposed via properties.

Read-write properties are generally device-wide and independent of RF direction. For example:

• C++: rate = sdr->getMasterClockRate() and sdr->setMasterClockRate(rate)
• .NET: rate = sdr.MasterClockRate and sdr.MasterClockRate = rate

Device identification getters are now accessed by read-only properties. For example:

• C++: key = sdr->getHardwareKey()
• .NET: key = sdr.HardwareKey

Native enum types

TODO

Setting/Sensor convenience functions

TODO

New stream classes

TODO

Templated conversion functions

TODO

Other

• Functions that accept SoapySDR::Kwargs as arguments on the C++ layer can accept either a string or any IDictionary<string, string> subclass.

Basic example

// Enumerate devices.
var results = Pothoware.SoapySDR.Device.Enumerate();
foreach(var result in results)
    System.Console.WriteLine(result);

// Create device instance.
// Args can be user-defined or from the enumeration result.
var args = "driver=rtlsdr";
var sdr = new Pothoware.SoapySDR.Device(args);

// Query device info.
System.Console.WriteLine("Antennas:");
foreach(var antenna in sdr.ListAntennas(SoapySDR.Direction.Rx, 0)))
    System.Console.WriteLine(" * " + antenna);

System.Console.WriteLine("Gains:");
foreach(var gain in sdr.ListGains(SoapySDR.Direction.Rx, 0)))
    System.Console.WriteLine(" * " + gain);

System.Console.WriteLine("Frequency ranges:");
foreach(var freqRange in sdr.GetFrequencyRange(SoapySDR.Direction.Rx, 0)))
    System.Console.WriteLine(" * " + freqRange);

// Apply settings.
sdr.SetSampleRate(SoapySDR.Direction.Rx, 0, 1e6);
sdr.SetFrequency(SoapySDR.Direction.Rx, 0, 912.3e6);

// Setup a stream (complex floats).
var rxStream = sdr.SetupComplexRxStream<float>(new uint[]{0}, "");
rxStream.Activate(); // Start streaming

// Create a reusable array for RX samples.
var buff = new float[rxStream.MTU * 2];

// Receive some samples.
for(var i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
{
    SoapySDR.StreamResult streamResult;

    var errorCode = rxStream.Read<float>(ref buff, SoapySDR.StreamFlags.None, 0, 0, out streamResult);
    System.Console.WriteLine("Error code:     " + errorCode);
    System.Console.WriteLine("Receive flags:  " + streamResult.Flags);
    System.Console.WriteLine("Timestamp (ns): " + streamResult.TimeNs);
}

// Shut down the stream.
rxStream.Deactivate();
rxStream.Close();

More examples

TODO

• https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/tree/master/csharp/apps